You are logged in
Loading…
You don’t have any Active Subscription.
Subscribed with another email? Logout and Login with that one.
Your active subscription(s)
Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription
Products you’ve access to
Additional Subscription Benefits
Account Settings
Need help with your subscription?
August 9, 2026e-Paper
The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective.
First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming.
Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day.
Science For All The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in!
Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers
THEdge At the cutting edge of education and careers
Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there
Gender Agenda Stories from beyond the binary.
The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features.
August 9, 2026e-Paper
Published – August 09, 2026 08:00 am IST
An image showing multiple bacteriophages attached to a bacterium’s cell wall, magnified 2,00,000-times. | Photo Credit: Prof. Graham Beards (CC BY-SA)
Scientists use AI to design viruses to kill hardy bacteria
Scientists have used AI to design entire genomes for bacteriophages, viruses that infect and kill bacteria. Using ‘genome language models’, they generated thousands of new DNA sequences, then used them with a well-studied virus called ΦX174 as a template to yield 16 functional viruses. These phages were different from any found in nature, and could together successfully kill bacteria known to resist natural viruses. The work offers a path to create treatments to fight drug-resistant bacteria.
Snails tweak one ingredient for five mucus recipes
Cepaea nemoralis snails produce five types of mucus for different tasks, such as crawling, sticking to surfaces, and defence, ‘tuning’ the properties using calcium. Most animal mucus is slippery but snail mucus is versatile. Scientists found that it contains collagen VI as the building block, with the snails secreting calcium carbonate granules to adjust thickness and stickiness. This simple adjustment creates anything from a lubricant to a protective barrier, and could inspire new materials in medicine.
Long view reveals engineering’s effect on Yangtze floods
Human engineering and land-use changes have significantly intensified flood risks on the Yangtze river in the last 500 years. By analysing lake sediments and historical records, scientists found that while flood frequency naturally peaked during the Little Ice Age (1500-1850), human interventions have made recent floods more severe. Embankments increased the intensity of “100-year floods” by 18% and lake reclamation by 8%. The findings show how engineering projects intended to control floods have worsened their impact.
Published – August 09, 2026 08:00 am IST
research / Science Snapshots / flora and fauna / rivers / Artificial Intelligence
Copyright© 2026, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
BACK TO TOP
Terms & conditions  |  Institutional Subscriber
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.