Scientific India
Festival of Lights, Season of Smog: India's Air Crisis in a Global Context
Festivals are significant markers of cultural heritage and community traditions. Nevertheless, every year, significant increases in pollution levels are recorded during celebratory events, due to the overuse of firecrackers. This study evaluated gaseous and particulate matter (PM) concentrations using a gas and particulate sampler, alongside noise levels measured by a sound level meter, during the pre-topost-Diwali period of 2023 and 2024 in Malda, India
4 min |
September - October 2025
Scientific India
Your pumpkin might be hiding a toxic secret
Pumpkins, squash, zucchini, and other members of the gourd family have a surprising trait: they can take up pollutants from the soil and store them in their edible parts.
1 min |
September - October 2025
Scientific India
'Is cold nuclear fusion feasible?
In early May 1989, two chemists from the University of Utah, Pons and Fleischmann, arrived in Washington, U.S.A. The aim is to present their findings to members of the US Congress.
3 min |
September - October 2025
Scientific India
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025: Building Molecular Architectures with Room to Breathe
In a scientific breakthrough that bridges molecular design with planetary-scale problems, the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar Yaghi.
1 min |
September - October 2025
Scientific India
2025 Nobel Prize in Physics Reveals Quantum Secrets in Superconducting Circuits
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis for their pioneering experiments that brought quantum mechanics from the invisible atomic world to the macroscopic scale a system large enough to hold in your hand.
1 min |
September - October 2025
Scientific India
Guardians of Immunity: Nobel Prize 2025 Honors Discoveries that Keep the Immune System in Check
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi for their groundbreaking discoveries in the field of peripheral immune tolerance a crucial mechanism that prevents the body's immune system from turning against itself.
1 min |
September - October 2025
Down To Earth
Rebirth of Sukapaika
A cardiologist revives a dying river in Odisha with help from 425 riparian villages
2 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Bone dry to soaking wet
Farmers in Marathwada were ill-prepared for the intense rainfall that hit the perennially water-starved region.
4 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Collective denial
A decade on from the Paris Agreement, countries are planning more fossil fuel production than before, putting global climate ambitions at increasing risk
4 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
'Depopulation would mean fewer people contributing to advancement of knowledge'
Trends show that in a few decades, global population will begin to shrink. Once depopulation starts, no one knows how to stop it in a sustained way, write DEAN SPEARS and MICHAEL GERUSO, associate professors of economics, University of Texas at Austin, US, in their recent book, After the Spike. The authors, who are also economic demographers, argue that population decline will be detrimental to global progress and that a smaller population would not necessarily be better for the environment. In an interview with ADITYA MISRA, they say that the time to talk about depopulation is now because the search for a solution could take decades. Excerpts:
5 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
What the H-1B visa angst reveals about India
It is odd that India strenuously promotes the exodus of its tech talent while failing to foster innovation at home
4 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Despair follows deluge
As floodwaters recede in Punjab, communities are left with ruined fields, lost livelihoods and an uncertain future. VIVEK MISHRA travels through the seven flood-hit districts to gauge the scale of the crisis.
6 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
AHEAD OF HER TIME
From changing ideas about how humanity perceives its closest cousins to pioneering innovative ways of research, Goodall was a trailblazer
2 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
REDUCED TO INSIGNIFICANCE
On October 12, the Right to Information (RTI) Act completed 20 years. Activists who monitor the Act, and former information commissioners, say that amendments by successive governments have rendered the law toothless. As per Central Information Commission's latest annual report (2023-24), the number of RTI applications rejected in the year was over 67,615—the highest ever. BHAGIRATH curates a conversation on what went wrong with the law that was sought to bring transparency and accountability in governance.
10+ min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
UNWILLING TO SHARE?
The National Biodiversity Authority has disbursed less than 27 per cent of money it received from companies and traders to beneficiary communities since 2008-09
3 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
BUILT TO BINGE
Over the past few decades, food companies have exploited basic human instincts to peddle ultra-processed products. Engineered to hijack the brain's reward system, these foods are silently fuelling a new addiction epidemic, and driving rising rates of obesity and chronic diseases. Urgent policy action is needed to reclaim control over our food environment.
10+ min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Monsoon withdrawal stalls after early start
AFTER UNLEASHING unusually heavy spells of rain across northwest India, the southwest monsoon began withdrawing three days earlier than normal, on September 14.
1 min |
October 16, 2025
Down To Earth
Delhi court ban on Sci-Hub is bad news
Researchers will be hit by the loss of the free science website while big publishers are milking India on subscriptions
4 min |
October 01, 2025
Down To Earth
SIP AND UNWIND
Ashwagandha, one of the most revered herbs in ayurvedic medicine, has found its place in contemporary wellness recipes
3 min |
October 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Could this be a way to lower fuel consumption?
I have conducted trials on more than 15 kinds of two- and four-wheelers, each running on either petrol or diesel, and have found that a propulsion-based technique can help reduce their fuel consumption by almost 60 per cent. The technique involves some alterations in driving patterns.
1 min |
October 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Uneven burden
Cancer incidence in India reveals gendered disparities, regional hotspots and rising rural risks
5 min |
October 01, 2025
Down To Earth
FIGHTING CHANCE
Confronted with the twin pressures of climate change and economic malaise, African countries are taking matters into their own hands. By blending traditional practices with modern innovation, they are crafting homegrown solutions. Their pragmatic resilience offers a blueprint the rest of the Global South would do well to follow.
10+ min |
October 01, 2025
Down To Earth
A mandatory requirement
Assessment of a river's sand replenishment is now a legal requirement for obtaining environmental clearance to mine the resource
3 min |
October 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Transmission trap
Solar and wind power projects are facing curtailments, which developers and industry analysts attribute to delays in construction of electricity transmission lines and inaccurate demand forecasting
8 min |
October 01, 2025
Down To Earth
Relocate, resettle, repeat
How India's largest displacement exercise unfolds in a district much displaced
6 min |
October 01, 2025
Down To Earth
'A separate Local Government Service Commission can be set up to recruit panchayat employees'
The 73rd Amendment to the Constitution of India calls upon states to enact laws that enable panchayats to function as local governments. To assess the extent of this devolution of power, the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj has studied and ranked the states since 2004.
4 min |
October 01, 2025
Down To Earth
GLOBAL SOUTH REIMAGINED
In an increasingly fractured world marked by unilateralism and weakened climate cooperation, civil society must elevate Global South cohesion as a top climate agenda
4 min |
October 01, 2025
Down To Earth
The catalyst within
HORMONES NOT ONLY SHAPE ONE'S HEALTH, BUT HAVE LIKELY IMPACTED GLOBAL EVENTS
4 min |
October 01, 2025
Down To Earth
EU misses deadline to set new targets
EU'S CLIMATE ministers on September 18 confirmed that the bloc will miss a global deadline to set new emissions-cutting targets in time for a meeting of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) at the end of the month.
1 min |
October 01, 2025
MACHINERY LUBRICATION INDIA
PERFORMING A FAILURE SCENE INVESTIGATION
As head of Noria's failure investigation group, I've led many interesting studies in search of failure root causes and remedies.
4 min |