Science & technology

Take samples of a cavity in Soyuz Using knives and shears, a pair of Russian spacewalkers on Tuesday cut samples of material around a mysterious hole in a Soyuz spacecraft docked on the International Space Station that a Moscow official suggested could have been deliberate sabotage. Roscosmos space agency said …

Signature fossil of modern epoch may be their leftover bones It is one thing to eat chicken every day. It’s something else to have that on your permanent record, as in the geological record, the remnants of our time that archaeologists or aliens of the future will sift through to …

Study raises safety, efficacy concerns; calls for ban on irrational formulations Of the 110 anti-TB (tuberculosis) Fixed Dose Combinations (FDCs) available in India, only 32 (less than 30%) have been approved by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), the country’s drug regulator. In the case of malaria FDCs, only …

Ensures presence of at least one major ship at choke points Against the backdrop of increasing responsibilities in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) with the rising Chinese presence, the Indian Navy has embarked on a major capability upgrade. A Navy officer said that this year, on an average, 35 Navy …

Self-guided, internet-based platforms can help people cope with depression Scientists have found that a series of self-guided, internet-based therapy platforms effectively reduce depression. Researchers from Indiana University (IU) in the U.S. reviewed 21 pre-existing studies with a total of 4,781 participants. In the past several years, many internet-based apps and …

It may trigger cropland expansion, which will further increase greenhouse gas emissions Bioplastics — often promoted as a climate-friendly alternative to petroleum-based plastics — may lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study. According to the study by researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany, …

Astronomers have observed sunspots on the surface of the Sun for nearly 400 years. It is known that sunspots follow a cyclic pattern of growing in number and disappearing in approximately 11 years, known as the sunspot cycle or the Sun’s activity cycle. We are currently in the 24th sunspot …

Health Canada opens risk assessment draft flagging health risks linked to talcum powder use for public comments The debate over whether talcum powder poses serious health risks is in the spotlight again. A risk assessment draft on talc published by Health Canada, the country’s public health department, states that talcum …

Scientists have successfully used a virus to engineer a better type of memory in computers. The research, published in the journal Applied Nano Materials , found that a key way to develop faster computers is to reduce the millisecond time delays using the virus M13 bacteriophage. These delays usually come …

Tests on over 100 sea turtles — spanning three oceans and all seven species — have revealed microplastics in the guts of every single turtle, scientists say. Synthetic particles were found, the most common being fibres, which can come from clothing, tyres and cigarette filters, and equipment such as ropes …