When Teachers Become Students Again

Tracing the growth of a model training programme at IISc’s Challakere campus   Smita Bala Panda is among the 112 teachers who have travelled from Odisha to participate in the Teachers’ Training Programme at the Talent Development Centre (TDC), in the IISc Challakere campus. She covered the journey from Ganjam district to Bangalore via train, […]

Keepers of History

The need for archives in academic institutions   In a pivotal scene in the sensational Christopher Nolan film, Oppenheimer, the protagonist, J Robert Oppenheimer, meets Danish physicist Niels Bohr while struggling with his research at Cambridge University in the early 1920s. Bohr urges Oppenheimer to move to Germany and study under the famed physicist and […]

Mining for White Gold

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 […]

I, Robot

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, […]

From Boon to Bane: The Changing Face of Assam’s Floods

With each passing year, floods in Assam have become increasingly catastrophic, driven by a combination of socio-political factors and climate change   The Udalguri district in Assam, which shares an international border with Bhutan, has historically been an area largely unaffected by extreme climate. But in recent times, this district, like many others across the […]

Children of the Soil

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 […]