Cells can apply and sense forces to communicate and coordinate with each other. Scientists and engineers have teamed up under the mechanobiology banner to study these cellular forces The outermost and the innermost surfaces of any organ are lined by the ‘epithelium’, a tissue composed of cells arranged in a sheet. For instance, the […]
The tiny molecule that wears many hats inside our body A memory brings a smile as I gulp down water to quench my thirst. School, science class, and tiny desks. Our teacher was explaining to us that “water is colourless, odourless, and tasteless.” “But miss, I can taste water!” one of my classmates piped […]
The soil under our feet is teeming with life, and understanding and nurturing it has a positive impact on our lives A memory. My friend and I followed the ball as it bounced towards the pit in the backyard. Heat wafted up, and the air was saturated with a warm, earthy smell that wasn’t […]
How geologists connect the dots to tell stories of the Earth’s evolution It was a clear but cold July evening in the Kumaon Himalayas in Uttarakhand. Prakash Chandra Arya and his younger brother, Vikas, were on day one of their 15-day trek from a village called Munsiyari to the Milam glacier, more than 4000 […]
Seismologists have their work cut out when it comes to understanding and predicting earthquakes and their impact Beneath the serene snow-capped mountains of the Himalayas, danger lurks. Scientists are increasingly worried about a big earthquake overdue in the Himalayan region, anticipated to have a magnitude greater than 8.0 on the Richter scale. To give […]
Geotechnical engineers, who investigate soils and their properties, play an important and sometimes overlooked role in civil engineering A vacation on a Spanish beach in the 1960s sparked a revolution in the construction industry. French engineer Henri Vidal was piling up sand to build a sand castle when he realised that no matter how […]
Several researchers at IISc are working on technological solutions to tackle some of the causes of climate-induced disasters, and reduce carbon emissions A sizzling heatwave across North India, prolonged power outages, and 20 million dead. Fortunately, this is a work of fiction, the setting in the first chapter of The Ministry for the Future, […]
The study of model organisms is the key to unlocking mysteries about life on earth When I first started working with the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster after my Master’s, many of my friends and family members were greatly amused. After 17 years of education, I had finally admitted that all I was doing was […]
The small mouse has enabled giant leaps in biology research Claudius Galen (129-199 CE), a prominent physician in ancient Greece, obsessively studied anatomy – the science of how our bodies are structured and how our organs function. Since the ruling Roman government prohibited working with human cadavers, he dissected animals instead, to gain knowledge. […]
Self-organisation is the emergence of order in an initially disordered system and is observed from microscopic to astronomical levels Spiral galaxies. Honey bees. Proteus mirabilis, the urinary-tract-infection-causing bacteria. What do they all have in common? A phenomenon called self-organisation. It transcends scale – from the formation of galaxies to the arrangement of lipids in […]
