Two Russian institutes—A.N.Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution and Moscow State Agricultural University, and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, India, have compared the chemical contents of the faecal matter of the Amur and Bengal tigers to examine the stress levels of these tigers in India and Russia.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, have developed a biomolecule-based fertiliser that can help address the drawbacks of chemical fertilisers. 

A multi-national team of scientists spanning Asia, Europe, South America and Australasia, including researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, have surveyed nearly 17,000 people across 39 countries to understand why interpersonal relationships differ between societies.

Do you remember poking a plant that quickly closed its leaves, seemed to droop and shy away? An introvert among plants and a favourite among all of us, the touch-me-not or chuimui in Hindi, is aptly named Mimosa pudica by scientists, where pudica is Latin for shy or chaste. We have all enjoyed seeing it fall asleep; probably wondering what happened inside the plant and perhaps waiting with curiosity for it to reopen!

On April 26 2019, scientists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo Interferometer detected gravitational waves from a possible black hole-neutron star collision thought to have taken place 1.2 billion light years away. The event was observed by both LIGO observatories, based in Louisiana and Washington state in the USA, and the Virgo facility based in the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) in Italy.

Melting glaciers, rising sea levels and the threat to biodiversity are some of the conspicuous impacts of global warming. However, the repercussions of this warming are multifaceted and complex than what we understand today.

Researchers from IISER, Tirupati, ATREE, Bengaluru, Hume Centre for Ecology and Wildlife Biology, Kerala and The Gandhigram Rural Institute, Tamil Nadu, studied the factors responsible for the deleterious effects on the Shola grasslands of the Western Ghats.

SLC-IT, along with researchers from Panthera, New York, USA, have attempted to model the conditions for a suitable habitat for snow leopards in Ladakh. Known as the ‘snow leopard capital of the world’, Ladakh is thought to harbour 60% of the snow leopard population in India. In this first-of-its-kind study, they have used data from direct observations and camera traps.

Researchers from IISc studied whether urban environments adversely affect the health and fitness of urban lizards.

Jumping spider Anarrhotus sp. found to build an orb-web as a nocturnal retreat, unusual for a spider from the Salticidae family.