This article is the second part of the series ‘The How and the Why: Interpreting Scientific Studies’, brought to you by Research Matters. The series focuses on the method of scientific studies, including emphasising the importance of meta-analyses, the repercussions of the replication crisis and the inclusion of ethics in experimental biology. We hope this series will better enable our readers to understand and evaluate scientific research they are interested in and those that could impact their lives.

In a recent study, researchers at the Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru, have used a technique known as spin noise spectroscopy to probe the atomic, magnetic and sub-atomic properties of rubidium vapour. 

Researchers from IISc, Bengaluru and IBM Research-India have developed a machine learning-based technique to manage the demand and supply of power in a network of microgrids while maximising profit. Since such local grids can run on renewable sources of energy instead of relying on fossil fuels, they also reduce carbon emissions and are sustainable.

An international collaboration of researchers have studied the trends in tobacco use in China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and India. The study, which included a million participants, is a meta-analysis of 20 cohort studies in these countries that collected data on tobacco habits from representative individuals above 35 years of age. The results reveal region–specific tobacco smoking patterns and the resulting mortality.

Researchers at IIT Delhi develop a portable hardware system to detect malaria, tuberculosis, intestinal parasites and cervical cancer.

Human hair texture is extremely varied—from poker straight to twistedly tangled—and although we understand some of the biology behind straight hair, curly hair is a bit of an enigma. It’s not just biology that’s involved here, but interestingly some physics too.

A team of Indian scientists, working with collaborators from Singapore, Australia and France, have shown how clusters of circulating tumour cells—cancer cells that have sloughed off the tumour and are circulating in the blood—could help monitor the response to cancer treatments and predict a patient's survival chances using a simple blood test. 

Researchers from the Desert Research Institute, USA and Urban Emissions, New Delhi, India, have investigated the emission levels of multiple pollutants in twenty Indian cities, other than Delhi.

Researchers from Gubbi Labs, Bengaluru and ATREE, Bengaluru, have archived the regeneration of forests across an eleven year timespan in the Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu.

Researchers from IISc, Bengaluru, have investigated whether renewable energy sources and their large-scale integration into the electricity grid can help transition our electricity system into a ‘clean energy’ system.