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Dipanjan Sinha
Articles by Dipanjan Sinha

How we earned our stripes: The story of the hidden lines on human skin

Under ultraviolet rays, stripes emerge on each of us. One theory: they’re patterns formed by the original embryonic cells, as our bodies took shape in the womb.

Unlike the Na’vi of the Avatar films, the stripes in the human body can only be seen under intense ultraviolet rays.
Updated on Aug 12, 2023 06:05 PM IST

Shutter island:See how one studio is reviving the alchemy of photos without film

The core of Studio Goppo’s philosophy is an unusual one, in a time of social media: A photograph ought to have meaning and purpose.

Vivek Muthuramalingam attended workshops at Studio Goppo and has since co-founded his own alternative-photography studio, Kanike, in Bengaluru.
Updated on Jul 22, 2023 05:35 PM IST

Paper view: Finally, clues to some of the mysteries of crumpling

Crumpled paper is unusually weight-resistant. Its patterns are entirely unpredictable. Even with the same sheet, they’re impossible to replicate. See why.

 (Adobe Stock)
Updated on Jul 15, 2023 02:23 PM IST

Flash drive: Meet Emil George, of the fastest solo car expedition across India

He grew up dreaming of a life of rugged jeeps and rutted roads. Now 35 and a businessman dealing in car parts, he just set a new record on the road.

At the Namikala Pass in Ladakh. The 19,426 km across India involved arid deserts, icy roads and mountain sickness. All part of the fantasy, George says.
Updated on Jul 27, 2023 04:20 PM IST

Why don’t I remember that?: Unlocking the mysteries of taste memory

There’s a theory that the reason one can drink endless glasses of cola a day is that it has no ‘taste memory’. What is that and how does it work? Take a look.

 (Shutterstock)
Updated on Jul 28, 2023 01:02 PM IST

Four more shots, please: Indie directors share their paths to success

Independent films are telling new stories from India, winning new fans abroad. See how four debut filmmakers charted their own paths to global success

Four first-time indie filmmakers, whose films have made an international splash, discuss funding, fame, festivals, and being true to the stories of India.
Updated on Jul 19, 2023 07:43 PM IST

Listicle: Exercise gadgets that promised but did not deliver

From exercise bikes to fat-loss patches, here are 10 fitness gadgets we bought in hope and discarded in despair

The Kardashians love the waist trainer: Hooks, stretch-resistant fabric, boning and compression join forces, hoping you’ll keep it on all day, or at least long enough for the body to learn to keep it snatched in.
Updated on Jul 19, 2023 07:11 PM IST

Endless interview process?Appeal to a hire power

Two interviews, a Zoom call with the CEO, a pilot project, a chat with HR to “test compatibility”, another Q/A. Why is landing a job such a circus right now?

At the legendary Runway magazine from The Devil Wears Prada (2006), even hiring a second assistant to the editor calls for a pre-interview and a screening. By act three, it still goes alarmingly wrong. (FOX2000)
Updated on Jul 24, 2023 06:24 PM IST

Why do spouses cheat? New research holds some unexpected answers

A study finds the aftermath of infidelity divided along lines of gender. How far back did the couple’s problems go? The answer is a surprising one there too.

 (Pixabay)
Updated on Aug 04, 2023 04:59 PM IST

Hungry yet? 10 restaurants with long waitlists

For fans of queuing (and great food), here are 10 restaurants that are sold out for months. Book now, for your next life

Bookings at the 36-seater Masalawala & Sons in Brooklyn in the US sell out in minutes.
Updated on Jul 24, 2023 07:26 PM IST

Fantastic fungi and where to find them: Mycophiles in India

A new crop of mushroom-lovers are promoting a wide variety in India, as health food, health supplement and even eco-friendly packaging.

