Science
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 |
December 16, 2020
Down To Earth
SHRINKING WORLD OF CHANGPAS
The Changpas are trans-Himalayan nomads. For ages, they have roamed the Changthang region of southeastern Ladakh, cut off from the world. Some accounts say they travelled across the Himalayas to arrive here around the 8th century. Located at an altitude of 4,500 metres, life in this arid, vast and rugged plateau is hard. Winters are very long, summers short and vegetation scarce. As a result, the Changpas have led a pastoral life. They rear Changthangi goat, from whose under coat comes the famous pashmina wool. The goats graze on the mountainsides, feeding on seasonal grasses. The weather, however, has changed in the past few decades. The winters and summers are warmer, and there is a perceptive decline in precipitation and snowfall between November and March. This has drastically reduced the size of the grazing grounds and the Changpas now have to shift locations more frequently. RITAYAN MUKHERJEE captures the changing lifestyle of the Changpas
1 min |
December 16, 2020
Down To Earth
Collateral damage
India’s latest plan to save its vultures from dying due to drugs used on cattle offers little hope
3 min |
December 16, 2020
Down To Earth
PURE TRASH
THE GOVERNMENT’S NEW PROPOSAL ON EXTENDED PRODUCER’S RESPONSIBILITY ON PLASTIC WASTE IS A MOCKERY OF THE COVID-19 REALITY WE FACE TODAY
6 min |
December 16, 2020
Down To Earth
Gated farming societies
An agritech startup in Bengaluru is helping city dwellers own and manage farms for long-term wealth benefits
2 min |
December 16, 2020
Down To Earth
We need pure honey
It is time we outwitted the business of adulteration. This requires government to act decisively. It needs industry to be made responsible. It needs consumers to be made aware of the purity of the honey they consume. This demands change
6 min |
December 01, 2020
Down To Earth
When we spiked honey with Chinese and Indian 'all-pass' syrups
If the samples passed the tests for purity, it would show that such syrups worked
3 min |