Raghu Padinjat’s group from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore

You get into a lift at the ground floor and press the button for the top: You notice a gentle tune playing and then realise you are going up. Both sets of information, that is sound and linear movement are perceived in our ears, but how do our ears sense them? It may be surprising to learn that it is just a few, highly modified cells in our inner ear that plays a vital role in maintaining balance and sensing sound.

     It is midday in mid-April, and the air shimmers with heat. From the shelter of an acacia tree, one of the few spots of shade in the flat, slightly undulating land, a small group of scientists intently observe a congregation of male blackbuck sitting or standing somnolently atop its own pile of odoriferous dung.

Similar to a mosaic floor where different patterned tiles come together to make a composite and holistic image, our brains too consist of billions of unique neurons that finally connect together and generate coordinated brain activity. Unlike the mosaic floor, however, which is static, our brains are dynamic and activity in the brain changes based on environmental cues.  So, what makes up the mosaic of our brain? Or, in other words, how are individual neurons different from each other?

     Over thousands of people took the Ice Bucket Challenge, a sensation in the summer of 2014. Nominated participants were filmed dumping buckets of ice-cold water on their heads and they in turn, challenged their friends to do the same. Challenged participants had 24 hours to comply or refuse and thus forfeit a charitable financial donation.

With nearly 2 –3% of the population of youngsters and adults (between the ages of 15–59 years) at risk of developing neuropsychiatric diseases, India needs to focus on understanding mental disorders.

Prof. Shashi Thutupalli, head of the Active Evolvable Matter Laboratory at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore has received a 2018 Young Investigator Research Grant from the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP).

The prestigious three-year funding is intended to establish new collaborative ties with scientists around the world and empower these teams to combine their expertise in addressing fundamental questions.

The American Society of Naturalists (ASN) conferred its prestigious 2018 Presidential Award to evolutionary biologists from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, based in Bangalore, India. The ASN Presidential Award honors an outstanding research article from among all the papers published in the society’s journal, The American Naturalist, in the preceding calendar year. ‘Am. Nat.’ is a prominent scientific journal that publishes research papers in frontier areas of evolutionary biology and ecology.

The eye of the fly

Is wondrous indeed,

For capturing images

At uncanny speeds.

The molecular signal

That makes this possible,

Recent work from Deepa Agashe’s and Radhika Venkatesan’s groups has shown that female red flour beetles reproduce better in male-dominated groups than in unbiased or female-dominated groups.