A team of geneticists, conservation biologists and wildlife officials are in the process of preparing a genetic map — that is, tracing out the sequence of genes — from Machhli’s DNA, which was extracted at the time of her death. Dr. Uma Ramakrishnan, at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, is leading Machhli’s genome analysis.

A new study shows bats love a caffeine kick just as much as we do. The study authored by Shasank Ongole and Dr. Mahesh Sankaran from the National Centre for Biological Sciences in collaboration with CWS Scientist Krithi K Karanth finds that bats, in fact, love shade-grown coffee.

Shade-grown coffee serves as an important commuting route for bats and if properly managed, these coffee plantations can have significant ecological value for bats, a new study has said.

For a fruit fly, flying is just about everything. It is the most important innate behavior that helps the fly reach out to food sources and mates, escape predators, and find secure sites to lay eggs. But what gives the fruit fly its ability to fly relentlessly and reach out to your fruit bowl? A recent study from the lab of Prof.

Translation, the process by which information from messenger RNA (mRNA) is decoded to build proteins, is a central process to all of life. The nuts and bolts of the translation machinery are among the first concepts biology students learn. Yet, what is not apparent to many is that the components of translation can be diverse across species.

It is believed that exaggerated response to bad memories is similar for all negative memories. A team of Indian scientists, namely, Mohammed Mostafizur Rahman, Ashutosh Shukla and Sumantra Chattarji from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (inSTEM) have shown that exaggerated response and difficulty to get rid of bad memories could depend on whether the bad memory was formed before or after a stressful event.

Scientists have long wondered and studied how and when the cell multiplies itself, and how cells change over time. In this context, understanding how and when cells multiply is very important.


All living cells undergo the same cell division cycle - irrespective of whether they are fly cells or mouse cells. To be effective building blocks, cells must make critical decisions to divide or not. At the level of an organism, these decisions are at the population level, and specific tasks to individuals – like a division of labour, occur in order for the system to function well.

31^st August 2018 saw the second iteration of Student Presentations on Ecology, Environment & Conservation—or SPEEC-UP as it is aptly named—one-day conference with three-minute talks by budding young scientists.

Have you ever wondered how tirelessly the tiny fruit fly buzzes around your fruit bowl? This behavior not only demands tremendous energy but also requires highly coordinated neuronal signaling that enables continuous flight. A recent study from Prof. Gaiti Hasan’s lab has uncovered molecules required in the fruit flies brain that enables flight for long periods of time and helps them locate the fruit bowl in your pantry.

Sumantra Chattarji, professor of neurobiology at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, says, “Even a month of social interactions, playtime, exercise, and sensory stimulation can make a two-month-old rat a better learner.” Other studies by Chattarji and his team of researchers have found that if these young rats are stressed for ten days, they lose those connections in the hippocampus.