Understanding Breakthrough Science
Contextualising groundbreaking scientific discoveries for undergraduates and anyone curious about cutting-edge research
The world around us is constantly witnessing numerous developments and discoveries that are results of extensive research work. They take a lot of time, effort and sheer passion to come to fruition and fill the gap between the existing research.
In addition to contributing to the existing knowledge pool, some of the recent scientific developments are breakthrough discoveries that open avenues for nuanced understanding of various phenomena and serve for the betterment of humankind.
With an aim to inform and create a space for discourse on such developments, we bring to you a special series called “Understanding Breakthrough Science” with stories based on current scientific breakthroughs making waves globally.
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The expensive simplicity of Daniel Spielman’s mathematics
A mathematician and a computer scientist, Mohan R and Ramanujam R, help us make sense of the fascinating mathematics of Daniel Spielman, a name that turns heads in the math world today.
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Disentangling the quantum revolution
Jayanth Vyasanakere and Murthy OVSN help make sense of the hype around quantum computation by highlighting the tumultuous and spooky past of quantum mechanics.
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How AlphaFold helps solve one of the foremost challenges in biology today
An experimental biologist and a computational biologist, Ananya Mukherjee and Shweta Ramdas, get together to discuss the new Artificial Intelligence system that can predict the structure of proteins, and its potential relevance to their own work.
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Phase transitions: The magic and physics of a living cell
A physicist (Kripa Gowrishankar) and a biologist (Sravanti Uppaluri) help us understand a fundamental discovery that has brought on a new paradigm of thinking about how cells organise themselves.
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Waking up to Narcolepsy
Antara Das delves into the mechanism behind a sleep disorder, a scientific discovery that just won the Breakthrough Prize, one of the biggest science prizes in the world.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay