Mud snails, also known as mystery snails, live in freshwater and belong to a snail family called Viviparidae. They are found throughout the world except in South America and Antarctica. Such globally distributed species incite interesting questions about their dispersal across different continents. In a recent study, researchers in Bengaluru from the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), investigated manifestation of these mystery snails in India.
Professor Khare discusses the vulnerability of research, the charm of number theory, and why mathematics is central to human culture.