Contrary to popular belief, mathematics can be an important ally in our battle against pandemics. Here, we discuss some of the early mathematical models of disease transmission, as well as more modern versions that rely on computer-based simulations and factor in complex parameters. Insights gained from such approaches can be used to inform policy decisions related to novel diseases like COVID-19.

Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Neural Networks - these words have become a part of our day-to-day lexicon over the last few years. Scientists throughout India have started employing machine learning techniques in fields as diverse as biomedical diagnostics and wildlife conservation. In this article, we explore the critical question - Why now? Why has the machine learning boom waited until this last decade to come into its own?

In this next article in our series on interdisciplinarity, we explore how a physicist and biologist duo (Ambarish Ghosh, Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore and Deepak Saini, Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics, IISc, Bangalore) combined their expertise to create a nanomotor system that can be precisely and accurately manoeuvred inside biological cells.

In a recently published study, Sridharan et al. developed a model that explains why it is that when superior colliculus in the brain goes offline, that the ability to use incoming sensory information to make behavioural decisions is severely compromised.

A group of scientists—past and present members of Evolutionary and Organismal Biology Unit of JNCASR—get vocal about a conceptual debate in evolutionary biology.