Have you ever considered the brain as a kingdom? The rulers of the kingdom are the brain cells, viz., neurons. But the brain is not occupied by neurons only; half of it is occupied by housekeeping and army cells called glia. There are two major brain warriors – microglia and astrocytes. They are always busy …
“I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix.” While we can all agree that our famous inhabitant of 221-B Baker Street is a fan of exaggeration, the sentiment is not entirely invalid. The same brain that forms the window to our senses and perception allows Sherlock to keenly observe and …
Why A Good Idea Must Evolve To Survive Thanks to the Green Revolution, there are over 7 billion of us today. We, humans, have been farming for the last 10,000 years. But we never experienced such a huge surge in population until the Green Revolution. We make enough food to feed our entire human …
So, what would we have without Taxonomy? We’d have… Chaos. ~ Dr Paul Wilkin Plant Taxonomist Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew What chaos? Well here’s a glimpse. Let’s start with a common problem faced in the agriculture industry year after year: Pests. How would the absence of taxonomy make any difference here? Take a look: …
If I tell you that a mammal has a social life of an insect, the cold-bloodedness of a reptile, and the metabolism of a plant, you would probably suggest me a psychiatrist. But let me tell you this is true. Bald and buck-toothed, naked mole rats may not fit into the pretty animals’ list, but …
Just ranking above the population of anti-vaxxers around the world, water is the most abundantly found element on the Earth. Practically interwoven with every functional living being, we rely on water in countless ways. (We would be more than happy to help you bust some Covid-19 vaccine-related myths if you fall in the anti-vaxxer category, …
A giant mountain looming over you, threatening to spew out unimaginably hot lava and tons of ash any moment; would you call such a place home? After hearing the tales of Pompeii, volcanoes don’t appear to be the fuzzy, comfortable and warm home you always imagine for yourself (Okay, wait, they surely fulfil the …
Well, to begin with, I want to share with you a very spooky incident from my life. One night, I was preparing for my final exam and suddenly, there was a huge bang on a locked door in front of my room. To set the image of the situation, I was on the 1st floor …
Times have become grim again. It feels like we are stuck in a never-ending loop. Most of us are slightly out of the practice of our ‘Work From Home’ routine, and going back to a restricted routine would be similar to travelling back to square one. Even though the vaccine drive had started to become …
“Mantella insularis: An adventurous naturalist’s frog prince!” A new species of mantellid frog has been described by a naturalist Dr. Athena Charles Wallace at Nosy Mangabe, an uninhabited island in Madagascar. . . . From brightly coloured frogs to iridescent-coated oysters, new species are discovered and described every day! This process of analysing whether an …
