Research Matters

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.

Alzheimer's affects a large section of our aged population. Scientists from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, shed some light on how the disease can be identified in its early stages. 

A new study conducted by Pallavi Sinha and group from Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University and Boston Medical Centre has concluded that behavioral factors, like alcohol consumption and smoking, and clinical factors, like previous anti tubercular treatment, increases the risk of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB).

For the first time ever, scientists from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research, Pune uncover the process of transport of fats in the body.

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.

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.

Tuberculosis(TB) has claimed 1.8 million human lives globally according to World Health Organization, in 2015. Despite Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, the only available vaccine for TB, currently one-third of the world is latently infected with TB due to the incompetence of BCG in adults against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria responsible for TB.

Researchers from Anna University, Chennai use a microwave-based remote sensing technique to assess changes in Kolkata’s land subsidence for the years 2003, 2007 and 2011. Their resuls indicate that the city might in fact be slowly sinking.

The 28th of February every year is celebrated across the country as ‘National Science Day’ to commemorate the discovery of ‘Raman effect’ by Sir C V Raman. About 90 years ago, Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, had a ‘eureka moment’ when he discovered how light scattered when it travelled in a transparent medium. After two years, this discovery won India her first Nobel Prize in Physics, for a work that was carried out entirely in India.

Dr. Attreyee Ghosh is a solid earth geophysicist at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, talks about the advancements made in science in the recent years and how these have helped us in understanding our planet better.