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The Curious Zookeeper of Extraordinary Organisms

In his backyard in Atlanta,Saad Bhamla, professor of chemical and biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, observed the glassy sharpshooter with interest. The lightweight insect was peeing for hours in droplets and proceeded to super-propel them into the distance. A high-speed camera would reveal...

The Madras Hedgehog

For the longest time, I thought hedgehogs were simply critters from British children’s books. But three different species of hedgehogs — living, breathing mammals — inhabit the Indian subcontinent alone. Of these, we know very little about the Madras Hedgehog (Paraechinus nudiventris), says Dr. Brawin Kumar,...

Eat, Sleep, and Move Right

Our obsession with digital screens is depriving us of sleep and hurting our health. Study after study shows that we are staying up till late, glued to our gadgets, which in turn leads to another unhealthy habit: night-time snacking. “Even healthy food eaten at this...

Flat lay conceptual colourful various uncooked vegan food and hand holding frying pan on rustic wooden background. Healthy eating food concept still life.

Make Home Cooking a Habit — It’s good for you

Physician-chef Rani Polak explains why clinicians should learn cooking skills—and teach them to patients. Midway through medical school in Jerusalem, Rani Polak had doubts about his chosen path. He decided to quit and pursue a different passion, cooking, at Le Cordon Bleu academy in Sydney....

3D printed pills

Recently, the Food and Drug Administration approved the manufacture of the world’s first 3D printed pill Spritam, a reformulation of the anti-epileptic seizure drug levetiracetam. In the late 1980s, Michael Cima, professor of Materials Science and Engineering, along with fellow MIT professor Emanuel Sachs invented the...

A single escaped organism is all it’ll take…

Evolutionary engineer Kevin Esvelt, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, works with gene drives, engineered bits of DNA that can cause a mutation to become heritable all the time. He calls for researchers to create and use safe lab procedures while working with...