Proper public remembrance alone restores dignity and self-respect to the victim Last week saw several women come out publicly to speak about their suffering at the hands of sexual predators in our society. But do we, those of us who saw or heard them, really understand what they experienced, the …

Much of what exists on social media is not conversation or even argument. It is sheer gossip Gossip plays a crucial role in one of our greatest epics. I am talking of the Ramayana, and what Sita has to undergo as a consequence of, yes, gossip after she has been …

A rare case of organ transplant failure highlights the need for outcome registries in India In a rare instance in Mumbai last month, the organs of a 59-year-old brain-dead patient, that were harvested and transplanted, failed in all the three recipients. One of them, a 32-year-old being treated for renal …

Critical hardware swapped to back-up units, solar panels pointed towards sun Barely a week after NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope entered safe mode, the Chandra mission has also suffered a glitch possibly due to the failure of the gyroscope, the US space agency said. The Chandra X-Ray Observatory, observing the universe …

Injected bacteria transferred the pigment-producing genes to the rose genome It may soon be possible to breed blue roses in your garden, say scientists who have found a way to express pigment-producing enzymes from bacteria in the petals of a white rose. Researchers including those from Chinese Academy of Sciences …

Drug safety results of over 5,000 patients showed significant reductions in patient mortality while no new safety signals have emerged In a recent Rapid Communication, the World Health Organisation (WHO) made important changes in the regimens to treat patients with multidrug-resistant TB (resistant to isoniazid and rifampicin). Two of the …

‘High-risk’ zones need special conservation attention Human–animal conflict is common in the Himalaya like any other region where wildlife and people live together. A study of patterns of leopard attacks here reveal that some areas are high-risk zones requiring urgent conservation measures for the safety of both man and beast. …

The silk scaffold has seamless junction between the cartilage and bone portions Implanting cartilage alone or injecting cells found in healthy cartilage (chondrocytes) at the site of injury to heal the damaged cartilage in patients with osteoarthritis does not produce favourable results. Similarly, implanting two different scaffolds joined together to …

As Sri Lankans grapple with rapidly soaring living costs, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament last week that “the increase of oil prices is inevitable in the current global context”. Fuel prices went up from six to eight rupees — 92-octane petrol costs LKR 155 (roughly Rs. 68) — slowly …

Banksy’s impact beyond the conventional art world has been profound, says Dave Stuart, who runs Shoreditch Street Art Tours in London. Banksy’s humorous, often bitingly political, thought-provoking pieces introduced the media and the public to the world of street art and showed those aspiring street artists, who believed they had …