Did life evolve more than once? Researchers are closing in on an answer

Has all of life on Earth evolved only once, or are different living beings cut from different cloths? 

How AI, other technologies are already disrupting workplaces

BT’s transition from copper to optical fibre is simply the latest technology transition

Decentralised clean energy tech can impact 37 mn livelihoods in India’s agri, textile sectors: Study

Decentralised renewable energy technologies have a market potential worth Rs 4 lakh crore in India, notes study

Ancient humans may have paused in Arabia for 30,000 years on their way out of Africa

 These humans may have slowly adapted to life in the region’s colder climate before venturing to Eurasia and beyond

‘Painting with fire’: How northern Australia developed one of the world’s best bushfire management programmes

From April to June each year, fire managers aim to create small, ‘cool’ fires with care and precision to reduce fuel loads before …

Simply Put: People fired, AI hired

ChatGPT-powered Wall Street: The benefits and perils of using artificial intelligence to trade stocks

Even a small change in market conditions can trigger a large number of trades, leading to sudden price swings and increased volatility

Artificial intelligence GPT-4 shows ‘sparks’ of common sense, human-like reasoning, finds Microsoft

Latest version of ChatGPT shows signs of artificial general intelligence; can solve novel and difficult tasks in various fields in a way …

Saturn gets crown back for most moons in solar system

Jupiter has once again ceded the title of “most known moons” to Saturn, after 62 new Saturnians moons were discovered, taking the grand total …

Nano urea in field trials: Ingredients of fertiliser a mystery

The burden of subsidy on fertilisers has increased from Rs 80,000 crore to Rs 2 lakh crore since the Russia-Ukraine war

Thirsty AIs: ChatGPT ‘drinks’ half a litre of fresh water to answer 20-50 questions, says study

Massive amounts of water go into maintaining the data centres of such AI tools

Stephen Hawking and I created his final theory of the cosmos — here’s what it reveals about the origins of time and life

The enigma at the centre of our research throughout this period was how the Big Bang could have created conditions so perfectly hospitable to life

People are complaining about Mercury in retrograde. But what does it actually mean?

Humans found out retrograde motion was an optical illusion 500 years ago. However, the pseudoscientific practice of astrology continues to …

Internet, the new water. Let’s not convert it into opium

Internet shutdowns can take unimaginable tolls

Konkan commotion: Allegations of soil testing by authorities at Ratnagiri project site intensify protests

There are ecological concerns as the site’s geography is unique with sand dunes and mangroves which serve as nesting sites for Olive Ridley …

AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton says AI is a new form of intelligence unlike our own. Have we been getting it wrong this whole time?

A new intelligence will require a paradigm shift in the way we talk about and manage AI systems

Enigmatic human fossil jawbone may be evidence of an early Homo sapiens presence in Europe — and adds mystery about who those humans were

In contrast to earlier analyses, the Banyoles jawbone was found to be most similar to Homo sapiens fossils, not Neandertals  

COP28 head calls for ramping up renewables, carbon capture and climate finance

Comments indicate a focus on abatement technologies at Dubai summit over fossil phase-out

Generative AI is forcing people to rethink what it means to be authentic

Generative AI thrives on exploiting people’s reliance on categorical authenticity by producing material that looks like “the real …

What makes humans unique? Scientists compare genomes of 240 species to uncover secrets of mammalian evolution

Mammals diversified when continental landmasses began drifting apart, notes study

‘An individual’s genome carries information shaped over millenia of evolutionary history’

Down To Earth spoke with Aryn P Wilder, co-author of one of 11 research papers providing insights into mammalian evolution

Simply Put: Of DNA and double standards

Unravelling DNA’s structure: A landmark achievement whose authors were not fairly credited

History has acknowledged how Rosalind Franklin was sidelined

Galaxy mergers ignite ‘quasars’ — the most powerful celestial objects: Study

Quasars likely to be future of Milky Way galaxy when it collides with Andromeda in about 5 billion years

Simply Put: New Theory of Evolution