Six researchers under the age of 40 recognized for their seminal contributions across diverse fields.

Ecology

24 Mar 2018

Doing our dirty jobs of clearing animal carcass for generations, extraordinary scavenging birds of prey, the vultures, deserve our gratitude and attention. Associated with goddesses in Egyptian mythology and revered hero in Indian mythology as Jatayu who sacrificed himself to save Sita, and once commonly seen; today, most species of vultures face extinction worldwide. Four out of nine species of vulture in India are critically endangered; it is now crucial to understand this often overlooked ecologically important bird.

Bengaluru
16 Mar 2018

How many times have you fed moneys by the roadside? Are you changing the behaviour of the monkey or is it manipulating your behaviour for food? New  study from Researchers at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment along with researchers from the National Institute of Advanced Sciences gives reasons to not feed the monkeys.

Bengaluru
9 Mar 2018

Some details of the reproductive journey of a fig wasp, to find a suitable tree and lay eggs while simultaneously pollinate it in the process are known. In a recent study, scientists from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, fill in the gaps in our knowledge about this fascinating journey.

Delhi
7 Mar 2018

The Western Ghats in India and Sri Lanka are well known biodiversity hotspots, with a rich diversity of amphibian species. Both these regions have high density of amphibian endemism, which means that many of the species of amphibians found here are found nowhere else on Earth. Over 85% of amphibian species found in Sri Lanka are endemic, making this island nation have the highest amphibian endemism in Asia.

Bengaluru
5 Mar 2018

Rampant sand mining over the decades in India and many parts Asia has led to eroding coastlines and degraded waterways in much of the continent. Christina Larson, a journalist from Kihim, India has looked the severe ecological damage caused by unbridled epidemic of illegal sand mining.

Bengaluru
5 Mar 2018

The forest owlet (Heteroglaux blewitti), an owl endemic to the forests of Central India, has been the centre of a century-old debate among ornithologists. Its classification into the particular genera is at the stem of this debate. Now, a new study by researchers, involving genetic analysis of the owl’s genome, may put an end to this debate forever.

Bengaluru
23 Feb 2018

Termites are known to be efficient farmers who farm a kind of fungus in their colonies to digest the wood that they feed. Scientists from the Indian institute of Science, Bangalore and École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Montpellier, Montpellier, France, explore whether the termites prefer a certain species of fungus and if they can identify weed fungi and remove them.

Bengaluru
20 Feb 2018

Whales are magnificent creatures. Not only are they the some of the largest mammals on the planet, they also have the longest mammal migrations. Why and how do whales migrate? And what are some of the challenges they face on the way?