How insects traverse impossible distances Somewhere over the Indian Ocean, the globe skimmer (Pantala flavescens) flaps its delicate golden wings, beginning a remarkable relay journey covering up to 14,000-18,000 km between India and Africa. These small insect travellers measure about 4-5 cm in length and are no heavier than a paper clip, yet they […]
Chasing climate clues in underwater fossils Around 18,000 years ago, the Earth began to thaw. Expansive ice sheets that had covered much of the northern hemisphere for tens of thousands of years began to retreat. Sea levels rose, glaciers collapsed, and the planet slowly emerged from the last ice age. At the same time, […]
What microbes are teaching us about life in space In Andy Weir’s fiction novel The Martian, NASA astronaut Mark Watney is stranded alone on Mars after his crew is forced to evacuate. To survive, he begins growing potatoes in his crew’s Martian habitat. Soon, however, he develops a new priority – ensuring the survival […]
The perils of image manipulation in science Volume 119, No 38, Figure 1. To most people, this is just a set of incomprehensible scientific data. But this figure, along with those from 13 other papers, is special. They lie at the heart of a high-profile scientific scandal: the downfall of a Nobel Laureate. Unlike […]
How citizens are helping collect research data On the rare occasion that you break away from the tedium of overflowing inboxes to listlessly stare into space, something extraordinarily fascinating could catch your attention. It could be a stray dragonfly perched on the window ledge, or perhaps a tree with a huge canopy farther away. […]
How creative pursuits open up new vistas for scientific exploration On a sunny day in the 1600s, in the picturesque town of Lombardy, Italy, an artist was busy at work in a hospital. This might sound strange, but it was a perfectly ordinary occurrence in the life of Leonardo da Vinci. The fifty-something-year-old was […]
The scientist for social development One morning in the early 1940s, 12-year-old Amulya Reddy received a letter from his uncle and hero, CGK Reddy, a marine engineer and political activist. The letter, written on a rough piece of paper, had arrived from the Madras jail where CGK was imprisoned for his anti-British activities. In […]
Secret lives of mixed species groups Some years ago, while driving through the scenic Masai Mara, a savannah wilderness in Kenya, Kartik Shanker made an interesting observation. “Various species of ungulates (hoofed mammals) like gazelles, zebras, and wildebeests were foraging together, but what was interesting was that smaller individuals grouped with similarly sized individuals […]
The promise and perils of scientific publishing Midway through 2025, a young researcher was wrought in thought. He knew that he had a paper that was good, worthy and ready to be shared with the world, but he hesitated. It was not a lack of confidence nor a matter of insecurity. It was a […]
Learning from traditional architecture Walking through the lanes of Majuli, the largest river island in the world, one cannot miss the characteristic houses, the Chang Ghar. Situated in Assam, at the heart of the river Brahmaputra and secluded from the rest of the world, Majuli has preserved much of its traditional heritage, including its […]
