Maths is providing new ways to make sense of biology In the early 2000s, a fierce debate was raging among health practitioners about when to start HIV patients on antiretroviral therapy. The standard approach at the time was to delay treatment until the disease had progressed to a critical stage. However, emerging mathematical models […]
A deep dive into the evolution of the microscope that has enabled groundbreaking discoveries In my eighth grade classroom, amidst sunbeams dancing on dusty desks, the creaking sound of the ceiling fan, and the pungent smell of chemicals, my science teacher Deepak Sah’s words painted a universe where tiny things held big secrets. We […]
Digital technologies are changing research and treatment In 2018, Vijay Chandru was already thinking about pandemics. He was back on the IISc campus, where he had co-founded India’s earliest genomics startup, Strand Life Sciences, nearly 20 years ago. Now a visiting faculty member at the Department of Bioengineering (BE), he started teaching a course on […]
The lives and experiences of IISc’s international students Fourteen years ago, before Fekadu Mihret Geremew came to India for the first time to pursue his Master’s, he had heard a lot about how it was not the ideal place to live. The image he had in mind was a country of traffic congestion, overcrowded […]
3D printing is revolutionising manufacturing As a young kid, Shashank HR was fascinated by how things, including his toys, were made. So, he would be thrilled whenever he had a chance to visit his father’s metal fabrication shop, where he witnessed how sheets and rods of steel were shaped into garage doors, gates and […]
India is betting big on lithium-ion batteries, but at what cost? In 1817, Johan August Arfwedson, a Swedish lawyer and mineralogist, was studying the mineral petalite in the laboratory of the renowned chemist Jacob Berzelius. His investigations revealed that the mineral mainly contained aluminium, silicon and oxygen. But around 4% of the composition […]
With a mushrooming elderly population, research on ageing is gathering steam Among Greek myths, the tale of Tithonus is particularly tragic. Eos, the immortal goddess of dawn, fell in love with the mortal Tithonus, a prince of Troy. She begged Zeus, the ruler of Greek gods, to grant Tithonus eternal life, but forgot to […]
Researchers at IISc and ARTPARK are building robots that will soon become an integral part of human environments The Terminator movies and several science fiction books have painted a picture of robots as mostly evil overlords bent on wiping out humanity. The reality is that although robots have evolved significantly in the last few decades, […]
Cryo-EM, an emerging technique, is allowing scientists to better zoom in on cells and molecules “Like any living organisms, we are a bag of water, formed from billions of cells which all are small bags of water. Since air is not transparent to electrons, an electron microscope must operate under vacuum – which […]
After centuries of sky-watching, we are yet to understand the complex nature of clouds It’s an early winter dawn. The lake seems to be steaming, but it is not. A cloud is being born. I am on a hilltop, watching a village in the valley sparkling in the early morning rays when a white sheet […]
