A study by IIT Gandhinagar has linked Indus Valley Civilization’s collapse to four severe droughts lasting for 88-164 years between 4,400 and 3,400 years ago with up to 20% reduction in rainfall, reduced river discharge of over 12%, together with 0.5 degree C warming
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Genetic variants can drastically change how certain enzymes work. While some people are fast metabolisers — they break down drugs too quickly before the medicine even has time to act — some others are slow metabolisers: their bodies process drugs too slowly, allowing the drugs to build up to toxic levels
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During 2018-2024, there were 3,955 cases of cVDPV polio globally, averaging 565 cases per year. As on September 17, 2025, 143 cVDPV cases have been reported this year. In 2023, five polio cases in east Afghanistan were in children who had received 16 to 28 OPV doses.
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The biggest problem with conventional breeding programmes and the cutting-edge genetic engineering is that only a small set of genes are programmed to behave differently and the impact of that is also limited. On the other hand, with identification of a global switch for salt-stress, this study opens a new realm of possibilities
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On September 15, 2025, the CSIR Governing Body “approved the CSIR Scientist Recruitment & Assessment Rules, 2025″ to revise upwards the age limit for applicants with a PhD degree for the entry level position — Scientist C — at all the CSIR labs to 35 years. The current age limit is 32 years. The revised Rules shall come into force with effect from January 1, 2026
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The decision by the Chair of the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering at IISc to police students using RFID is the worst thing one can do to creative people. This is meant for prisoners, not for researchers. Most people in the scientific profession are self-motivated and do not need policing to be creative.
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The study has identified 40 genetic variants/mutations that are associated with preterm births in Indian women, with one mutation being strongly associated. The study also found 66 genetic variants that can help predict which women are at higher risk for preterm birth
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In an anode-less sodium battery, sodium deposits unevenly and grows into spiky shapes called dendrites, which can lead to huge problems. Creating a patterned current collector — tiny islands of carbon on copper — solves the problem as the collector guides sodium to the carbon islands, creates sharp boundaries that attract charged ions more predictably, and encourages sodium to spread sideways instead of shooting upward
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Once seen mainly in old people who are heavy smokers, lung cancer is now increasingly striking young adults aged under 50 years who have never smoked. But outdated medical mindset often fails to suspect lung cancer in young people costing many young lives
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Compared with global cohorts (43.23%), South Indian patients had fewer variants (15.77%) in the 12 definitive genes linked to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is a major cause of sudden cardiac deaths in young athletes. Instead, a single gene (MYH6) from the limited and disputed genes category had higher prevalence of pathogenic variants in South Indian patients
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Cancer initiation and spread are governed as much by mechanical context as by genetics. The physics of the tissue plays an important role in both triggering tumour development in one tissue and not in another, and in determining whether cancer progresses
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A newly designed three-in-one nanosystem for cancer treatment is truly unique and multifunctional. It enhances radiation therapy by sensitising the cancer cells to radiation, delivers multiple drugs and on-demand drug delivery that gets triggered by radiation for chemotherapeutics at the tumour site, and improves the contrast of tumour for X-ray/CT imaging
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Why does TB therapy take six-nine months, and why do some Mycobacterium tuberculosis inside macrophages survive antibiotics better than others? Rigorous experiments have now revealed that macrophage’s own metabolism and the host cell where the bacteria live play a key role in shaping drug tolerance
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