by Aditi Mishra – With grocery shops bursting with sugar, fats and savoury snacks, finding food might not seem that hard. In fact, those prescribed a diet might even wish that it were harder. But things are a little different in the wild. Food is very hard to find and finding food is one of the most defining motivations of…
by Anshika Singh – Plastic is a magic material that has become the biggest tragedy of mankind. The word “Plastic” stands for “something which is easily pliable and easily shaped.” It is a synthetic polymer first invented in the year 1869 by John Wesley Hyatt. Sir John created this magic material to take part in a contest initiated by a…
We are proud to congratulate Santosh Rajus as well as his co-authors Sriraksha Bhagavan, Hinal Kharva, and Srinivas Rao on their newest work studying pest management in the shade-grown coffee plantations of South India. In this project, Santosh and his coauthors examined the ecology and behavior of the Coffee White Stem Borer – one of the most significant pests in…
by Jagath V – Insects navigate their environment using a variety of cues – an important one of which is their sense of smell, olfaction. Insects not only sniff their surroundings in search of food and to avoid danger but also to find potential mates. A subset of these odours, called sex pheromones, convey infomation about an insect’s species and…
This year, perhaps more than any year in our memories, we must strive to see the light in the darkness. In fact, despite being physically separated much of the year, the NICE lab has a number of blessings to count. Here is a small list of our blessings this year that we will hold on to as we enter 2021.…
by Hinal Kharva: Somewhere in Europe, winter is coming and a chipmunk is busy collecting nuts and berries to survive the harsh weather. Chipmunk (to Shrew friend): Hey buddy, all set for winter? Shrew: Yes, am I not looking slimmer to you? Chipmunk: Oh my god, yes you do. But why? Instead of putting on some extra fat for winter,…
by Aditi Mishra “We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next door neighbour.” – Gilbert K. Chesterton “You can be a good neighbour only if you have good neighbours.” – Howard E. Koch Neighbours don’t share homes, but they do share the entire environment nearby. And with that they share its public goods and nuisances. It is…
An Opinion Piece by Anshika Singh: Recently, I was storytelling with my three-and-a-half year-old son. I felt sorry for our coming generation in so many ways. It was a very famous story known as “The giving tree” by Shel Silverstein, which describes beautifully how the consumerist attitude of human beings destroy not only our mother nature but also leaves us…
By Geetha G T – As we know, holometabolous insects undergo four different life stages; egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The larva/caterpillar/maggot is the feeding stage. After feeding for a certain time, the larva enfolds itself into a pupal case where the larva undergoes an extreme transformation. The adult that develops from the pupa is completely different from the larva.…
by Gauri Gharpure – Lichen are one of the best known examples of mutualism (or symbiosis in scientific terms). They are organisms formed of a photosynthesizing partner (usually cyanobacteria or algae) and a “housing” and/or structural fungal partner (usually Ascomycota). Together they make intricate structures called thalli (sing. thallus) that can exist in many different forms: crustose, which adhere very…
