The IISER Kolkata Alumni Association's Short Summer Courses (SSC) programme fills gaps in traditional science education by bringing together Indian university students and early-career researchers from around the world. In July 2025, SSC hopes to promote academic innovation and democratise scientific knowledge throughout India by offering engaging, state-of-the-art courses.

Are we living ‘beings’? Or are we living ‘becomings’—constantly changing due to life processes occurring across levels of time and space? In the second (and final) part of this article series, Vasudev Menon, an Assistant Professor of Biology and Performing Arts (Theatre) at the Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts, explains the worldview held by a school of philosophers that is central to understand the diversity and dynamicity of our biosphere.

What is the living world made up of? In a series of two articles, Vasudev Menon, an Assistant Professor of Biology and Performing Arts (Theatre) at the Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts, Pune, contrasts the way two philosophical views answer this question. He opines that understanding these views would help students place what they study in the ‘life sciences’ in context. This article is the first part of the two-part series.

Food spoilage is covered in undergraduate biology courses with limited scope for practical experience. This article describes a simple module that not only helps students explore the topic experimentally but also develop a deeper understanding of various scientific concepts and gain experience in design thinking.

A mention of 'neuroscience' might stir up thoughts of cutting-edge brain scanning and imaging techniques and other complex, expensive and highly specialized procedures. However, such techniques might be inaccessible to undergraduate students and educators of basic sciences due to financial constraints or challenges of technical training. This article describes a simple, budget-friendly assay that can be used in such a setting.