Science
Down To Earth
SKINNED ALIVE
Pruning of timber tree species harms both the quality and quantity of wood, and needs to be checked immediately
3 min |
April 16, 2022
Down To Earth
FABULOUS FABA
Ancient superfood faba bean is set to stage a comeback
4 min |
April 16, 2022
Down To Earth
COOL IDEA
Ahmedabad residents strategically use shade, ventilation and building materials to keep their homes comfortable: and it does not cost the earth
3 min |
April 16, 2022
Down To Earth
Fantastic beasts
MAO'S BESTIARYIS A REVISIONIST HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE ANIMAL DRUG INDUSTRY IN MAO'S CHINA THAT ALSO GIVES CONTEXT TO THE CURRENT DEBATES ON ZOONOSES AND THE USE OF WILD ANIMALS FOR HEALTH BENEFITS
4 min |
April 16, 2022
Down To Earth
A New Energy Disorder
At a time when the world is moving towards decarbonisation, the Russia-Ukraine war has brought energy poverty on the doorstep of rich nations. Europe's energy ministers are now touring countries of all hues and persuasions to strike deals for supply of fossil fuels to hedge against inflation and future shortages. The new energy order that emerges post this conflict could well be devoid of climate change as its focal point
10+ min |
April 01, 2022
Down To Earth
Boots on the ground
The women waste collection workers of Ambikapur have helped the city manage its solid waste problem
3 min |
April 01, 2022
Down To Earth
Mission to cool
Cities are hiring dedicated officers to prepare for extreme heat
6 min |
April 01, 2022
Down To Earth
INSTITUTIONAL OVERSIGHT
Though hospital births have seen a record rise in the past 15 years, maternal and infant mortality rates remain high
10 min |
April 01, 2022
Down To Earth
TWIST IN THE LANTANA TALE
The Soliga tribal community of Karnataka makes handcrafted items from lantana, helping curb the spread of the invasive shrub that now covers 40 per cent of the Western Ghats S
3 min |
April 01, 2022
Down To Earth
NATURAL NUDGE
Employ beneficial and cost-effective microbes to improve crop yield
3 min |
April 01, 2022
Down To Earth
Plastic endgame
The world's adoption of the resolution to end plastic pollution by 2024 is only the first step in a long battle
4 min |
March 16, 2022
Down To Earth
Drug debacle
Sixteen years after India banned the veterinary use of diclofenac to save its vultures, three other drugs revive the old challenge
5 min |
April 01, 2022
Down To Earth
GOOD WHILE IT LASTED
Earth is losing species at an unprecedented rate, which, many believe, is the planet's sixth mass extinction. Since the biodiversity loss this time is the doing of humans, the event also marks the beginning of the Anthropocene Epoch, a self-aggrandising nomenclature that highlights our disproportionate and irreversible impacts on the surroundings
10+ min |
March 16, 2022
Down To Earth
Dung deal
Chhattisgarh's plan to purchase cow dung to boost the rural economy, ensure clean villages and solve the problem of stray cattle destroying crops had success initially, but things have not gone as per plan
4 min |
April 01, 2022
Down To Earth
'Compromise' on TRIPS waiver is a sellout
Tough new conditions emerge in the compromise deal to ease WTO intellectual property barriers to production of COVID-19 medical tools
4 min |
April 01, 2022
Down To Earth
Climate Justice, Now
IPCC's latest climate report provides evidence that climate-justice needs to be at the centre of global policymaking
4 min |
March 16, 2022
Down To Earth
Bizarre Patent Tussles Over A Covid-19 Jab
Moderna's many intellectual property disputes over its vaccine highlight the need for a patent-free regime to fight the pandemic
4 min |
March 16, 2022
Down To Earth
Urban ladder
Safely managing faecal sludge is India's new sanitation challenge. In the absence of adequate rural treatment plants, a few states rope in underutilised urban facilities
8 min |
March 16, 2022
Down To Earth
Organic boost
Farmer producer organisations can help organic farming initiatives overcome marketing hindrances
4 min |
March 16, 2022
Down To Earth
Endemic Not The End
We know that the novel coronavirus will be with us forever. Without undermining the threat it poses, we must learn how to live with it by adapting strategies developed in previous pandemics
10+ min |
March 01, 2022
Down To Earth
To what end
West Bengal has decided to mine coal from a reserve so deep and unreachable that the extraction might turn out to be financially unviable, and still end up displacing 21,000 people
6 min |
March 01, 2022
Down To Earth
‘Observations will help trace our cosmic roots'
Early last month, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) opened its 18 golden mirrors to the universe and captured its first image-ofa sun-like star called HD-84406, some 260 light years from the Earth. The telescope was launched on December 25, 2021, and took 30 days to travel 1.5 million km from Earth in a direction opposite to the Sun to reach its destination-a gravitationally stable point named L2—from where it will orbit the Sun, slightly changing its position every three weeks to stay in a halo orbit.
6 min |
March 01, 2022
Down To Earth
Pre-emptive strike
The popularity of anti-hail cannons among Himachal Pradesh farmers has made the state build an indigenous version, though the efficacy of such devices is unproven
5 min |
March 01, 2022
Down To Earth
Bullish turn
Post mechanisation, for the first time there is innovation in farm equipment to revive bullocks and aid small farmers
6 min |
March 01, 2022
Down To Earth
South Africa's vaccine advance brings hope
The WHO-aided tech transfer hub in South Africa is set to change the outlook for a continent deprived of COVID-19 vaccines
4 min |
March 01, 2022
Down To Earth
Space for nuclear
From fuel to outer space power plants, the world is developing different usages of nuclear energy to explore the deep space
7 min |
March 01, 2022
Down To Earth
FAULTY GROUND
The stretch of the Cauvery where Karnataka plans to build the Mekedatu dam lies alonga fault plane and in a geologically unstable region
3 min |
March 01, 2022
Down To Earth
Blue hydrogen not really green
Reliance Industries on February 12 announced an intent to become "the world's top blue hydrogen producer" by repurposing a 30,000 crore synthetic gas plant to manufacture the fuel.
1 min |
March 01, 2022
Down To Earth
BIOLOGICAL GOLD MINE
An emerging science explores how faecal analysis can revolutionise disease diagnosis and treatment
5 min |
March 01, 2022
Down To Earth
United they stand
Women farmers in 30 villages of Madhya Pradesh join hands to command a higher price for their groundnut produce
3 min |