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Our world is changing - too much and too fast. Species are moving into higher latitudes and altitudes, often carrying new infectious agents with them. As climate changes, vectors of infectious diseases such as mosquitoes, often find themselves in excellent breeding environmental conditions for extended periods of time. They thrive in these altered climatic conditions, and so do the diseases they carry. Many of these vectors infect wild populations of birds. Many aspects influence disease transmission in birds - evolutionary history of the species, whether it is a migratory or non-migratory species, whether it evolved in isolation (such as on an island) or the mainland (where it was exposed to many parasites), the presence and diversity of vectors (mosquitoes and other arthropods) in its habitat, the structure and composition of the forest it inhabits, and climatic variables that influence bird migration and vector breeding.

A variety of robots are available today and each having their own, unique applications. However achieving an efficient means of communication with these robots is still problematic. It is difficult for a robot to accurately analyse and follow voice commands given by its master.

Some bacteria possess an interesting ability of incorporating a new piece of DNA from the outside.This new DNA might come from its surroundings, other bacteria or even invading virus and might help in fostering genomic diversity. In fact, scientists now believe that this phenomenonis much more common than previously thought. However, incorporating a viral DNA may be harmful where the viruses utilize every opportunity to sneak into a bacterium and, hijack its machinery to replicate the viral DNA. Hence, to protect themselves, bacteria have evolved a mechanism called restriction modification system. And yet, it could work for the advantage of the bacterium sometimes to restrain this system and usher in new foreign DNA that might contribute to its own genomic diversity.

“Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” - so goes the famous quote from the highly acclaimed movie, the Dead Poet Society. While this may be the ultimate secret to a happy life, our academic institutions and mindsets often ignore Arts & Humanities.

A team of scientists from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore have recently demonstrated the self assembly of a 2-D array of high aspect ratio, electrically conductive sharp tips fabricated on a soft, stretchable and bendable material by using capillary forces. The patented technology was developed by Ganapathy Saravanavel, Karthik Raghunandan and Prof. Sanjiv Sambandan at the Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics at IISc.

A collaborative study conducted by researchers at the Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, has analyzed DNA samples of Indian families to study brain diseases. Headed by Dr. Arun Kumar from IISc and Dr. P. S. Bindu from NIMHANS, it is the first report on the genetic analysis of 22 Indian families with neurodegenerative diseases caused by alterations in a specific gene called PLA26G.

In December 2015, Chennai witnessed massive floods killing about 400 people and displacing thousands.

The eyes and the hands work together as a team for most of the daily tasks we perform. When we pick up the morning coffee, or when we drive to work, our brains are constantly commandeering our eye and hand systems to bring about smooth, coordinated movements. We often do not consciously compute the steps required to bring them about. However, when the coordination is disrupted, even the simplest of tasks like picking up a book prove to be extremely challenging. How does the brain achieve efficient eye-hand coordination? A recent study from Prof. Aditya Murthy’s laboratory at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, explores this critical question and suggests a framework to understand the control mechanisms of coordinated eye-hand movements.

Certain pathogenic bacteria have adopted a unique ‘style’ of killing its victim by boring nanoscale holes into its cellular membrane. The pore-forming toxins (PFTs) released by these bacteria rapidly puncture the target cell membrane, and the cell leaks to death in a process known as apoptosis. Scientists across the globe have been actively working on designing various nanoscale (1-100 nanometers) blockers to plug these pores and prevent cell damage. Recently, a group of scientists from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, have suggested an effective nanoscale blocker made up of Polyamido-amine (PAMAM) dendrimers, a synthetic polymer.

People had never thought that Gastritis in the stomach was caused by a bacterium, never believed it could be, so much so that one of the two scientists Barry Marshall and Robin Warren had to drink a cupful of Helicobacter pylori culture to show that he developed gastritis! They were later awarded a noble prize for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer.