DART Hits Bulls-Eye!

ONE of the more striking (pardon the pun!) of recent space projects came to the first stage of fruition on September 26, 2022 when a small spacecraft crashed into an asteroid 11 million kilometers away from Earth. The US National Aeronautics and Space Agency’s (NASA) Double Asteroid Redirection Test or DART sought to deliberately hit the small asteroid Dimorphos with the objective of knocking it off its usual trajectory in a technology demonstration that could, someday, be used to actually deflect an asteroid from a collision course with Earth.

Queen Elizabeth II: The Apology that Never Came

HOW should we remember Queen Elizabeth II and her 70 years on the British throne? A number of people have reacted to the glorification of her rule, pointing out the British Royals' direct connection to the slave trade, Britain's colonial massacres, and its loot from the colonies. Britain's wealth was built on the blood and sweat of people who lost their land and homes and are today poor countries.

Aircraft Carrier Vikrant and Self-Reliance

INDIA’S first indigenously built aircraft carrier, named INS Vikrant and assigned the same ensign number R-11 as its illustrious predecessor, was commissioned and joined service with the Indian Navy on September 2, 2022 at a ceremony in Kochi in the presence of the prime minister and defence minister. Every Indian must of course be proud of this achievement which, with all the many hurdles it has overcome, has taken 17 long years for fruition, spanning the terms of many governments.

When Market Fundamentalism Overcomes Common Sense: The Myth of Electricity Markets

THE price of electricity has risen astronomically in Europe over the last two years: by four times over the previous year and ten times over the last two years. The European Union (EU) has tried to claim that this rise in prices is due to the increase in the price of gas in the international market and Russia not supplying enough gas.

The Game of Nuclear Chicken in Zaporozhye

THE Zaporozhye (also spelt as Zaporizhzhia) Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) has become a focal point in the Ukraine war, as any major nuclear incident there risks the release of radioactivity over a vast area. In such an accident, not only Ukraine but large parts of Europe could face radioactive contamination and much higher rates of cancer and other diseases.

Electricity Bill: An Aggressive Push to an Old Agenda

THE Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022, introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 8, 2022, is yet again another attempt to privatise electricity distribution, reduce subsidies, and leave India's poorest to the caprices of the market. Such attempts to amend the Electricity Act of 2003 were made in 2014, 2020 and again in 2021. It now has reappeared in new clothes in 2022.

US-China Chip War Continues

AS the tension between the US and China mounts as a fall-out of Nancy Pelosi's provocative Taiwan visit, the technology war between the two is also taking a new turn. Both houses in the US Congress have approved a $280 billion plan – The Chips and Science Act – to boost US chip manufacturing. Currently, 75 per cent of chip manufacturing in the world takes place in East Asia, centred around Taiwan, South Korea and China.

Two Hundred Years of Mendel’s Genetic Revolution And the Fight against Scientific Racism

IN July this year, the world is celebrating 200 years of Gregor Mendel's birth, widely accepted as the father of genetics. His experiments with peas, published in 1866 as Experiments in Plant Hybridisation, identified dominant and recessive traits and how recessive traits would reappear in future generations and in what proportion. Nevertheless, it was to lie unacknowledged and ignored till three other biologists replicated his work in 1900.

Assault on Environment Regulations Continues

THE BJP government’s relentless assault on environmental regulations, and therefore on the environment itself, so as to serve the interests of corporates and their industrial, infrastructure and commercial projects, continues unabated.

Webb Telescope Opens a New Window in the Sky

THE new Webb telescope has already shown that NASA's $10-billion investment and 26 years finally is delivering its promise: pictures of the cosmos at depth, in detail and quality far beyond what we currently have. The first set of images has captivated the general public, while the astrophysicists are drooling at the details and the spectra of the distant objects, telling us what they actually are.

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