Out of Bounds

Have we pushed the Earth beyond habitable conditions?   Twenty four years ago, Govindasamy Bala was a young physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the USA. He and his colleague, Ken Caldeira, were carrying out research using a comprehensive climate model. For the first time, they wanted to test an improbable and controversial […]

Red Rover

IISc’s UG students are designing a prototype that could help scientists explore Mars, as part of an international competition   In the Old Physics Building, tensions are running high. Tucked away in a corner of the first floor, the workspace is crammed with batteries, pipes and boxes. Amidst the disorganised and dusty shelves, a group […]

‘People Come up with Labels, I Enjoy the Work I do’

Gagandeep Kang is an interdisciplinary researcher famed for her work on enteric infections. She was part of the teams responsible for the development of two Indian rotavirus vaccines, Rotavac and Rotasiil, and has worked extensively on viruses that cause different types of diarrheal diseases and on typhoid surveillance networks. She completed her MBBS in 1987, […]

Dancing with Sticks and Swords

Kalari club nurtures the cultural practice on campus   It was the inaugural event of Rhapsody, an annual fest of IISc, in July 2023. The JN Tata auditorium was packed with an ecstatic audience looking forward to a cultural extravaganza. Draped in red-and-black costumes, resembling ancient warriors, the members of the IISc Kalaripayattu club marched […]

Staying in STEM

A training programme seeks to inculcate scientific curiosity in women students from far-flung areas   I was running late. I hurried to the seminar hall in the Department of Developmental Biology and Genetics (DBG). The orientation session, which was scheduled for 10 am, had already started when I reached, so I sneaked in silently, hoping […]

‘He Wanted to Leave Something Behind that Lasted Forever’

JC Ghosh, an eminent chemist, was IISc’s Director during World War II and the founding Director of IIT Kharagpur. His grandson, Dipankar Ghosh, spoke to CONNECT about his grandfather’s personal and professional life.   In the late 1980s, E Arunan was looking for a place to stay in the midwestern town of Manhattan in the […]