ACAT in the wild
The software working behind the robotic voice of Stephen Hawking was released for public use on August 18 by Intel, the company that developed it. Although principally developed for Hawking, the '…
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A stinky superconductor
The next time you smell a whiff of rot in your morning's eggs, you might not want to throw them away. Instead, you might do better to realise what you're smelling could be a superconductor (un…
The chemistry of the Tianjin warehouse blasts
The Tianjin warehouse blasts on August 12 caused a weak surface quake in the Chinese port city, made houses uninhabitable in a 2-km radius, absolutely decimated a parking lot of 8,000 cars in its vici…
DNA Bill uploaded for feedback
The Department of Biotechnology, under the Ministry of Science & Technology, is soliciting feedback on the Human DNA Profiling Bill, a scanned copy of which has been uploaded to the DBT website -…
AT&T, the weakest link
In the throng of American companies and their confused compliance with the National Security Agency's controversial decade-long snooping on internal and international communications, The New York…
Climatic fates in the ooze
While governments scramble to provide the laziest climate-change commitments ahead of the UN conference in Paris later this year, the world is being honed to confront how life about land will change a…
The devil in Obama’s new emissions target for the US lies in base year details
President Barack Obama announced a new climate change target for the United States’ electricity generation sector on August 3. Hailed by many as ambitious, the plan dictates that power plants in the w…
Replies to the government’s concerns with our criticism of the DNA Profiling Bill
In response to the piece ‘Modi Wants the DNA Profiling Bill Passed Right Away. Here’s Why It Shouldn’t Be‘, published July 24, 2015, Dr. J. Gowrishankar, Director of the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting…
Here's why the Human DNA Profiling Bill shouldn't be passed in its current form
The Human DNA Profiling Bill which the Narendra Modi government wants to pass in the current session of Parliament is one of the most intrusive enactments of its kind anywhere in the world, a measure…
The net can’t be neutral if regulators are biased against voice-over Internet
The Department of Telecommunications’ new report (PDF) on net neutrality is a deceptive piece of work. Drawn up by a committee set up in January 2015, it was perceived as a reaction to the Telecom Reg…
Money for science
Spending money on science has been tied to evaluating the value of spin-offs, assessing the link between technological advancement and GDP, and dissecting the metrics of productivity, but the debate w…
DoT backs net neutrality but wants end to free domestic Skype, WhatsApp calls
The Wire July 17, 2015 A Department of Telecommunications committee has released a report on the issue of net neutrality, following the controversial policy consultation paper that the Telecom Regula…