For the first time, researchers have sequenced the whole ancient Egyptian genome from an individual who lived 4,500 to 4,800 years ago — the oldest DNA sample from Egypt to date. The body belongs to an adult male — 157.4-160.5 cm tall, and 44-64 years old — who died during Egypt’s Old Kingdom
Read More
Inspired by Ahmedabad’s success, over 130 cities and 23 States across India have developed their own Heat Action Plans. Alongside Heat Action Plans, a variety of heat-mitigation solutions have been implemented. Despite a variety of solutions implemented, significant challenges remain in addressing heatwave-related problems.
Read More
Sinhalese chronicles and previous genetic studies had proposed that Sinhalese had migrated from northern or northwest India to Sri Lanka. But a recent whole genome study has found that genetic ancestries and their proportions in Adivasi and Sinhalese are most similar to Dravidian speaking populations who live in Southern India
Read More
A study found that each species in northeast India responded differently to climate change — some expanded, others shrank, and some speciated. As climate change continues, knowing how species responded before can help conservationists design better strategies. This is important in northeast India, where biodiversity is high but research is limited
Read More
Storms interacting with Chennai’s urban environment consistently deposited their peak rainfall 16-20 km inland, whereas storms over rural areas peaked closer to the coast, within 8-12 km. Urbanisation thus plays a decisive role in altering the spatial distribution of rainfall, particularly by shifting the zone of heaviest precipitation farther inland
Read More
Let’s be clear: not all tree-planting is good. In Rajasthan’s Bikaner district, for instance, climate schemes involving tree planting have led to plummeting groundwater levels, soil acidification, and the loss of native grasses vital to both wildlife and pastoralists
Read More
Whole-genome sequencing of 2,762 Indians has unravelled the layers of ancestry, high intermixing with Neanderthals and Denisovans — which allowed the reconstruction of roughly half of the Neanderthal genome and one-fifth of the Denisovan genome using only Indian genomes — and high endogamy in India resulting in harmful mutations in some groups.
Read More
With a staggering 1.44 million zero-dose children in 2023, and only about nearly reaching the 2019 level of 1.4 million, can India reduce the number of zero-dose children by half of the 2019 level by 2030 to meet the IA2030 target?
Read More
Behind every dish containing a fish, prawn, or other seafood, lies a delicate ecological balance: healthy populations of these marine resources replenish themselves only when spawning habitats are protected and harvest pressures kept in check
Read More
While exclusively relying on ChatGPT showed concerning outcomes, participants who wrote essays without any assistance and then began using ChatGPT showed higher memory recall, efficient tool use, strong re-engagement and enhanced neural connectivity. But participants who first used ChatGPT to write essays and then moved to unaided writing underperformed cognitively
Read More
The study achieved “significant improvement” in hypocentral location of five earthquakes that occurred before the installation of the world-wide standardized seismograph network (WWSSN)
Read More
To attract senior scientists from other countries, India needs a strong, stable commitment to science, which means not only much more funding but also more stable funding, much better infrastructure and, just as importantly, insulating science from politics and excessive bureaucratic rules and regulations
Read More
The long-awaited reforms to the procurement processes — General Financial Rules, Government e-Marketplace, and Global Tender Enquiry — address the bureaucratic bottlenecks that for years hampered the scientific community’s ability to conduct world-class research
Read More