For decades, the accepted explanation for the origins of the Japanese people was relatively straightforward. Modern Japanese populations were understood to descend from two major ancestral groups: the Jomon, ancient hunter-gatherers who inhabited the Japanese archipelago for thousands of years, and the Yayoi, migrants from continental East Asia who arrived bringing rice farming, new technologies,…
In a remote stretch of Ethiopia’s Afar Rift, something quietly unsettling has begun to emerge from the ground. Fragments of bone, scattered within ancient sediments, are being studied for what they might represent rather than what they obviously are. Among them are remains attributed to early Homo sapiens, dated to around 100,000 years ago, and…
Albert Bandura (Image: Wikipedia) Some quotes remain relevant because human nature rarely changes as much as people think it does. Societies evolve. Technology changes rapidly. Entire industries disappear and new ones emerge. Yet human behaviour often repeats the same patterns generation after generation, especially when responsibility becomes shared among large groups of people. That is…
Chandrayaan-2 finds strong evidence for ice in ‘doubly-shadowed’ lunar craters BENGALURU: Scientists working with India’s Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft have discovered strong evidence of ice buried beneath the floor of the Moon’s south pole region in “doubly-shadowed” craters, a finding that could prove critical for future human missions to the lunar surface.The discovery, published this week in…
Every drop of blood in your body is doing something ancient. It is carrying oxygen, fighting infections, clotting wounds, and patrolling for threats, a set of tasks so fundamental to animal life that nearly every creature with a backbone does some version of the same thing. But where did blood cells come from in the…
Image: European Southern Observatory Close to the centre of our galaxy, there exists an immense molecular cloud known as Sagittarius B2. This has been a subject of interest among scientists due to its peculiar composition, which includes chemicals capable of giving it the aroma of rum and the taste of raspberries. The presence of ethyl…
The US space agency NASA has sped up the efforts to construct the Artemis Era Moon Base with the objective of developing an enduring manned habitat at the moon’s south pole. This comes after NASA unveiled new lunar rover deals, cargo landers, robotic missions, and even the building of facilities meant to aid astronauts who…
Indian conservationists Parveen Shaikh and Barkha Subba have won the prestigious Whitley Awards 2026, widely known as the ‘Green Oscars’, for their efforts to protect endangered species and fragile ecosystems in India. The award, presented by the UK-based Whitley Fund for Nature, honours grassroots conservation leaders from the Global South. Shaikh was recognised for saving…
Chinese researchers have unveiled a breakthrough experimental therapy that could one day protect humans from the deadly effects of nuclear radiation exposure. The study, published in the journal Cell Death and Differentiation, showed that mice exposed to harmful levels of ionising radiation survived at dramatically higher rates after scientists disabled a key protein pathway linked…
The capacity of solar panels fitted on campervans and off-grid vans is normally expected to be lower compared to what is advertised under real-world circumstances. However, some users of these vehicles have recorded cases where the capacity of solar panels exceeds their usual capacity due to unusually favourable weather. The reasons why some solar panels…