How Africa can close its continent-wide science funding gap

Successful economies are led by innovation and driven by knowledge. For Africa to advance, it needs to make more substantial investments in its …

The physical Net

Book>> Tubes, A Journey to the Center of the Internet • by Andrew Blum • Penguin • Rs 499

Quake Escape

Geoscientist Harsh Gupta speaks to Dinsa Sachan on the need for an  early warning system for  earthquakes  

Cyber dystopia

Book>> The Filter Bubble, What the Internet is Hiding From You • by Eli Pariser • Penguin Books • US $25

Satellite link

Book>> Moon: A Brief History • by Bernd Brunner • Yale University Press • Rs 1,000

Old shine

Indian scientists have found a chemical that cleans antique metallic objets d'art without damaging the patina

Mushroom boom

Indian farmers are busy harvesting the booming demand for mushrooms. The problem is that it is a delicacy that is rather fastidious about its …

Light information

Optic fibres enable transmission of information at the speed of light and without any interference

Mars' water connection

Channels and valleys observed on the Martian surface and meteorites of Martian origin indicate that once there might have been water on the planet

Automatic warning

Posting humans to inhospitable sites in the Himalaya to monitor snow and wind patterns may soon be unnecessary

Ironing out pollution

A recently-developed cheap and environmentally-benign iron compound helps dispose of polluting nitrogen oxides

Rock-hard sandwiches

Thin film, no more than a few microns thick, can endow substances with hardness, magnetic, superconducting and optical properties

Endurance test for microorganisms

A technology for preserving food relies on creating a hostile environment for bacteria and fungi in whose presence food goes bad

The liquid heat trap

A giant pond at a dairy in Gujarat is the world's largest water storehouse of the sun's energy and heats about 80,000 litres of water everyday

The computer plays postman

India seems ready to cash in on electronic mail, a cheap and fast way of communication in which messages are exchanged through computer networks.

Switch on the window, please

Windows that change from clear to dark and back at the flick of a switch are set to make air-conditioning systems redundant in buildings, thereby …

Manipulating reality

The concept of Virtual Reality -- simulating the real world -- is adding a new dimension to entertainment and education.

The secret sex life of the sea urchin

With the unravelling of how fertilisation occurs in sea urchins, scientists may now better understand the reproduction process in higher mammals, …

Helping computers keep a tight hold on power

Scientists are trying to integrate a new type of circuits - called reversible circuits -- into computers to make them more energy efficient

New chip on the firmament

A microchip developed by a US firm will greatly increase the working speed of personal computers. But the chip's long-term success will depend on …

Why some bumble bees spend the night out

Bumble-bees infected with the larvae of parasitic flies stay the night out in the cold to hinder the development of the eggs

In search of gravitational waves

Two projects are under way to detect an elusive phenomenon that are thought to be produced by violent events in outer space

Wanderlust heats up the blood of some fish

Biologists have found that some fish evolved into warm-blooded creatures because their adventurous ancestors were exposed to large temperature …

Correcting the Leaning Tower's tilt

A Chinese architect claims he can stop the Leaning Tower of Pisa from tilting further, and even bring it back to the original angle of tilt.

Venus' volcanoes have lost their fire

Scientists in Arizona say the latest satellite images from Venus indicate very little volcanic activity has taken place on the planet after a …