Science
Down To Earth
Binaries of a loss
India now has adequate facilities to recycle its e-waste, but poor monitoring and informal dismantlers resulted in collection of just 10 per cent of the country’s electronic refuse in 2018-19
3 min |
March 01, 2021
Down To Earth
“It will open up a new area of Mars exploration”
On February 18, NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars. The space agency’s first astrobiology mission aims to look for signs of ancient microbial life and collect samples of rock and soil to be brought to Earth in a future mission. On board the rover is Ingenuity—a helicopter whose main purpose is to attempt a flight in an atmosphere only 1 per cent as dense as Earth’s. The date of the flight is not scheduled, but it is likely to be in May 2021. DAKSHIANI PALICHA speaks to Ingenuity’s chief engineer J (BOB) BALARAM on the significance of the flight attempt and the advantages of a flying probe in the study of the planet
4 min |
March 01, 2021
Down To Earth
Orchard man of Jalaun
Mataprasad Tiwari's mission to plant trees persists even 30 years after its inception
2 min |
March 01, 2021
Down To Earth
Almost 20
Almost 20 per cent of India’s total land area has toxic levels of arsenic in its groundwater says a IIT-Kharagpur study.
1 min |
March 01, 2021
Down To Earth
Unfair fields of cotton
Asymmetric World Trade Organization rules that allow the US to inflate its cotton subsidies, much to the peril of farmers in India and elsewhere, must be reformed
5 min |
February 16, 2021
Down To Earth
SHORT SHRIFT TO RURAL ECONOMY
The Union Budget 2021-22 prioritises spending, but fails to provide agriculture and the rural sector the boost needed to revive growth
5 min |
February 16, 2021
Down To Earth
The science behind the art
Cooking is an art, most would say. However, at its root, cooking is a form of chemical engineering, writes Krish Ashok in his recent book, Masala Lab: The Science of Indian Cooking. Understanding the science behind food preparation can arm the chef with techniques to augment flavours. Here’s a crash course on the physics and chemistry of food.
4 min |
February 16, 2021
Down To Earth
IT'S TAKEN ROOTS
It is likely that COVID-19 would soon become endemic in several countries, including India
4 min |
February 16, 2021
Down To Earth
AN AGRARIAN BIOPSY
The widespread protests by farmers across India have forced us to probe the fundamentals of the farm economy
10+ min |
February 16, 2021
Down To Earth
Arctic On Thin Ice
NO PLACE felt the heat in 2020 like the Arctic and its surrounding seas. Its ice cover melted to its second-lowest annual minimum extent of 3.74 million km2 in summer, while the freeze-up in autumn saw a sluggish start.
2 min |
February 01, 2021
Down To Earth
India's E-Waste Generation Up By 27%
In just one year, India's e-waste generation jumped 27 per cent, says a recent report by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). In 2019-20, the country generated 1,014,961 tonnes of e-waste, as against the 771,215 tonnes generated in 2018-19.
1 min |
February 01, 2021
Down To Earth
COPY AND EVOLVE
BUILDING UPON THE IDEAS OF PREVIOUS GENERATIONS MADE CIVILISATION AND THE ECONOMY POSSIBLE, WRITES TIM HARFORD
5 min |
February 01, 2021
Down To Earth
WATER WISE
FARMERS IN A TAMIL NADU VILLAGE WERE ABLE TO MITIGATE CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS BY BUDGETING WATER AND DIVERSIFYING CROPS
3 min |
February 01, 2021
Down To Earth
SOUR SAGA
EASIER ACCESS TO TENDER CHICKPEA GREENS WILL HELP PROMOTE THIS NUTRITIOUS FOOD
4 min |
February 01, 2021
Down To Earth
FIRST SHOT
The death of eight people and hesitancy among health workers mar the first phase of India’s vaccination drive against COVID-19
4 min |
February 01, 2021
Down To Earth
The Forests We Forgot
Huge swathes of forestland have been declared reserve forests but never notified since the colonial era, leaving thousands of people encroachers on their own land for generations. For them, it is a perennial existence of uncertainty. ISHAN KUKRETI travels to several villages across JHARKHAND, ANDHRA PRADESH AND MADHYA PRADESH to find how government failure, both at the Centre and the states, is hurting the communities and forests alike
10+ min |
January 16, 2021
Down To Earth
Stem pepper
THE WOODY STEMS OF CHUI OOZE FIERY FLAVOURS
4 min |
January 16, 2021
Down To Earth
SO, WHO BLINKS FIRST
Recent mutations in COVID-19 virus have complicated the fight against the pandemic. Can we win?
9 min |
January 16, 2021
Down To Earth
Let it flow
The scientific community has rolled out plans to remove hurdles in the shift to open access publishing. Will this ensure equitable access?
4 min |
January 16, 2021
Down To Earth
Two of a kind
India has lost two environmental crusaders who embodied the spirit of conservation
4 min |
January 16, 2021
Down To Earth
What's in a name?
INDIA’S WILDLIFE LAW HAS NOT INCORPORATED NEW SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES AND UNDERSTANDINGS, WHICH IS LEADING TO CONFUSION AND CHAOS IN WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT
6 min |
January 16, 2021
Down To Earth
Are we there yet?
Model villages are still far from the goal of doubling farmers’ income by 2022
9 min |
January 16, 2021
Down To Earth
Lesser pandemic?
A new viral infection in cattle sweeps across India, threatening one of the largest rural economies
7 min |
January 16, 2021
Down To Earth
‘We hardly lived before we died'
PANDEMICS IN THE PAST HAVE CHANGED THE WORLD ORDER. WILL COVID-19 DO THE SAME?
3 min |
January 16, 2021
Down To Earth
Araku's pioneer
A tribal farmer in Andhra Pradesh got the best of both worlds when he combined natural farming with his wisdom from shifting cultivation
2 min |
January 16, 2021
Down To Earth
Question Of Ecological Identity
ISHAN KUKRETI speaks to a legislator, an anthropologist and legal experts to make sense of this simmering debate
5 min |
December 16, 2020
Down To Earth
2020 Endless Fallouts
COVID-19 has turned the clock back in terms of global health and development indices. The recovery will be long and arduous for a world facing climate change on an unprecedented scale. Indicators are already there that the year ahead will be turbulent
5 min |
December 16, 2020
Down To Earth
Sting operation
One of India’s worst malaria-affected districts, Malkangiri in Odisha, is on its way to win the fight against this scourge
4 min |
December 16, 2020
Down To Earth
The great discontent
Farmers delivered the country’s historic harvest bucking the pandemic in 2020. But the year also broke all records of their protests as they demand fair price and access to markets
3 min |
December 16, 2020
Down To Earth
Fungal attack in apple orchards across the valley
WIDESPREAD FUNGAL infection is set to hit apple production in Kashmir this season.
1 min |