Vansh pathak

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When Manhole Covers Become Works of Art: How a City Turns Ordinary Infrastructure into Living History

Sometimes, the most extraordinary stories of a city are hidden in the most ordinary places. You may find them in an old building, a forgotten street, a public garden, or even beneath your feet. Imagine walking through a city where the ground tells stories. A colourful illustration catches your attention as you walk along a pavement. You stop for a moment and discover that the picture is not a painting on a wall, nor is it a sculpture displayed in a museum. It is a manhole cover. At first, the idea might sound unusual. Manhole covers are generally associated with drainage systems, underground pipes, sewage networks, and the practical machinery that keeps a city functioning. They are designed to be strong, durable, and safe. Their purpose is to serve the city, not to attract the attention of its residents. Yet some cities have transformed these overlooked objects into something much more meaningful. Their manhole covers feature local landmarks, cultural symbols, mythical crea...

When Light Became a Switch for the Brain

Imagine being able to switch a tiny group of brain cells on or off with light. Not metaphorically. Not through a thought experiment. Scientists can actually do this in laboratory animals. This extraordinary idea lies at the heart of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, awarded jointly to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics . Their work created a new way of studying the brain by allowing researchers to control specific nerve cells using light. The science sounds complicated at first. But the basic idea is surprisingly simple: They helped turn light into a remote control for neurons. And that changes the way we understand the brain. The brain: billions of cells talking at once Our brain contains billions of nerve cells, called neurons . Neurons communicate with one another using electrical and chemical signals. When groups of neurons become active, they help produce everything fr...

The Referee of Democracy: Who Should Choose India’s Election Commissioners?

Democracy depends on elections, but elections depend on something even more fundamental: trust in the institution conducting them. A voter may disagree with a candidate, a political party or even an election result. But the democratic system begins to weaken when people start questioning the neutrality of the institution that conducts the election itself. Interestingly, this concern is not new. It was already being debated in India’s Constituent Assembly in 1949 , long before the first general election of independent India. The members were not merely discussing who would appoint a constitutional officer. They were wrestling with a much deeper question: How do you make the referee independent when the government of the day has an interest in the game? That question has travelled from the Constituent Assembly to the present. A seemingly simple constitutional provision The Constitution placed the superintendence, direction and control of elections in the hands of the Election...

When Animals Become Ambassadors: The Forgotten Diplomacy of the Wild

Diplomacy is usually imagined as a world of presidents shaking hands, ambassadors sitting across conference tables, treaties being signed and flags standing beside one another. But sometimes, diplomacy arrives on four legs. Sometimes it has stripes, feathers, a trunk, a long neck or a black-and-white coat. For thousands of years, rulers have used animals not merely as gifts, but as symbols of friendship, prestige, power and cultural identity. A giraffe could become a message from one distant civilisation to another. An elephant could represent peace. A panda could soften the image of an entire nation. This strange intersection of wildlife and international relations is often described as animal diplomacy. And behind the apparent simplicity of gifting an animal lies a much deeper story about power, perception, culture, conservation and the changing nature of international relations. What exactly is animal diplomacy? Animal diplomacy is the use of animals in international rel...