A small teabag may not seem like much of a solution to polluted drinking water, but for Minnesota student Vick Tan, it became the centre of a science project that went far beyond the classroom. Tan helped develop a simple-looking pouch designed to capture arsenic from contaminated water, using a mix of cellulose fabric, crushed…
The Moon’s south pole may contain small pockets where some Earth microbes could remain alive after being carried there by astronauts or spacecraft. A new Nasa study has mapped parts of the region where five types of bacteria and fungi may withstand lunar conditions for at least a day, with the hardiest organism potentially lasting…
Piyush Goyal pitches India as trusted, tariff-friendly base for Japanese firms TOKYO: It isn’t just high growth and an expanding market that make India an attractive destination for investors. Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Monday added India’s long list of FTAs and the possibility of Japanese companies using the preferential tariffs to set…
August may look like a busy month in a garden, meadow or city park, but for honeybees, late summer can be surprisingly difficult. New research from the University of Sussex has found that honeybees expend more effort and gain less energy while collecting nectar in late July and August than during much of spring. The…
Sugar prices jump 29% in a month, industry blames ‘speculative behaviour’ for artificial tightness NEW DELHI: Sugar industry’s apex body ISMA on Monday said that there is no shortage of the sweetener while admitting that the spike in prices is “not natural” and is being fuelled by stocking by bulk consumers and “speculative behaviour”. The…
In late 2028, Nasa plans to send something unusual towards Mars, a spacecraft carrying a working nuclear reactor designed to generate electricity for propulsion in deep space. Space Reactor-1 Freedom is intended to test nuclear electric propulsion beyond Earth orbit, where conventional solar power becomes increasingly difficult to use. The spacecraft will not land on…
Visa crackdown widens as Trump administration targets visitors seeking to remain in US through asylum claims The Donald Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of as many as 2,00,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum in the United States, in what could become the largest single…
For his project, Kang trained AI models to detect patterns associated with neurodevelopmental disorders from a large public dataset of retinal images. Instead of one approach, he used several techniques to improve the performance of the models. What if a simple picture of the eye could help doctors diagnose neurodevelopmental conditions earlier? For 17-year-old Edward…
Centre to sell subsidised onions at Rs 35/kg in Delhi-NCR as retail prices climb NEW DELHI: The Centre is likely to begin selling onions at a subsidised price of Rs 35 per kg across Delhi-NCR later this week to rein in soaring retail prices. Officials said locations for the retail sale through mobile vans will…
A pile of discarded cashew shells would normally have little to do with international shipping. In Maharashtra agricultural leftovers are being fed into reactors that can turn them into usable fuel, gases and biochar. The technology comes from an unusual India-Denmark partnership built around the Viking biomass gasifier developed at the Technical University of Denmark….