Ungracious

Why we exist

Book>> The grand design • by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow • Random House • Rs 800

An unsung genius

Book>> The Strangest Man, the Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, the Mystic of the Atom • by Graham Farmelo • Faber and Faber, Rs 450

Walking tall

Jonas Salk, the man who humbled the dreaded polio virus, was that rarest of scientists, the "unconventional upstart"

Tubelights give more than light to labs

Used tubelights can now be recycled into laboratory apparatus that are cheap and as good as those available in the market.

A scientist, a Marxist and a dreamer

Thirty-five years ago, a renowned British biologist branded England "a criminal state" and migrated to India. Today, in the year of his birth …

Schrodinger's kittens dead or alive

Can a cat be both dead and alive at the same time? If you believe the classic interpretation of quantum physics, it can. But several scientists …

The haze is political

US scientists upto mischief on the eve of climate change talks?

Simply put: Number of scientists advising NGT reduced to 2 from 20

Scientists find probiotic yeast strain to fight phosphorus deficiency

Humans and non-ruminant animals lack an enzyme called phytase that converts phytate into free phosphorus

Genesis of water

Life on Earth is the result of several fascinating coincidences, of which the presence of water is considered the most important. But we are …

Researchers’ horror act

Film>> Scientists • Antarctic

Can't stand the smell

Giving girls the horrors

Practical hunting

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

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 …

Dinosaur dawn

Relying on intrigue to survive

Some insects come up with amazing answers to the question of survival.

Penguins gauge sea resources for scientists

Scientists are relying on the emperor penguins to find out the state of sea resources in the inhospitable Antarctic region.

Birth of a galaxy

Male flowers enhance pollination

Plants normally have only bisexual flowers. Some species, however, also produce male flowers to make the dispersal of pollen more efficient.