Smoke laws first enacted in city of joy

Because of its political importance in the British empire, Calcutta was one of the first cities to regulate smoke emissions. But legislation …

Science & Technology - Briefs

The earliest modern humans in Europe mastered bow-and-arrow technology 54,000 years ago

Neanderthals did not develop mechanically propelled weapons, used traditional weapons

A book on the history of spices

Much ado over nothing

THE NOTHING THAT IS: A NATURAL HISTORY OF ZERO·Robert Kaplan·Oxford University Press, 2000· 225pp

Science and Technology - Briefs

When exactly did the tiger colonise the Indian subcontinent?

Down To Earth popped the question to geneticists, historians and experts on the cat superstar. Here is what we were able to deduce

IN PHOTOS: China, India, Iran, Spain get new world heritage sites

The rise and fall of a chemical

DDT use goes back to World War II

India’s child sex ratio has reached ‘emergency proportions’: UN study

While northeast states such as Manipur and Nagaland have shown a sharp deterioration in child sex ratio, the skewed ratio has improved marginally …

Rewilding Tasmania with emus will be good for the island state’s ecosystems

Why did the Tasmanian emus go extinct and should we reintroduce them?

To all our readers

A great panic

Overextended banks crashing, leading to recession. 1873 revisited

Book excerpt: How the ‘Pagri Sambhal Jatta’ Movement resonates with the 2020 anti-Farm Bills agitation

The century-old movement by Bhagat Singh’s uncle was against unjust British efforts to exploit Punjab’s farmers, notes author …

The pros and cons of four wheels

Book>> The Life Of The Automobile: A New History Of The Motor Car •by Steven Parissien • Rs 550

Science & Technology - Briefs

Podcast: Colonialists used starvation as a tool of oppression

Before the colonialists arrived in North America and Bengal, both regions were thriving with healthy, wealthy communities. Here's what happened next

Different colours of green

How media has shaped people's understanding of environment

Bytes

Curse of the horn

Soaring prices of rhino horns have led to a new spurt of poaching in the Kaziranga National Park, Assam. Once heralded as a conservation success …

Let's take a less bigoted view of history

With DNA adding to the slippery narratives about the past; historians, archeologists, and geneticists need to collaborate if we are to take a …

Over the threshold

The survival and evolution of a species is dependant on both the competing claimsfor survival being asserted within the species and between …

Distant dream

THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE AND THE BURDEN OF HISTORY· David A Kirsch· Rutgers University Press· New Jersey·US $20

'Exhibits at National Museum of Natural History destroyed in all probability'

A massive fire had broken out in the museum building on Monday night

Study sheds new light on lineage of Arctic people

Analysis based on DNA samples collected from ancient human remains