(Clockwise from left) Lion’s mane, pioppino, buna-shimeji, pink oyster, elm oyster, shiitake and king oyster grown at Green Apron.
Updated on Aug 18, 2023 01:52 PM IST

Field marshals: Meet the team behind the award-winning agro initiative Kheyti

The Hyderabad-based start-up has been helping small farmers set up low-cost greenhouses won the 1-million-pound Earthshot Prize

Kaushik Kappagantulu, Saumya Sahay, Ayush Sharma and Sathya Raghu V Mokkapati of Kheyti. (HT Illustration: Mohit Suneja)
Updated on Aug 12, 2023 03:52 PM IST

Listicle: 10 kitchen tools for chefs and ambitious cooks

Chefs Urvika Kanoi, Nishant Choubey and Amninder Sandhu pick 10 kitchen appliances that are definitely worth the hype

Cast-iron pans are heavy, less forgiving than Teflon or anodised surfaces, but spread heat evenly, are almost non-stick when seasoned well, retain heat better and don’t need effort during the washing up.
Updated on Jul 24, 2023 07:57 PM IST

Flash forward: Can screening for diseases make your life worse?

Genetic screening can warn you of latent health conditions. But do you really want to know how you could die?

Chris Hemsworth learnt of his genetic predisposition to Alzheimer’s while filming Limitless, the series where he visits places like the Arctic, exploring ways to live longer and healthier. (DISNEY+)
Updated on Jul 24, 2023 07:49 PM IST

Rinse, repeat: See how shampoo is helping decode activity on the Sun

A study examining how shampoo moves on a vibrating speaker explains how plasma jets form and drive space weather and solar winds

Solar material likely a few million km long erupts into space. (NASA / GSFC / SDO)
Updated on Aug 12, 2023 04:39 PM IST

Have you heard the good word? A priest is shattering stereotypes on Instagram

Fr Warner D’Souza finds the priestly stereotype of a somber man in robes funny. His popular posts touch upon his love of cooking, culture, travel and history

A post from a trip to Goa.
Updated on Aug 04, 2023 12:50 AM IST

New in science: The riveting history of how cats have travelled the world

Domestic felines only go back 10,000 years. What changed the human-cat bond was agriculture. Cats became precious, pampered; they even travelled the world.

 (Shutterstock)
Updated on Aug 10, 2023 06:03 PM IST

A case of claw and order: Why the universe seems to want crabs

Over and over, through millions of years, creatures that were nothing like the crab have evolved into crab-like form. Some fade away, die out; a new form begins its sideways shuffle. Researchers are now studying how often this has happened, and why.

(Shutterstock)
Updated on Dec 24, 2022 08:43 PM IST

Paw patrol: Ullas Karanth talks to Wknd about his life and new book,Among Tigers

He was the first person in India to fit a radio collar onto a tiger, in 1990. He pioneered the use of camera traps, bringing hard data into the big cat census. ‘We’ve come further than I could have imagined as a young,’ Karanth says. ‘But not as far as some would have you believe.’

(Sampath Kumar GP / HT Photo)
Updated on Dec 09, 2022 07:46 PM IST

The biting truth: A study looks at how mosquitoes choose

Have you wondered why some people are mosquito magnets and get bitten so much more than others? A study led by researchers at New York’s Rockefeller University has found why certain odours of the human skin act like a strobe light to mosquitoes

HT Image
Updated on Nov 26, 2022 12:49 AM IST

Baby, is it cold outside?: Heat may cause hate spikes on Twitter, study finds

The number of hate tweets rose by about 22% in extremely hot weather and by 12.5% on extremely cold days, researchers at Germany’s Potsdam Institute have found.

