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The young and old like to get on the swing. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto During my childhood, some 50 years ago, a coir rope, about an inch in diameter, used to lie curled in our attic. Every summer, we would take it down and tie it to one of the horizontal branches of a … Read more
Representative images | Photo Credit: AFP In Studio Ghibli’s 2013 film The Wind Rises, set in Japan during the Second World War, a crowd scene lasts a few seconds. There are people jostling, goods being transported, a mother carrying two babies, everyone in a tearing hurry to get away. Under the direction of Hayao Miyazaki, who … Read more
Prithviraj Sukumaran is no revolutionary in the garb of a filmmaker, but the nature and influence of mainstream cinema is such that even a minor attempt at subversion can invite the full wrath of the ruling establishment and make one look so. The Malayali actor-director has been experiencing just that since the release of his … Read more
Less than three hours after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar with its epicentre in the Sagaing region in late March, seven persons were killed in an airstrike by the military junta that rules the country in Naungcho in northern Shan State. There were also reports of airstrikes in Chaung-U township in the north-western Sagaing … Read more
India has made impressive gains in adapting aquaculture for the nutritional demands of its population. It is the third largest producer overall, ranking second in the production of prawns. Andhra Pradesh is by far the largest producer, with other West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Odisha making sizeable contributions along with Gujarat. Dietary preferences too have … Read more
A flamboyance of flamingos at the Point Calimere (Kodiyakarai) wildlife sanctuary in Nagapattinam district. Special Arrangement | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT Tamil Nadu is among three States taking part in a first-of-its-kind study led by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to build a surveillance model for tracking zoonotic diseases in increased bird-human interaction … Read more
The shingles vaccine reduced the probability of new dementia diagnoses by around one-fifth over seven years, according to a large-scale study of a population in Wales, UK. The results were published in Nature. This finding suggests that the vaccine could be a cost-effective strategy for preventing or delaying dementia. However, further research is needed to determine whether … Read more
Bats do not fatally crash into each other every night, even in colonies of hundreds of thousands of them, squeezing out of caves to forage. Bats perceive their world mostly through echolocation. Many bats echolocate at once when a whole colony emerges from a cave. As a result, the calls of others are drowned out. … Read more
Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a rare and aggressive form of leukemia, a cancer that affects blood cells. It is caused by a genetic mutation where two genes, PML and RARA, mistakenly fuse together. The fusion of the two genes leads to the production of fewer white blood cells and platelets, which reduce the body’s … Read more
After the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025 was passed in the Rajya Sabha and subsequently challenged in the Supreme Court, debates have intensified around its legal and political implications. While much of the discourse has focused on property rights and governance, the Bill also affects the administration of madrassas and the broader ecosystem of education of … Read more