Author: Deshwale Science and Environment Desk

कांवड़ यात्रा इस साल भी शानदार तरीके से संपन्न हुई। हरिद्वार में करीब 4.8 करोड़ कांवड़िए गंगाजल लेने पहुंचे, और यात्रा के आखिरी दो दिनों में ही करीब 2,000 मीट्रिक टन कचरा जमा हुआ। पूरी यात्रा के दौरान कुल मिलाकर लगभग 7,000 मीट्रिक टन कचरा निकला। यह आंकड़ा सुनने में जितना बड़ा लगता है, उतना ही यह हमसे एक सीधा सवाल भी पूछता है। सवाल यह नहीं कि कांवड़ियों ने यात्रा पूरी की या नहीं। सवाल यह है कि जिस तरह यात्रा पूरी होनी चाहिए थी, क्या उस जिम्मेदारी को भी उतनी ही गंभीरता से निभाया गया? रास्तों पर बिखरी…

This Independence Day, the idea of freedom is taking on an environmentally conscious dimension with the launch of the ‘Freedom from Unused Clothes’ campaign by Refiber, an initiative operated by Ottery. The campaign is encouraging citizens to look at unused clothes at home in a different way and turn them into valuable resources through reuse, recycling and further processing. Beginning August 15, citizens will be able to book doorstep pickups for their old clothes through the Refiber app. The collected clothing will then be directed towards reuse, recycling and further processing. The campaign aims to take the message of responsible…

Cancer treatment has made major advances. Yet one of the biggest challenges remains the return of tumours after treatment. Modern therapies can destroy millions of cancer cells. However, a small population of cells can survive. These surviving cells can allow tumours to return, spread to distant organs and develop resistance to treatment. Scientists have long focused on rare cancer stem-like cells because of their role in tumour recurrence, metastasis and treatment failure. Detecting these cells, however, has been difficult. They are extremely rare and can constantly change their identity. Researchers from the S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences…

Anyone can pour concrete that looks solid on the day it’s poured. The harder test comes thirty, fifty, even a hundred years later, when a structure still has to perform exactly as it was designed to. Very few countries manage that consistently, and the ones that do share a surprising insight: quality control during construction and strict maintenance after occupancy aren’t two separate concerns. They’re treated as one continuous obligation. Singapore makes this principle almost impossible to miss. Since 1989, its Building and Construction Authority has run CONQUAS, a national scoring system that grades every major project on structural work,…

By: Pratyush Bardoliwala Many of you might be reading this article in your head right now. As you read these words, you may be silently hearing a voice saying them inside your mind. But have you ever wondered what actually helps you hear your own thoughts? There is no one speaking, no sound travelling through the air and no vibration reaching your ears. So how can you “hear” something that produces no sound? Let’s find out what science has to say about this fascinating phenomenon. To understand the voice in our head, let’s first look at how sound actually works.…

By: Pratyush Bardoliwala We often overlook the origins of things that are now so common that we barely think about them. Fire is one of them. Humans did not invent fire. It existed in nature long before us, caused by events such as lightning and volcanic activity. What humans eventually learned to do was far more important. We learned how to use, control and eventually make fire for our own benefit. There is no exact date for when humans first began using fire. Archaeologists have found evidence of ancient hearths dating back at least 790,000 years. However, it is difficult…

By: Pratyush Bardoliwala Imagine a storm finally clearing over a small town in Honduras. The rain has soaked the roads, the clouds are beginning to break and people are slowly stepping outside again. Then, scattered across the wet ground, they find something that should not be there: small fish. This strange sight has been reported for generations in Yoro, a town in the Honduran department of Yoro. Locally, the event is known as Lluvia de Peces, or “Rain of Fish”. According to local accounts, the fish are usually discovered after periods of heavy rain and storms. Some reports describe residents…

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Jitendra Singh, said India is set to become an essential player in the next industrial revolution, which he said will be driven by biotechnology and artificial intelligence. He noted that unlike the previous industrial revolution, which was led by information technology and where India joined the global transformation at a later stage, the country is now positioned to be among the early participants in emerging technologies. Speaking at a media conclave, Dr. Jitendra Singh said India is among the first few countries in the world to…

This week, a story went viral about Singapore. The tiny island nation has grown nearly 28% larger since 1965, almost entirely by importing sand and dumping it into the sea to create new land. Its neighbours, tired of watching their coastlines vanish, shut the tap one by one. Malaysia banned exports in 1997 and again in 2018. Indonesia and Vietnam followed. Cambodia made its ban permanent in 2017, after activists proved the country had shipped out far more sand than official records showed. It’s a dramatic story. But if you live in India, you don’t need to look that far…

By: Pratyush Bardoliwala At least once in your lifetime, you may have felt the hair on your body suddenly stand up. Maybe it happened in the cold, during a scary moment, or even while listening to a powerful song. But why does this happen? The answer lies in a fascinating scientific phenomenon known as goosebumps. Goosebumps are a physical reaction triggered by cold, fear, excitement, stress and strong emotions. When this happens, tiny muscles attached to our hair follicles contract, making the hairs on our skin stand upright and creating the small bumps we see. This reaction is controlled by…