Sydney: In 2023, the James Webb Space Telescope revealed something strange: the distant reaches of the universe are filled with “little red dots” that astronomers still can’t quite explain. But a new paper I coauthored, published today in Nature Astronomy, might have found the key to understanding their nature. It turns out these little red…
Hyderabad: In a significant scientific breakthrough, researchers at the CSIR–Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, have uncovered a previously unknown biological mechanism that helps one of the world’s deadliest fungal pathogens transform itself into a form capable of surviving the human immune system and eventually invading the brain. The discovery, the result of…
Washington: Astronauts Anil Menon and Sophie Adenot ran out of time to replace the space-to-ground antenna of the International Space Station (ISS) during a spacewalk, with the task now set for a future date. The two astronauts managed to remove the failed antenna and stow it away in their six-hour-23-minute space walk that began at…
New Delhi: Globally, about 34.4 million additional doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, and pharmacists are needed to achieve moderate universal health coverage, with the largest shortages in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, a global study published in The Lancet Public Health journal has estimated. India has a ratio of about 73 health workers per 10,000 population…
New Delhi: Researchers have discovered a new variety and species of underground earthworm eel living beneath the Indo-Gangetic Plain in Bihar. The subterranean fish, a small, colourless creature named Gangaichthys indonepalicus, is the first to be recorded from the Gangetic Basin, an international team, including researchers from the Thackeray Wildlife Foundation in Mumbai, Zoological Survey…
Washington: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket upper stage crashed into the moon on Wednesday. NASA estimated the impact would create a crater 60 feet across and 12 feet deep. The Falcon 9 rocket left Earth in January of this year. It was carrying Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander. The rocket’s upper stage wasn’t…
MS Shanker Every Indian knows that Siachen is the world’s highest battlefield. Few realise that it has claimed more Indian soldiers through its unforgiving weather than through enemy fire. At temperatures plunging below -50°C and at altitudes where oxygen levels are nearly half of those at sea level, Siachen tests not just human endurance, but…
New Delhi: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Thursday successfully carried out the maiden flight test of Long-Range Surface-to-Air Missile Kusha from the APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that the successful test flight of Kusha marks an important milestone in Indian defence R&D. “The capability…
By all conventional measures of success, Professor Ashoke Sen should have spent his life in the world’s most celebrated scientific institutions. He had studied at some of the finest centres of learning, worked at America’s premier physics laboratories, won one of the richest prizes in science worth $3 million—nearly three times the Nobel Prize money—and…
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) ISRO is targeting seven launches during the current financial year, with the next mission scheduled to lift off within the next two months, ISRO Chairman V Narayanan announced on Saturday. Speaking at a press conference following the historic maiden orbital launch of Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 rocket, Narayanan stated that two satellites are…
