No consensus on consciousness
Despite fanciful theories by psychologists, physicists, neuroscientists and computer scientists, consciousness remains an abiding mystery
The `feeling' in nature
Andrea Wulf resurrects the forgotten intellectual explorer, Alexander von Humboldt, whose work has left a lasting imprint on our understanding of …
Call the bluff
The JNU episode must force us to decipher the modus operandi of the modern `truth-telling' information machinery
Interest in metals rekindled
Scientists have found a metallic mix that allows superconductivity at higher temperatures than before
Summing up the golden ratio
What's behind our puzzling fetish to find beauty in numbers?
Presumed ideals
Any utopia, whether founded on reason or faith, contains the seeds of dystopia within
The genesis of a knot
If our early ancestors were polygamous, then how did we become monogamous?
What if the Lazarus returns
We may never be able to bring extinct species back to life. Yet, scientists are drawing up secret plans for their resurrection
Is anyone out there?
The Hawking-Milner initiative promises to offer the quest for alien intelligence a new lease of life
No sweat over this shirt
A fabric developed at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, promises to keep sweat from being a bother
Making furniture from eucalyptus wood
Though scientists have developed a way to saw eucalyptus wood without cracking or twisting it, furniture makers aren't convinced of its utility.
Small invasions
A new surgical technique that involving only small incisions has been used for removing a cyst from under the lung
The great science robbery
A Kazakh neuroscientist triggers the 'who owns public-funded science' debate by taking on a publishing giant
On the verge of a breakthrought
The electronics industry is poised for a quantum jump as a group of Indian scientists claim to have developed a silicon-based, light-emitting diode.
Boom time for lab bloomers
India hopes to earn Rs 200 crore every year exporting flowers mass produced in laboratories
The nature of malaria
A new project is analysing several natural parameters that aid the spread of malaria
Is brain science romanticised?
Jasanoff's book takes on the enduring mystique about the human brain being abstract, sovereign and piecemeal
Making sex count
In the annals of modern medicine, medical research experiments have always been sexist. The tide is finally turning
Secret life of plants
A new book reinforces the fact that plants have intelligence and a complex sensory network
Maps of the world
Geographical Information Systems is revolutionising the present and portend a happier future. Or so we hope in the maps of our minds.
New cholera strain strikes India
A cholera epidemic in the Indian subcontinent is nothing unusual. But now, another bacterial strain that can cause the disease has surfaced.
DNA as history and sophistry
Genetics is only giving us some clues about our identity and lineage
Unmasking the monsoon
Putting together the finer pieces of the monsoon puzzle remains a challenge as new key drivers have emerged
Lasers add zing to alignment systmes
Indian engineers have developed a laser-based alignment system, which have the high level of precision essential for installing sophisticated …
A scrapbook of wonder
Caspar Henderson inspires us to broaden the horizons of our sense of wonder