Author: Deshwale Science and Environment Desk

When Barren Island, India’s only active volcano, erupted twice in September after an earthquake in the Andaman Sea, many dismissed it as a remote geological event. Yet the incident carries far greater significance. It highlights how natural hazards in one corner of the country can ripple through national security, economy, and public safety. More importantly, it raises a crucial question. If a stronger volcanic eruption were to strike in the future, how ready is India to face its consequences? Why This Eruption Matters Barren Island lies about 135 kilometres northeast of Port Blair. No one lives there, yet its activity…

In the silent darkness of space, long before galaxies spun into shape or stars burned brightly, hydrogen atoms carried the universe’s earliest story. They emitted a faint 21-centimeter radio signal, a cosmic whisper that holds clues to how the first stars ignited and transformed their surroundings. Detecting this fragile signal has been one of astronomy’s greatest challenges. Now, scientists at the Raman Research Institute (RRI) in Bengaluru, India have designed a compact digital receiver system for PRATUSH, short for Probing ReionizATion of the Universe using Signal from Hydrogen. This homegrown innovation is bringing the world closer than ever to unlocking…

Lately, it feels like the ground is shaking a lot. From small tremors in India’s cities to big quakes in far-off places, people are talking about earthquakes on TV and social media. As of September 2025, many wonder: Are earthquakes really happening more, or are we just noticing them more? This article looks at what’s going on in India and other countries, why quakes happen, and what we can do to stay safe. Earthquakes in India: What’s happening in 2025 India is in a shaky part of the world where huge pieces of the Earth’s crust, called tectonic plates, push…

Elegant and powerful, swans are birds that embody grace, romance, and wild freedom. Found in lakes, rivers, and estuaries across the Northern Hemisphere and parts of the Southern Hemisphere, these iconic waterfowl have inspired countless myths, art, and literature. But their lives in the wild reveal resilience, strong family bonds, and important ecological roles. Lifelong Bonds Swans are famous for forming monogamous pairs, often staying together for life. Mated pairs reinforce their bonds with synchronized swimming, mutual preening, and dramatic courtship dances. These lifelong partnerships are more than romantic: they help swans coordinate parenting, defend territories, and survive challenging environments.…

Few flowers captivate the human imagination like orchids. With over 25,000 species and countless hybrids, orchids make up one of the largest flowering plant families on Earth. These extraordinary blooms have evolved astonishing strategies to attract pollinators, producing shapes and colours that few other plants can match. The Greatest Plant Family Orchids grow on every continent except Antarctica, thriving in rainforests, mountains, grasslands, and even arid regions. Some of the most famous orchids include: Evolutionary Wonders Orchids’ pollination strategies are remarkable. Some mimic female insects in shape and scent, tricking male bees into attempting to mate with the flower. Others…

Silent peaks. Submerged valleys. A continent’s underside. The seafloor is as varied as the land but far more mysterious. We have walked mountains and explored deserts, yet 80% of the ocean floor remains unmapped at high resolution. In these hidden realms lie towering seamounts, vast canyons and deep trenches. Mapping them unveils new worlds. The Topography Beneath the Waves Sunlight penetrates only the uppermost layers of the ocean. Below that, crushing pressure makes diving impossible. We rely on sonar to listen to the landscape. Ships tow multibeam echo sounders that emit fan-shaped pulses, recording return times to measure depths. Over…

What if some of your cherished memories never really happened? False memories are vivid recollections of events that did not occur or occurred differently, and they reveal the astonishingly creative yet fallible nature of human memory. Memory Is Not a Video Recorder We often think of memory as a faithful playback of past experiences. In reality, it is a reconstructive process. Each time we recall something, we rebuild it from fragments of sights, sounds, emotions, and context. With every reconstruction, the memory can change slightly. Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus demonstrated how easily memories can be influenced. In her experiments, participants exposed…

Crisp reef crest. A riot of colour. Branching staghorn, bulbous brain coral, delicate fans. Coral reefs are underwater cities, home to a quarter of all marine species. They rise from sunlit shallows. They teem with fish, molluscs and crustaceans. They buffer coasts from storm waves. They feed millions. Yet these cities face threats, from bleaching to human impacts. Let us explore how reefs are built, why they bleach and how we strive to restore them. The Architects: Coral Polyps and Their Algae At the heart of every reef is the coral polyp. These tiny animals, related to sea anemones, secrete…

A hiss in your radio. Static between stations. That faint noise holds the age of the universe. It is the cosmic microwave background, the afterglow of the Big Bang. It permeates every corner of space. It whispers secrets from 13.8 billion years ago. Let us tune in. The Discovery In 1964, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson worked at Bell Labs in New Jersey. They struggled with mysterious static in their horn antenna. They cleaned pigeon droppings. They adjusted equipment. The noise persisted. Across town, Jim Peebles and his colleagues had predicted a relic radiation from the Big Bang. Penzias and…

Deserts are natural wonders. Yet desertification is a man-made crisis. It is the slow death of fertile land, leaving soil dry and empty. Once-productive ground becomes barren. Crops fail, water disappears, and people are forced to leave. Today, it is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity. What Desertification Really Means The United Nations defines desertification as land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas. It happens due to climate changes and human misuse of land. Unlike natural deserts, this process spreads. It eats away soil fertility and destroys ecosystems. How It Starts: The Root Causes Several practices fuel…