BY R RAMACHANDRAN-Frontline

More stories by this author

At a cremation ground in New Delhi on April 26, 2021, family members carrying the body of a relative who succumbed to COVID-19.

Central government rejects WHO’s estimate of India's COVID deaths

The Indian government has rejected outright the WHO estimate that COVID-19 caused 4.7 million additional deaths in the country in 2020-21 and question

R. Ramachandran

The CDF detector, one of the two detectors placed at different points around the six-kilometre ring of the Tevatron particle accelerator at Fermilab, Illinois, U.S. This photograph was taken during its installation in 2001.

W-boson appears to be heavier than predicted by the Standard Model

The result of a decade-long analysis of millions of archived particle collision events reveals that the W boson may be significantly heavier than pred

R. Ramachandran

Figure 1a: A bar magnet and its dipole magnetic field.

Scientists’ search for the elusive magnetic monopole

While theories such as the grand unified theories (GUTs), which unify electromagnetism, nuclear forces and gravity in one framework, predict the exist

R. Ramachandran

Fig. 1: A photo grab of the video shot of the record fusion energy output pulse

The JET nuclear fusion project makes a game-changing breakthrough

In December, the JET fusion energy project broke the 24-year-old record of energy output achieved by nuclear fusion. This has laid the foundation for

R. Ramachandran

People over 50 years old lining up to receive a booster dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico, on January 24. The results of the Munich study show the exceptional benefit of the booster shot for infection-naive individuals or two shots in convalescents (with the appropriate time gap) to counteract VOCs with high immune-escape potential such as Omicron.

Three separate and spaced exposures to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein confers high immune protection, say scientists in two studies

The key finding of two foreign cohort studies seems to imply that three separate and spaced exposures to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein—either from thre

R. Ramachandran

In the Old Washermanpet area of Chennai on January 12, people shopping for the Pongal festival.

Omicron surge: Understanding the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India

Although India and the world at large are experiencing the Omicron-fuelled wave of the pandemic to varying degrees, it is still not possible to say wh

R. Ramachandran

People wearing face masks featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi to celebrate the completion of 1 billion vaccine doses, in Ahmedabad on October 24.

Grand cover-up: The Narendra Modi government's celebration of one billion COVID vaccine doses

The Modi government’s gloating over administering one billion cumulative doses of the COVID vaccine is designed to erase from public memory its monume

R. Ramachandran

A view of the Fargradalsfjall volcano in Iceland on August 19, 2021. Since the 1990s, 90 per cent of Iceland’s glaciers have been retreating and the reduction in mass and pressure from the melting ice caps are increasing the likelihood of seismic and volcanic activity.

IPCC issues dire warning on global warming

The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report comes as an ominous reminder of how global warming will impact the world in the coming years and stresses the urgen

R. Ramachandran

Atlas experiment spokes person Fabiola Gianotti (centre), CERN Director General Rolf-Dieter Heuer, and CERN spokesman Joe Incandela look at a screen on July 4 during the seminar in Geneva where the discovery of the Higgs boson was announced.

The Higgs hunt

CERN announces that the highly elusive Higgs boson had in all probability been discovered. (Published in the issue dated July 27, 2012.)

R. RAMACHANDRAN

Health workers administering polio drops in Coimbatore. A file picture.

Vaccine worries

With three public sector vaccine-manufacturing units forced to stop production, there is concern about the national immunisation programme. (Published

R. RAMACHANDRAN

William Lambton.

Survey Saga

One of the most stupendous tasks in the history of science, started 200 years ago by William Lambton and completed four decades later by George Everes

R. RAMACHANDRAN ,in New Delhi

R.A. Mashelkar, Chairman of the Committee on Drug Regulatory System.

Dealing with fake drugs

The Mashelkar Committee, which studied the various aspects of the growing threat from spurious drugs, submits an interim report recommending stringent

R. RAMACHANDRAN