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Home IISc researchers show that Indian monsoon has a 67-year cycle, link it to the global sea surface temperature cycle
The Indian summer monsoon rainfall, which typically lasts from June to September, accounts for nearly 75% of the annual rainfall received pan India. During these four months, the Indian meteorological department estimates that central India gets 88%, north-western and eastern regions of India receive 71%, and southern India receives...
- 5 days ago
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Home New blood-based test to diagnose TB within an hour
In 2018, tuberculosis, or TB, accounted for around 10 million new cases with 1.5 million lives succumbing to the disease across the globe. The death rate is higher in low- and middle-income countries due to limited access to quality treatment and diagnosis. Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes the infection, belongs to the family Mycobacteriaceae, which also has other bacteria....
- 7 days ago
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Home Friendly neighbours? Study shows crop yield increases when biodiverse environments surround farms
As winter sets in over Punjab, one can hear the humdrum of hundreds of machines harvesting rice across lakhs of hectares of paddy fields. In Maharashtra, villages in Vidarbha lug their snowy cotton harvest to the market. Years ago, these landscapes were a sprawling array of forests, grasslands, wetlands and multiple crops cultivated on a shifting...
- 2 weeks ago
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Home Seawater intrusion threatens drinking water source along India's coast
The impacts of climate change on coastal areas are severe than inland as they are vulnerable to flooding and extreme weather phenomena like cyclones, tornadoes etc. As the climate crisis deepens, a quarter of India's population, who live along the coasts, have another issue to worry about - availability of freshwater. Due to unchecked pumping of groundwater for daily use...
- 2 weeks ago
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Home IISER Mohali hosts mini-symposium on ecology and evolution
How many bird calls can you recognise? Crows and pigeons, for sure! But have you ever come across an app that can recognise bird calls for you? With apps like eBird and India Biodiversity Portal, identifying and collecting data has become an activity that not just researchers can take part in. Rather, these technological advancements provide a push to scientific research as a whole! A...
- 2 weeks ago
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Home Scientists investigate the taxonomy and evolution of pipeworts
Rice, millets, bamboo, pineapple, bell reed and other economically essential and regularly consumed crops have a thing in common - taxonomically, they all belong to the order Poales of the plant kingdom. Although it has five groups, studies on the evolution of plants under Poales have mostly focused on the Graminids, which includes grasses like maize, wheat, and barley. In a recent...
- 2 weeks ago
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Home An Inexpensive Approach to Patterning Cells in a Lab
Researchers propose cost-effective techniques of making microcontact printing stamps to print protein and grow cells. Adherent cells-group of cells that stick to and grow on a surface-can help repair damaged skin, cartilage or retina. It is possible to control the shape and size of adherent cells by growing them on substances, such as proteins, that enable or inhibit growth. To study the...
- 2 weeks ago
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Home Infant mortality rate in India may not be as high as WHO estimates, study shows
India has often been portrayed in foreign movies as an impoverished country. While this portrayal could offend many of us, data points to some truth to the "impoverished" adjective. With a population of 1.3 billion, we are the second-most populous country. India's Global Hunger Index (GHI) is 102 and malnutrition is rampant-14.5% of the population is...
- 2 weeks ago
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Home IISc study unravels vital proteins behind proper cell division
Humans, like several other organisms, have many types of cells in their body-blood cells, nerve cells, skin cells, and so on. These different types of cells work together to maintain the functions of the various organs in our body and play a vital role in our survival. These cells multiply through a process called cell division or cytokinesis, a complex and continuously occurring...
- 3 weeks ago
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Home The Best of Science in 2019
As Newton's famous quote, "standing on the shoulders of giants", this year, science has made considerable advances, building on many feats achieved in the past years. New discoveries, insights and inventions in the areas of astronomy, biology, medicine, paleontology and physics marked the year. Here is a selected pick of ten such breakthroughs in science witnessed in 2019. 1. Detailing the Denisovans ...
- 3 weeks ago
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