Number of words: 4,884 Peter Turchin, one of the world’s experts on pine beetles and possibly also on human beings, met me reluctantly this summer on the campus of the University of Connecticut at Storrs, where he teaches. Like many people during the pandemic, he preferred to limit his human contact. He also doubted whether … Read more

Number of words: 353 On November 1, the Mumbai Police arrested three Ola cab drivers for allegedly conning several passengers by manipulating the mobile application to add more kilometres to the destination, thereby increasing the fare. The police found that at least 40 cab drivers had taken advantage of a glitch in an outdated version … Read more

Number of words: 397 Ahmedabad: ‘I could not clear the final summer internship interviews for my top 3 preferred firms despite being on hotlist inone of them,’ writes a student. Another writes, ‘I failed in Class XII exam as I didn’t know how to write in English.’These are just the two of the 26 and … Read more

Number of words: 592 In 1981, a Soviet submarine ran aground on the south coast of Sweden, just 6.2 miles from a Swedish naval base. The Soviets claimed that they were forced into Swedish territory by severe distress, and later navigation errors, while Sweden saw it as proof that the then Soviet Union was pissing … Read more

Number of words: 740 Ludwig Wittgenstein was one of the legions of philosophers (lesser known, which is a travesty) from early 20th century. He is best known for language games – one of the questions that he posed: ‘Are you using a ruler to measure the table or the table to measure the ruler?’ This … Read more

Number of words: 1,261 It was a cool November morning in 1973, and palaeontologist Vijay Prakash Mishra knocked around for fossils along the flat-topped hills in Kutch, Gujarat. “There had been reports that there were large skulls but nobody in India, in fact, had identified them,” said 78-year-old Ashok Sahni, the sensei of Indian palaeontology … Read more

Number of words: 1,474 Of the insect world’s many architects, the termites are undoubtedly the reigning monarchs. The earthen mounds that these tiny insects construct out of soil, water and their own saliva, are as intricate, if not more intricate, than human-made castles. The enigmatic structures have intrigued biologists, inspired architects, and even captivated robotics … Read more

Number of words: 427 After helping more than a million brick-and-mortar Chinese retailers modernize their operations, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has now set its sights on a new target: the country’s outdated factories.China’s largest corporation unveiled in September its first smart factory, a secret experiment that Alibaba’s been conducting for three years on the outskirts … Read more

Number of words: 2,885 It sometimes happens that a symbolic event marking the end of one era neatly coincides with an event that ushers in the next, although no one notices the concurrence at the time. In late 2003, a brief Renaissance of electric vehicles came to an ignominious end, as GM rounded up and … Read more