From their first appearance on the academic scene as a tool for dissection to making it into mainstream medicine and cosmetics in the recent years, microneedles have an array of applications. Dr.Venuganti and a team of researchers from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Hyderabad and the US Food and Drug Administration, recount the journey microneedles have made through the years and the range of possible applications in the future.

An international team of scientists from University of Glasgow, UK, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, Institute of Solar Terrestrial Physics, Russia, West Kentucky University, USA, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ukraine and Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research (IISER)- Pune, India have proposed a novel method to accurately study radio observations of the sun.

Graphene is a form of carbon, just like diamond and graphite. It is made of a honeycomb shaped sheet of single layer of carbon atoms. Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science and University of Alabama have studied this material for its property of conducting electricity. Their study indicates that electrons can flow easily on the edges of graphene making it a very good conductor of electricity. 

A team, including scientists from University of California, Santa Barbara, USA and Indian Institute of Technology -Kanpur, have developed a new technique to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide produced while making hydrogen. The new method not only reduces the amount of greenhouse gases, but also allows for the reuse of carbon that is produced in the reaction.

The Amazon river is the largest river system in the world, discharging huge volumes of fresh water into the ocean. Scientists from the Center for Atmospheric and Oceanic sciences have explored what would be the effect of the reduction in the Amazon river’s runoff into the ocean. The scientists demonstrate the wide ranging climatic changes that can occur if the river discharges lesser water into the Atlantic ocean.

In a first, scientists from Indian Institute of Technology Ropar (IIT RPR), Rupnagar, University of Edinburgh and Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kgp) have demonstrated a phenomenon called ‘inverse Marangoni effect’ using nanodroplets of pure water.

When energy is supplied to a fluid, it flows. As this energy is increased the flow becomes turbulent. If the energy is provided through heat, we see buoyancy driven turbulence, where the hotter fluid rises to the top and colder fluid moves to the bottom. A conjecture that explained such buoyancy driven turbulent flows may now be overturned. New insights gained in a study using one the world’s most powerful supercomputer could help better explain such flows. 

Scientists from the National Institute of Plant Genome Research have identified a protein that helps bacteria consume fungi.

Bacteria are single cellular life forms that have been on the Earth for approximately 3.5 billion years. In all their time on Earth they have adapted to different climates and region, interacting with all other life forms that subsequently evolved on the planet.

Many important process in the body require the movement of cells. From forming our fingers during the development of an embryo to healing wounds in adults, all are possible due to cell movement. But how does cell know in what direction it should move? A collaborative study from Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, USA comprising researchers from NCBS Bangalore, National Institutes of Health and Harvard Medical School, USA, find strong evidence for the ‘cytoskeletal force model’, which is one way of explaining how cells move.

A galaxy supercluster is the largest known structure in the Universe, made of dozens of galaxy clusters, themselves containing thousands of galaxies. The Saraswati Supercluster, discovered this year by a team of Indian scientists, is the largest known galaxy cluster today. It extends over 650 million light years across and weighs more than 20 billion suns would. We caught up with Prof. Joydeep Bagchi, who led the team that discovered Saraswati Supercluster, for a chat about the importance and implications of the discovery.