Research Matters caught up with Dr M D Madhusudan, one of the researchers involved in developing a high-resolution map of Open Natural Ecosystems (ONEs) in India, to gain insights into their work. Here are excerpts from the interview.

An interesting year this one, with the world locked in and a virus reigning our lives. Nevertheless, there was no dearth of news in science. There was a considerable quantum of studies being reported even outside the realm of the rampant COVID-19 research. At Research Matters, we have tried our best to cover the most interesting stories in the Indian scene and listed below are our most popular stories this year. Take a look.

Today is National Science Day—a day to celebrate the spirit of science and scientific temper across the county. It is a day to commemorate Sir C V Raman’s discovery of the Raman effect. This year, the theme of National Science Day is ‘Women in Science’, celebrating the contributions of women scientists to the field of science in India.

2019 was an exciting year for science as ever. We have collated the top ten stories that was popular on Research Matters in 2019. These were the ones that garnered most views because of readers like you. We would like to thank you for patronage and look forward to your support in the years to come.

From the 5th of November 2019 to the 8th, India saw one of its extravagant science events, the India International Science Festival, organised in Kolkata. The event was organised by the Ministry of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Government of India, in association with Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA) and hosted many conferences, conclaves and exhibitions aimed at anyone enthusiastic about science. Although this was the fifth edition of the science festival, it was the first time a dedicated Science and Technology Media Conclave was held as a part of IISF—a move that had many science communicators, writers and journalists enthused. It was spread over two days, the 6th and 7th of November, at the legendary Bose Institute.

An Indian scientific conference pressed for progress towards gender equity in science. The recommendations, which emerged from the discussions, have been forwarded to the Department of Science, Government of India.

Every year, the 5th of June is observed as the World Environment Day to “encourage worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment”. For 2019, the theme is ‘Air Pollution’, and the host country is China. On this occasion, Research Matters caught up with three leading scientists from the country that are actively pursuing research on different aspects of air pollution. The three researchers, Prof. A R Ravishankara, Prof. S K Satheesh and Prof. Navakanta Bhat shared their work and thoughts on the ‘burning’ problem of air pollution.

Nearly a century ago, Edwin Hubble, an American Astronomer, made the surprising observation that galaxies are moving apart, and that galaxies farther away from us are moving faster than nearby galaxies. With this, he showed us that the Universe is expanding. Towards the end of the last century, scientists discovered something even more surprising. When they more carefully studied how fast nearer and farther galaxies are moving away from us, they found that the Universe is not just expanding, but that the rate of expansion is increasing.

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay show us how basic research is helping India inch closer to the dream of hypersonic travel.

Indian-born Nobel Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan had once called the Indian Science Congress a “circus”. There aren’t many grounds to dispute the label following the most recent events.