Bengaluru, 15 January 2024: Scientists from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS- TIFR), Bengaluru, in collaboration with researchers from Indian Foundation for Butterflies Trust, Bengaluru, have identified a new butterfly species, the Conjoined Silverline (Cigaritis conjucta), from the Western Ghats (a biodiversity hotspot) in Karnataka. Prof. Krushnamegh Kunte, along with PhD scholars Ujwala Pawar and Viraj Nawge from NCBS, contributed to this discovery, recently documented in the journal Zootaxa.

Prof. Vatsala Thirumalai was honoured with the Distinguished Alumni Award 2023 by Alagappa College of Technology (AC TECH), Anna University, Chennai. She is one among the only two women alumni to receive this award.

A trio of researchers- Suman Attiwilli, Ravikanthachari and Krushnamegh Kunte, from the Biodiversity Lab at NCBS have tested and confirmed a new field technique to monitor butterfly populations, that is more effective and less complex than the ones that are more widely used.  The study titled “A Comparison Between Time-Constrained Counts and Line Transects as Methods to Estimate Butterfly Diversity and Monitor Populations in Tropical Habitats” is published in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity.

https://mepaper.anandabazar.com/imageview_74309_4048708_4_71_16-12-2023_...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d44151-023-00198-7

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the major causative agent of cervical cancers.

“This morning I saw the countryside from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big”, writes Van Gogh in a letter to his brother, Theo. The famous oil-on-canvas painting ‘Starry Night’ was inspired by this view from the window of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in southern France where he spent the year 1889. He suffered from mental illness most of his life.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/ncbs-study-paves-way-fo...