Olaf in Disney’s Frozen.
Updated on Oct 22, 2022 03:33 PM IST

This is us: Meet the people archiving family legacies

Revolutionary great-grand-uncles, pioneering ancestors, homes with vivid pasts. Archiving services are breathing life into family histories, turning scraps and half-remembered memories into illustrated novels, photo albums, videos

Calcutta Houses is documenting the design details of Barrister Babur Bari, a 200-year-old home. (Courtesy Calcutta Houses)
Updated on Sep 30, 2022 10:57 PM IST

Track changes: How Sumit Gupta went from a failed exam to a new world record

The 32-year-old bank clerk from Delhi travelled relentlessly for 12 weeks to break the Guinness record for longest domestic journey by public transport. He began his quest after a failed civil service test, when he found himself asking, what am I doing with my life?

To set his new world record, Gupta travelled a total of 61,445 km across India, by bus and train. (Sanchit Khanna / HT Photo)
Updated on Sep 24, 2022 06:00 PM IST

Trying to spot a liar? Give them something to do as they fib, a new study finds

Since lying taxes the brain more than telling the truth does, an added task — a sort of cognitive load; numbers to remember or a list to memorise — could make it harder for a smooth talker to lie convincingly, a new study out of Portsmouth suggests.

A still from the series Lie to Me (2009), about a psychologist who uses his skill at reading faces to help the police with criminal investigations.
Updated on Sep 23, 2022 07:41 PM IST

Lore enforcers: Meet the artists taking folk icons to a new generation, via NFTs

A children’s writer and an illustrator are bringing Kerala’s folklore icons to life as NFTs, so that new generations can meet the Santa-like patron deity of villages, the traditional jester.

Muthappan, the kind and jolly patron deity of north Kerala villages. “He is our equivalent of Santa Claus. Similar in appearance, he listens to the woes of every village and solves their problems. More children should know about him,” says Deepak Sivarajan.
Updated on Aug 20, 2022 04:59 PM IST

Is Assam’s NH715 our deadliest highway? Ask the local animals

A study has found that a single 64-km stretch of this highway saw 6,036 deaths in one year. Take a look at the consequences, when a road goes where it has no business going.

Rhinos in the Kaziranga National Park. The NH715 cuts through Kaziranga on one side and the North Karbi-Anglong Wildlife Sanctuary on the other. Small-animal fatalities are not tabulated, but a study has found that hundreds of frogs, snakes, birds and lizards are ending up as roadkill. (Herve Lethier / Unesco)
Updated on Aug 06, 2022 08:51 PM IST

Motor imagery: Can the mind flex the muscle?

Studies show that imagining an exercise, in great detail, over and over, can actually affect muscle performance. Olympic athletes have been using this kind of motor imagery practice since the 1980s. Now, it’s being used in sports medicine, motor rehabilitation, even to ease phantom limb pain.

 (Shutterstock)
Updated on Jul 15, 2022 06:23 PM IST

Inside Kerala’s goal mine: A new documentary tracks the state’s football frenzy

An academy funded by the church, an octogenarian who still coaches, a man who rides 200km to watch local games — Misha Kumar’s Malayalam film focuses on the people in the stands, on the pitches, behind the commentators’ mics.

The energy of the game becomes a tool in the film. There’s the joy of young boys practising on the beach; the gladiatorial atmosphere of Sevens; roaring fans enraged by a loss.
Updated on Jul 09, 2022 01:26 PM IST

In a rare event, Tagore art work turns up at auction, fetches 9.36 lakh

Most of Rabindranath Tagore’s art works are preserved at national institutes. Bird, an undated painting in ink on brown paper, is from the private collection of another illustrious artist, the late Nandalal Bose.

Bird; undated ink on paper by Rabindranath Tagore.
Updated on Jun 24, 2022 10:22 PM IST

Remembering Ali Peter John: Veteran film journalist known for his compassion for ‘strugglers’

John was well-known among the film fraternity — actor Anupam Kher referred to him as the “Dilip Kumar of film journalism” on a condolence post on Twitter on Wednesday

John had friends across the industry. When he suffered an accident in 2016, newspapers reported how Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan paid his hospital bills. (HT Archive)
Published on Jun 10, 2022 12:27 AM IST
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