Columns

• Life (sciences) in context – II: On living ‘becomings’

  

  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.

  Posted on Jun 24, 2024 in Science History, Research & Education

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• Life (sciences) in context – I: On living ‘beings’

  

  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.

  Posted on Jun 18, 2024 in Science History, Research & Education

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• Can Jeewanu particles provide some clues about the origins of life?

  

  In the intriguing world of Science Gallery Bengaluru’s exhibition, CARBON, an ongoing experiment by researchers from the Simons Centre for the Study of Living Machines at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru, broadly relates to the question of the origins of life from non-living sub-components. Jīvāṇu, as this exhibit is named, is a replicative study based on a previous study by Indian researchers to determine whether simple chemicals can form the building blocks of life, thereby giving rise to a precursor of living cells.

  Posted on Oct 02, 2023 in Outreach, Science History & Events

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• The history and science of mask-wearing

  

  Masks are one of our simplest, cheapest and most effective allies in the war against COVID-19. In this article, Madhuri looks back at the hundred-year-old history of using masks to prevent plagues and pandemics and the science behind what makes them so strategically important as a public health tool.

  Posted on Jun 08, 2020 in Health & Medicine, COVID-19 & Science History

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• Science vs pseudoscience: euphoria and illusion

  

  Aravindhan Vivekanandhan is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Genetics, University of Madras. In this opinion piece, he discusses the damaging consequences that may result when analogies turn into claims and pseudoscientific statements are put forward in national scientific forums.

  Posted on Feb 06, 2019 in Policy & Science History

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• Celebrating a hundred years of bacteriophages

  

  Sankar Adhya from NIH, speaking at a special session on 100 years of phage discovery, gives a historical overview of “the discoveries and personalities in bacteriophage research”.

  Posted on Jan 02, 2016 in Microbiology & Science History

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• Discoveries and disputes: the beginnings of bacteriophage research

  

  Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, were discovered a 100 years ago. Aswin Sai Narain Seshasayee writes about the initial discovery and some of the conflicts surrounding it.

  Posted on Dec 04, 2015 in Microbiology & Science History

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