JOEL JOSEPH

Now is quite the season for bird-watchers in the tropics, as they welcome thousands of migratory birds flying towards their winter homes. These migrants journey along one of the world’s nine major flyways – the patterned routes in the sky that birds take – to reach their destinations. Over 229 species of migratory birds spend their winters in ...

Bengaluru: As the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 continues to rise around the country, Mumbai – one of the worst-hit cities in India – has reported another spike in the number of daily cases.

As on September 26, the average number of cases reported every successive day has nearly doubled compared to the same time last month, ac...

Bengaluru: As COVID-19 cases continue to rise worldwide, experts are faced with a critical question: can a person catch the disease a second time? The answer to this question influences, among other things, the prospects of the vaccine and its ability to protect us from the disease.

Tuberculosis is a common comorbidity in those infected with HIV/AIDS, and the two conditions are known to exacerbate one another. A new study from researchers at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru demonstrates that Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the tuberculosis bacteria, can reactivate dormant HIV within the human body, a process that can potentially be targeted by specific drugs.

Bengaluru: In May, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) conducted a countrywide COVID-19 seroprevalence survey. Although the full details of this study haven’t yet been made available in the form of a paper, peer-reviewed or otherwise, ICMR has already announced a follow-up study as well.

Bengaluru: As India groans under the weight of COVID-19, another underreported crisis has come to the fore.
In the last two months, nearly ten doctors have reportedly committed suicide in different institutions across the country. Most of them were younger than 30 years. The latest addition to this unfortunate list was Mohit Singhla, a research officer in the paediatrics department of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi – the third doctor to...

Bengaluru: Recent reports of the rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 having 60-65% false negatives in Mumbai have alarmed many – but didn’t surprise experts.

On July 24, the city’s Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) launched ‘Mission Universal Testing’, a programme through which the civic body aims to test every person in ...

The number of people contemplating suicide and doing self-harm has risen, an online survey revealed. The Suicide Prevention India Foundation (SPIF) conducted the study, in May, where they interviewed 159 mental health professionals from across the country. The report also made recommendations for those experiencing mental distress, others around them, and therapists.

Although the SARS-CoV-2 virus primarily affects the respiratory system, lungs, it also affects the brain, kidney, and heart in severe cases of COVID-19. According to WHO, about 20 percent of the infected individuals show moderate-to-severe symptoms and require hospitalisation.

The COVID-19 pandemic had already wreaked havoc on non-immigrant workers and international students in the US before new changes to the country’s immigration policy exacerbated the crisis they face.
On June 22, US President Donald Trump restricted the entry of non-immigrant workers to the US until the end of the year, affecting holders of H-1B, H-2B, L-1, and J-1 visas. H-1B, H-2B and L-1 visas are for skilled workers, seasonal employees and corporate executives respectively, ...

An intricate network of over a hundred billion wires running across the control unit sending messages at about 100 metres per second. That’s the human brain! Come to think of it, the lines that Emily Dickinson wrote make perfect sense:
“The Brain – is wider than the sky –
For put them side by side
The one the other will contain
With ease – and You – beside”

As outlined in the previous article, neurons are like wires sending and receiving messages to and from different parts of the body using a combination of electrical signals and chemical neurotransmitters. Just as broken wires can cause a short circuit, degenerated neurons can affect our normal functions –– memory, movement.

We now know that one of the main causes of neurodegeneration is the aggregation of unfolded or misfolded proteins. In the previous article of this series, we have seen that there are characteristic protein aggregates behind different neurodegenerative diseases. In this article, we shall understand a little bit more about Parkinson’s disease –– what kind of neurons get degenerated i.e., damaged and lost, what kind of symptoms characterize the disease, and the existing treatment.
What is Parkin...

In most organisms, including humans, the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the genetic material of the cell. This means that the DNA contains a code, which is relayed by the ribonucleic acid (RNA), and finally decoded by tiny machines called ribosomes to produce pr...

Bengaluru: PhD students in India are often ridiculed for their choices, sometimes by their own families and at others by trolls who think of them as ‘parasites’. While the former manifest as casual remarks or snide comments at social gatherings, the latter resort to name-calling on social media. Although research scholars in humanities have been the favourite targets of trolls, those in the sciences have not been exempt.