Why do we see certain species of animals in one place while they are absent in the neighbouring regions? How do species inhabit remote islands? Questions like these are central to our understanding of evolution and speciation. Exploring these question in a Sri Lankan context, scientists from National Centre for Biological sciences and University of Colombo studied how a two species of small passerine birds colonized the island nation. Through phenotypic and genotypic analysis they could show that not all Sri Lankan wildlife is a subset of Indian wildlife.

India as a nation is no stranger to the epidemic of diabetes. Most of us would know of someone in our extended group of family and friends, who is suffering from this ‘silent killer’ disease.

Cells are the building blocks of life and have witnessed many exciting phases of evolution. Over this period, since the beginning of life several million years ago, the functionalities of the cell and its organelles have become sophisticated. Cells have also evolved smarter ways to address common challenges and one of them is the acidification of the enzymes found inside cells. While this acidic environment serves many well known functions, a new study shares an interesting hypothesis on the reason behind the acidic pH -- detecting leaks in the cell. Since synthesis of enzymes is an expensive process, the study argues that cells use the acidic medium to detect possible leaks, thus saving energy in the process.