The summer is here, and the newspapers are already flashing headlines on how hot this summer could be. While we humans may turn on the air coolers, what would the thousands of animals and plants do? It turns out, some trees have unique tricks up their leaves, quite literally! A new study by researchers from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA, shows how tropical trees deal with the heat and the adaptations in their leaves that help them survive in extreme heat conditions.

Scientists at Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore have developed L-lyso—a novel water soluble, fluorescent dye which can permeate the membranes of lysosomes, marking them for future tracking and imaging.

Scientists from Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) have demonstrated a new type of 3 dimensional imaging platform, called iLIFE, that provide detailed images of biological specimen flowing in a fluid.

A team of scientists from Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL) and Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research Kolkata (IISER Kolkata) have studied the formation of 2 Dimensional Covalent Organic Frameworks (COF)- organic solids bound together by covalent bonding, to understand the science behind the underlying structure.

In a first comprehensive study, researchers from the Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Sciences and G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology have explored the reasons behind the prevalence of Bluetongue Virus (BTV) in the state of Haryana. BTV is responsible for causing the bluetongue disease—a non-contagious, insect-borne, viral disease caused mainly in sheep and less frequently in cattle, goats, buffalo, deer and antelopes.

Researchers from National Institute of Technology, Durgapur and Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in West Bengal, with support from Department of Biotechnology, Government of India,have shown that the one way to efficiently deal with oil sludge, is to cultivate suitable microbes using nutrients, which then disintegrate the contaminants in the sludge.

Researchers from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai have observed a new phenomenon in a semiconductor quantum dot-- particles of nanometre (a billionth of a meter) size which are also called artificial atoms) made of Cu₂ZnSnS₄  (CZTS). By shining Ultra Violet (UV) light, on the quantum dots immersed in an electrolyte, they noticed an increase in its capacitance. The effect could be engineered to serve as photocapacitors- capacitors that are charged using light.

Scientist from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, National Institute for Material Sciences, Ibaraki, Japan and Institute for Plasma Research, Gujarat have developed a novel composite material composed of carbon nanotubes decorated with thin films of zinc ferrite (ZnFe₂O₄) for practical applications like, energy storage.

Scientist from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) have developed a novel ternary nanocomposite (compound made of three different nano compounds) which can remove methylene blue from a solution when shone with visible or Ultra Violet (UV) light.

A new study by scientists at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology and All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi have identified the potential role of two genes--ARID1A and KAT2B in the development of obesity.