WINTER is here, bringing with it a heavy pall of pollutant laden smog over Delhi, and on most of northern India along the Indo-Gangetic plains. During October-February, and especially during the peak pollution months of November-December, governments at the Centre and in Delhi, as well as the media and even the Supreme Court, are suddenly abuzz with policy statements, articles and commentary about air pollution and what needs to be done. From time to time, different scapegoats have been targeted as being primarily responsible, and silver bullet “solutions” are offerred.

MICHAEL BURRY, the investor made famous by the movie The Big Short after correctly predicting the 2008 housing collapse, is in the news again. Nearly twenty years ago, he warned that the US mortgage boom, built on weak loans, creative accounting and financial engineering, was bound to collapse. The American establishment dismissed him until the crash made his bets against the housing boom both immensely profitable and impossible to ignore. Now he has turned his attention to the artificial intelligence sector.

SRIDHAR Vembu, known for the Zoho software and Arattai social media platforms which are being pushed by the ruling dispensation, is also known for his back-to-the-future traditionalist ideas.He recently made the controversial and unsubstantiated claim that childhood vaccines lead to autism. His claim, based on an unreviewed report from the McCullough Foundation, have understandably sparked controversy since  it is clearly based on false information and ignores decades of thorough scientific research that unequivocally shows that vaccines are efficacious, safe and do not cause autism.

ON October 6, the announcement of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine brought three scientists who had discovered the mechanism of immune system restraint to the attention of the world. Shimon Sakaguchi of Japan, along with Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell of the United States, shared the award. Their findings identified a group of guardian cells that maintain peace within the body, preventing our immune system from attacking our own cells.

As of 5 OctoberTwenty children (as of 8th Oct) have died in Madhya Pradesh (MP) and 3 in Rajasthan, due to diethylene glycol (DEG) contamination in cough syrup. In the Chhindwara district of MP, 16 children lost their lives after being given cough syrup Coldrif, manufactured by Sresan Pharmaceuticals.