Can scientists solve the conundrum of consciousness? Sometime in the late 1980s, two Oxford scientists examined PS, a patient who had suffered damage to the right side of her brain. The damage left her unable to notice things to her left. Even when she drew objects, she would draw their right sides perfectly […]
What are your New Year resolutions for 2025?
Students share life lessons from internships abroad When Mrigank Pawagi set foot outside the Chicago airport in May 2024, he didn’t anticipate the ordeal ahead. A second-year BTech in Math and Computing student at IISc, Mrigank was in the USA for his summer internship at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Tired from […]
Gursaran Pran Talwar blazed trails in indigenous vaccine development In October 1994, Gursaran Pran Talwar was in a fix. He had only a month to leave the National Institute of Immunology (NII), an organisation that he had built from the ground up, as his tenure was coming to an end. But his work […]
Tracing the contributions of IISc scientists Danish physicist Niels Bohr once had a visitor at his country cottage at Tisvilde. Seeing a horseshoe nailed above the front door, the visitor was amused and asked Bohr if he believed in the superstition that it brought luck. Bohr apparently replied: “No, I certainly do not […]
How NMR is helping scientists probe molecular structures It was after six on a Monday evening in September, and Durga Prasad Hari was in a hurry. Holding a thin glass tube in his hand, he walked quickly to the common instrument facility on the ground floor of the Chemical Sciences building, two […]
Can animal studies be truly objective? In the early 20th century, a horse in Berlin captured the world’s attention with its mathematical proficiency. When asked an arithmetic question, Hans, the horse, would start tapping his hooves and stop when he arrived at the correct number. This remarkable feat elevated Hans’ status to genius. […]
Yadati Narahari leans over his desk, turning his computer screen around as he shows an image. It shows a group of people standing side-by-side staring into the camera. It is an image that Narahari holds with great regard, one – he feels – encapsulates his time at IISc. “This is six generations of researchers and […]
Are we harming the world in our pursuit to understand it better? Around 7 pm on Mondays, Maya can be found in her natural habitat, carefully seeding a culture to be infected the next day or inoculating a batch of bacteria to be genetically transformed. This is where she is on most days, in […]
A day in the life of Security Officer K Jayaraj K Jayaraj usually begins his day around 9 am. But this October morning, an unexpected call prompts him to rush out the door an hour earlier. He tells his wife that there is an emergency and that their kids’ school is cancelled today. […]
