A Lamp That Keeps Burning on Its Own! How Did a Chhattisgarh Potter Make It Work?

What if you could light an oil lamp and let it burn for an entire day without worrying about adding more oil An artisan from Chhattisgarh has turned this idea into reality with a unique clay lamp that can keep glowing for to hours without manual refilling Meet Ashok Chakradhari a traditional potter from Kondagaon who has found an innovative way to give an everyday earthen lamp a remarkable new feature His creation combines traditional terracotta craftsmanship with a simple scientific principle making it both functional and fascinating An Idea Born While Exploring YouTubeThe journey began in when Chakradhari was exploring new creative possibilities through YouTube During his online research he came across traditional oil-refilling techniques and wondered whether he could adapt the concept to his pottery What followed was a series of experiments failed attempts and design changes After several trials he finally developed a lamp that could replenish

5 Nov 2026

The Whys and Hows

'Mogging' Is Collins' Word of the Year 2026! Here's What the Viral Slang Really Means

Keeping up with Gen Z and Gen Alpha slang can sometimes feel like learning a new language every few months Just when words like rizz and delulu begin to make sense another expression enters the conversation This time it is 'mogging' Collins English Dictionary has selected the term as its Word of the Year for following a remarkable rise in its popularity But what does it mean Simply put to mog someone is to outshine or outperform them It is often used when one person makes another look less impressive by comparison Picture this You spend an hour getting ready for a party only for your friend to arrive looking effortlessly stylish and stealing all the attention Congratulations You have just been mogged And it is not limited to fashion or physical appearance Someone's excellent presentation can mog yours a neighbour's beautifully maintained garden can mog yours and even a

4 Nov 2026

The Whys and Hows

There’s No Engine Pulling Vande Bharat—So How Does It Race Ahead?

Stand on a railway platform as a Vande Bharat train glides in and you may notice something unusual there is no separate locomotive pulling the coaches So what powers one of India s fastest trains The answer lies beneath the coaches themselves Instead of depending on a single engine at the front Vande Bharat uses a system that distributes power across the train allowing several parts of it to work together Many Motors One Moving TrainVande Bharat is a self-propelled train set Electric traction motors are fitted beneath every second coach meaning the train does not need a separate locomotive to pull it The train draws electricity from overhead wires through equipment mounted on its roof This power is then supplied to the traction motors below the coaches setting the wheels in motion Think of it this way instead of one powerful engine pulling a long line of coaches Vande

2 Nov 2026

The Whys and Hows

When the Runway Makes Way: Why Will Thiruvananthapuram Airport Pause Flights for Five Hours Today?

Today October Thiruvananthapuram International Airport will suspend flight operations for five hours from pm to pm The reason is not a technical fault or bad weather but a centuries-old religious ceremony that follows a route passing through the airport runway The temporary suspension will allow the Alpassi Arattu procession of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple to continue its traditional journey to Shangumugham Beach The unusual arrangement reflects how an ancient custom continues to coexist with modern aviation But how did a sacred procession come to share its path with an international airport What Makes the Arattu Special The word Arattu means a ceremonial ritual bath At the conclusion of the temple s -day Alpassi and Painkuni festivals the ceremonial idols of Lord Padmanabha Narasimha Moorthy and Krishna Swamy are carried by temple priests to Shangumugham Beach There the deities are symbolically immersed in the waters of the Arabian Sea for a holy

20 Oct 2026

The Whys and Hows

How Did Tesla’s Roadster Flip in Mid-Air? The Science Behind the Stunt

What if a car could leap into the air flip around and land back on its wheels It sounds like a scene from a science-fiction movie but Tesla s next-generation Roadster has brought this extraordinary idea closer to reality At its unveiling in Texas on October the electric sports car performed a dramatic demonstration using SpaceX-inspired thrusters to lift off rotate in mid-air and land But how can a car weighing far more than a person perform such a manoeuvre According to a report in India Today the answer lies in compressed air carefully directed forces and some fundamental laws of physics nbsp How Do Rocket-Like Thrusters Work Despite the rocket-inspired technology the system demonstrated for the Roadster does not rely on conventional fuel-burning rocket engines Instead it uses cold-gas thrusters which release stored highly pressurised gas through strategically positioned nozzles Reports from the unveiling describe a system with approximately

16 Oct 2026

The Whys and Hows

Maharashtra’s Drought, A Bumper Jamun Crop: Can Trees Really Warn Us?

Maharashtra is facing a difficult end to the monsoon With rainfall below normal the state government has declared drought in of its tehsils Between June and September the state received mm of rainfall against a normal mm As officials prepare crop-loss assessments and relief measures an unusual observation has also caught public attention Across parts of India jamun trees appeared to have produced an unusually large crop this year For some people this brings back an old saying when jamun trees shed fruit heavily drought may follow But is there really a connection Why Were Jamun Trees Loaded With Fruit To understand the mystery we first need to look at the jamun s flowering cycle The jamun or Syzygium cumini generally flowers around March and April Those flowers must be successfully pollinated before they can develop into fruit Weather can influence this process Heavy rain during flowering may interfere with

28 Sep 2026

The Whys and Hows

How is Teqball Played? The Sport That Made Its Asian Games Debut

Imagine football skills table-tennis precision and a uniquely curved table coming together in one sport That s teqball a fast-growing game that is barely years old but has already reached the Asian Games Invented in Hungary in teqball made its Asian Games debut at Aichi-Nagoya giving the relatively young sport a major international platform India which discovered the sport only in was also part of this historic debut So How Does Teqball Work Teqball is played on a curved table with a football either in singles or doubles The ball is a standard size- football although it is inflated to a lower pressure Players can use almost any part of their body except their arms and hands to control the ball The challenge Players get a maximum of three touches before they must send the ball back across the net and the ball must touch the table to remain in

21 Sep 2026

The Whys and Hows

Why Are Corals So Colourful? The Amazing Science Behind Their Bright Hues

A coral reef can look like an underwater rainbow Brilliant fish dart between corals glowing in shades of red pink purple and green But beneath those striking colours lies a fascinating partnership between tiny animals and microscopic algae Corals are living animals made up of tiny creatures called coral polyps These polyps build the hard skeleton that forms the familiar structure of a coral The skeleton itself is ghostly white So where does the colour come from The answer begins with tiny algae living inside the coral s tissues Tiny Algae Big ContributionKnown as zooxanthellae these single-celled algae have a remarkable relationship with coral Using sunlight they carry out photosynthesis and produce sugars The algae use some of these sugars themselves while much of the remaining food up to percent can be passed on to the coral In return the coral provides the algae with a protected place to live

15 Sep 2026

The Whys and Hows

How Can Painting One Wind Turbine Blade Black Save Birds?

Wind energy is one of the cleaner ways to generate electricity But as wind farms expand they can create another environmental challenge bird collisions with rotating turbine blades Raptors including white-tailed eagles can be particularly vulnerable At Norway s Sm la wind farm for example researchers have recorded several white-tailed eagle deaths each year So could a small change to a turbine make a big difference Researchers decided to test an unusually simple idea paint one of the three rotor blades black Why Paint Just One Blade The answer lies in how birds see moving objects When all three turbine blades rotate their rapid movement can create what researchers describe as motion smear In simple terms the blades can become difficult to distinguish as separate objects Painting one blade black may make the rotating structure more visible against the background The idea was inspired by earlier laboratory experiments in the

11 Sep 2026

The Whys and Hows