Hurricane Damage, VOICE Fellowship, Vulture-Killing Drugs, Chasing a Conjecture, Graphene Battery and more...

Weekly Newsletter | Issue #52 - 24 Dec, 2025

Greetings from Research Matters!

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As usual, we have research-based articles, stories in regional languages, STEM news from other Indian media outlets and public events to attend. Don’t forget to participate in the IndiaSteamQuiz and check out Scidle - the science wordle, for a new science word every day.

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Science Games & Puzzles

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India STEAM Quiz

Have you been keeping up with all the top STEAM news from India? Find out with the India STEAM Quiz, a weekly science, technology, engineering, arts and math quiz by Research Matters featuring questions from STEAM-related news from the past week.

We request you to kindly take the quiz and let us know what you think! And please share with us any feedback and suggestions for improving the quiz. Thanks!

And hope you have played (or are playing) the Science Wordle game - Scidle? We have a new word every day! Play and share your score with the world!

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Stories in this edition

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A Novel Spatially Aware AI Model Makes Hurricane Damage Assessment More Accurate - IIT Bombay

IIT Bombay’s new deep learning framework, named SpADANet, enhances damage classification accuracy using limited labels across multiple hurricanes.IIT Bombay’s new deep learning framework, named SpADANet, enhances damage classification accuracy using limited labels across multiple hurricanes.

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‘Art meets Science’: New VOICE fellowship launched at IISER Pune to help regional science journalism - IISER Pune

The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune on Tuesday launched the VOICE Fellowship 2025.

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Despite ban, vulture-killing drugs still on the shelves of many pharmacies in South Asia, including India - RSPB, BNHS, others.

Despite successful bans on the veterinary drug diclofenac in Nepal and parts of India, a decade-long undercover investigation reveals that toxic alternatives like flunixin and nimesulide are rapidly replacing it, posing a renewed existential threat to the region’s critically endangered vulture populations.

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Chasing the Conjecture: The 10-Year Journey to Unify Mathematics and Inspire India’s Scientific Future - Infosys Science Foundation

Professor Khare discusses the vulnerability of research, the charm of number theory, and why mathematics is central to human culture.

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Computer simulations show a single layer of carbon could significantly improve electric car batteries

Research reveals that graphene-enhanced batteries can slash electric vehicle charging times by up to 27% while cutting battery weight by more than half, potentially solving the biggest hurdles to green transportation.

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Regional

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Hindi: चक्रवातों से हुई हानि का आकलन करने हेतु स्थानीय जागृति रखने वाला एक अभिनव एआई मॉडल

Marathi: चक्रीवादळामुळे झालेल्या नुकसानाचे अधिक अचूक मूल्यमापन करण्यासाठी स्थानिक भान असलेले नवीन एआय मॉडेल

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Research Beat | STEM-based news in other media

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1. Parliamentary panel calls for CSIR-IGIB–Tata Memorial collaboration to tackle rising cancer burden in North-East India - The New Indian Express

2. Tiger gut microbes reflect human pressure in India’s wildlife reserves, study finds - Mongabay

3. ‘Self-healing’ battery for next-gen gadgets that overcomes safety and performance limitations of tradition batteries’Self-healing’ battery for next-gen gadgets that overcomes safety and performance limitations of tradition batteries - The Tribune

4. India has immense talent, but science investment remains modest: Nobel laureate Szostak at Ashoka University.. - ET Health World

5. Scientists urged to prioritise research in energy storage solutions - The Hindu

6. Kodaikanal data helps scientists unravel one of Sun’s enduring mysteries - Business Standard

7. Meet Achal Agrawal, India’s academic watchdog taking on research plagiarism - India Today

8. H5N1: Indian scientists predict how bird flu could spread to humans - BBC

9. Research gap in India: India’s PhD science pursuits lag behind US and China; Only 10,000 doctoral candida - Times of India

10. From space docking to semiconductors: India’s scientific leaps in 2025 - Times of India

11. Scientists pledge to reduce animal use in drug research at Vizag conference - Times of India

12. Maitri II Antarctic Research Station Completion Pushed To 2032, Centre Tells Parliament - Swarajyamag

13. IIT Delhi’s AILA: The AI system that can perform real scientific experiments - Business Today

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Events

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1. NCBS Annual Talks 2026: Bio Buzz - 07-09 Jan 2026

2. FAST India: India Science Festival | IISER Pune, 10-11 Jan 2026

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