A decline in running speeds may be less steep than many of us fear Most of us who are older competitive runners are not able to race at anywhere near the same speed as we did when we were 30. But we can perhaps aim to slow down at the …

ding Like a Writer , says reviewers must be emphatic when they write a favourable review: “‘You’ve got to read this’ should be the first line of every positive book review.” What to Read and Why is made up in great part with Prose’s introductions to reissued classics but also …

Or, why the Sensex doesn’t indicate voting patterns I must confess to feeling a little sorry for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The poor man had barely returned after a grievous illness when he was hit with the double whammy of a plunging rupee and soaring fuel prices. There was little …

For listeners of music, analytical perspectives are one way to assert our association to a song over a fellow listener In a podcast released last year, the Canadian writer, Malcolm Gladwell, explored the history of the legendary pop song called ‘Hallelujah’ which was written and composed by the great Canadian …

We are stocking up for winter, pulling out woollens, keeping one eye on the football while stirring the first thick soup of the season Normally, I’m not a big fan of the autumn in England. Most years the summer that’s just ended leaves me with a feeling of having been …

Consumption of poor quality medicines could be accelerating drug resistance. India has to share some of the blame It is common for patients to stop taking medicines as soon as they start feeling better. Doctors have blamed this particular habit — of not completing the entire dose of antibiotics — …

The attacks on girls and women every day are symptomatic of a deep malaise Where curriculum designers fear to tread, film directors take relaxed, bold strides. Few will consider ghosts and witchcraft as suitable topics for a textbook. Killing of women on the suspicion that they are practising witchcraft occasionally …

Scientists say they have developed a new DNA tool that uses machine learning to accurately predict people’s height and assess their risk for serious illnesses such as heart disease and cancer. The tool, or algorithm, builds predictors for human traits such as height, bone density and even the level of …

The Eastern Ghats spread across Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, has lost almost 16% of its forest area over a span of 100 years, a recently published study shows. Researchers from the University of Hyderabad studied historical maps and satellite images from 1920 to 2015 to understand the …

This is interesting as ants are usually depicted as poor pollinators Bees might be the most well-known pollinators, but researchers have found that common white-footed ants are the best pollinators of a rare evergreen tree in the southern Western Ghats. Syzygium occidentale is a small, wild jamun tree that grows …

Can exercise itself be replaced and substituted with biochemical treatment, thereby supplying patients with ‘bottled exercise’? Over the last 30 years, the longevity of Indians, on average, has shot up remarkably. It was 41 years in the year 1960 and has risen to 68 years of age in 2015. While …

A small molecule attached to carbon nanospheres could cross the blood-brain barrier Using a small molecule that activates two enzymes (CBP/p300 histone acetyltransferases), researchers from India and France have been able to completely recover long-term memory in mice with Alzheimer’s disease. Neuron-to-neuron connections that form the network were re-established leading …

losing money overseas, it is working on a solution. Furthermore, he praised the ability and leadership of Ford’s chief executive, Jim Hackett, who he said was doing “a really good job.” “I don’t think it’s even close to a crisis,” he said. Not everyone shares his confidence. The automaker’s bottom …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he hoped to make progress on denuclearisation and a second U.S.-North Korean summit, as he kicked off an Asian trip on Saturday that will feature a meeting with Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang. Mr. Pompeo arrived in Tokyo on the first leg of a …

One of the most brutal attacks on the Bangladesh government in recent times came from an unlikely critic: a former Chief Justice. Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha stacked a litany of allegations against the government in his book, A Broken Dream: Rule of Law, Human Rights and Democracy . The most …

Last week, German authorities arrested eight men in the State of Saxony who were part of a far-right “terrorist” ring, called ‘Revolution Chemnitz’. Chemnitz, the largest city in Saxony, was recently in the news when hundreds of neo-Nazis took out a protests against refugees and immigrants. According to police, the …

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign is now targeting the glamour icons of the entertainment industry. On Wednesday, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported that megastar Fan Bingbing, whose earnings are only second to that of Jackie Chan, will have to cough out $129 million in unpaid taxes and fines. …

Every evening at 6, a crowd of around 200 gathers in the city centre of Banja Luka, the capital of Republika Srpska, the Serb-dominated ruling entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to protest against the death of David Dragičević, a young man who was found dead in March. Various cities in …

In 2015, comedian Stephen Fry was interviewed on Ireland’s RTE Television on his well-known views on God. Asked what he would say to God if he was proved to be wrong and met God at the end of his life, Mr. Fry’s response was immediate. “Bone cancer in children, what’s …

‘Girl with Balloon’ passes through a hidden shredder moments after auction British street artist Banksy has stunned the art world with arguably his most audacious prank yet, self-destructing one of his best-known works moments after it fetched more than £1 million at an auction in London. “Girl with Balloon” had …