Curtailed Careers of Women in China
Women enter the workforce the same time as men but they typically take some time off during their child-bearing years. Instead of being allowed to stay on longer to compensate, they have to step down…
On Single-Sex Labs
India's first Nobelist C.V. Raman maintained a strict separation of sexes in his laboratory, his student Anna Mani recalls in this profile by Abha Sur. Raman would mutter ``Scandalous!'' every time a male and…
Tengo poco Sanskrit
I am a Tam-Brahm, which is short for Tamil Brahmin. My ancestors were Hindu priests. You can expect people from such families to have a smattering of Sanskrit, the language of liturgy. My great-grandfather worked…
The Universal Correspondent
Those were the days when I was struggling to establish myself as a journalist. They used to call me Universal Correspondent since I had no authority to represent any particular publication. Still, I was busy…
The Name is Bond. James Bond
The fictional British spy's name originally belonged to an ornithologist, an authority on birds of the West Indies. The author Ian Fleming who lived in Jamaica was an avid birder himself. His book was going…
Curious Case of The Sex Reversed Insects
They say there is nothing new under the sun. But consider this newly discovered genus Neotrogla with four insect species, in the caves of Brazil. The females have the equivalent of the penis; the males…