Neuroscientists at IISc study monkey behaviour to answer fundamental questions about brain function In 2021, Elon Musk took the internet by storm with his video game-playing monkeys. Using technology that transmitted neural data from the monkey’s brains directly to the computer screen, researchers from Musk’s Neuralink Corporation created systems in which the monkeys could […]
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 […]
A small woodland in IISc is the result of a successful three-decade-long ecological experiment In the heart of Bangalore, a city known for its beautiful gardens and majestic trees – now dwindling – lies the lush green campus of IISc. Within it is a small patch of unmanicured woods, populated by over 49 tree […]
Researchers at IISc are using novel technologies to add to existing materials and to understand material properties About 2.5 million years ago, our ancestors discovered that striking two pieces of rock against each other produces rough edges and stone chips that could be used to break animal bones and scoop flesh off carcasses. And […]
From simple combinations of lenses, microscopes have evolved into complex tools giving us unparalleled insight into cellular secrets January 1665 saw the publication of Robert Hooke’s Micrographia. The beautiful illustrations of fleas, flies and other insects in it gave humanity an insight into the sheer beauty of the hitherto unobserved world of small creatures. […]
A behind-the-scenes look at the transformation of an empty space into a full-fledged research lab Setting up a new lab can be an exhilarating episode in the career of a faculty member. But it can also be a long and arduous journey, one that needs fellow travellers — often this caravan includes graduate students, […]
The first example of academic entrepreneurship from IISc was an attempt to revolutionise personal computing in India The year 1998 was the calm before the storm. India had just declared to the world that it had successfully tested weaponised nuclear warheads. The then Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, congratulated the scientists and engineers involved […]
An annual synthetic biology competition has spurred UG students to develop novel solutions In the early 1960s, French scientists Francois Jacob and Jacques Monod figured out how gene expression in bacterial cells is regulated. Since then, scientists began dreaming of manipulating these regulatory circuits in the bacterial genome (the entire set of its genetic […]
Research and teaching aside, the Department has also contributed to the creation of many new programmes and centres on campus Times were tough for IISc in the 1930s. It faced a serious cash crunch – income from both the Mysore Government and JN Tata’s Bombay properties had dwindled. World War II was looming on […]
A closer look at how industrial acoustics and noise control research began at the Institute In 1896, Henry Ford drove his first experimental automobile down the streets of Detroit in the United States. “My gasoline buggy … was considered something of a nuisance, for it made a racket and scared horses,” he wrote in […]
