7^th April 2022

– Monmita Bhar

Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as metal 3D printing, creates objects by addition of material, layer by layer. A major source material for AM is metal powder, which is predominantly produced using a technique called atomisation, in which a molten metal stream is broken up into fine droplets using air or water jets. However, despite its widespread use, atomisation returns poor yield, is expensive, and is inflexible in the types of materials it can handle. A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) led by Koushik Viswanathan, Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has identified an alternative technique to produce metal powders that side-steps these problems. This has interesting implications for AM processes in general, including areas such as the manufacture of biomedical implants.

In the metal grinding industry, the material removed – called swarf – is often discarded as a waste product. It is commonly stringy in shape, like metal chips, but it often also throws up perfectly spherical particles. Scientists have long theorised that these bodies go through a melting process to take up the spherical shape, thus posing some interesting questions – does the heat from the grinding cause the melting? Is there melting at all? Viswanathan’s team showed that these powdery metal bodies form as a result of melting due to high heat from oxidation, an exothermic reaction, at the surface layer. They then refined this process to produce large quantities of spherical powders, which are collected and processed further to be used as stock material in AM. Their study shows that these particles perform just as well as commercial gas atomised powders in the context of metal AM.

Priti Ranjan Panda, a PhD student at IISc’s Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing and one of the authors of the study, adds, “We have an alternative, more economical and inherently scalable route for making metal powders, and the quality of the final powders appear to be very competitive when compared with conventional gas atomised powders.”

About the applications of their findings, Viswanathan explains, “There has been significant recent interest in adopting metal AM because by nature, it enables significant customisation and allows design freedom. However, the large cost of stock metal powders has been the stumbling block. We hope that our work will open new doors to making cheaper and more accessible metal powders.”

“Reducing the cost of the AM process (via economical powders) can widen the range of materials in situations such as manufacturing of biomedical implants, which could become cheaper and more accessible,” adds Harish Singh Dhami, a PhD student at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and co-author of this study. The researchers say that making metal powder using abrasion also has potential in other high-performance applications such as in aircraft engines, where a high degree of specificity and sophistication are required.

Currently, metal powders are typically produced at an atomisation facility, requiring transport for casting and recycling, thus setting up a big supply chain. This works for abundant metals like aluminium, Viswanathan points out, but for strategic materials (such as tantalum and lithium), where extraction alone is a complex process, it would be favourable to have a scalable process for producing metal powders. Then, in principle, the entire supply chain can be housed within a single facility – a possibility that their technique could offer.

REFERENCE:

Harish Singh Dhami, Priti Ranjan Panda, Koushik Viswanathan, Production of powders for metal additive manufacturing applications using surface grinding, Manufacturing Letters, Volume 32, 2022, ISSN 2213-8463

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mfglet.2022.02.004

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Koushik Viswanathan
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME)
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
koushik@iisc.ac.in
+91-80-22932670

Harish Singh Dhami
PhD student, Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME)
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
harishdhami@iisc.ac.in
+91-9447789656

Priti Ranjan Panda
PhD student, Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing (CPDM)
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
pritipanda@iisc.ac.in
+91-9525076428

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS:

a) If any of the text in this release is reproduced verbatim, please credit the IISc press release.

b) For any queries about IISc press releases, please write to news@iisc.ac.in or pro@iisc.ac.in.

11^th April 2022

– Praveen Jayakumar

 Pollutants like microplastics may be causing growth defects in fish, including skeletal deformities, in the Cauvery River, a new study reveals. Published in the journal Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, the study was led by Upendra Nongthomba, Professor at the Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics (MRDG), in the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

Nongthomba likes his fish. “Over the years, I have cherished going to the backwaters of the Krishna Raja Sagara [KRS] Dam and having fried fish on the Cauvery River bank,” he says. But in recent times, he has been noticing physical deformities in some of them. He began to wonder whether the quality of water may have something to do with it.

“Water is essential for everyone, including animals and plants. When it is polluted, it is capable of causing diseases, including cancer,” adds Abass Toba Anifowoshe, a PhD student in Nongthomba’s lab, and the first author of the study. Nongthomba’s lab, therefore, conducted a comprehensive study of pollution at the KRS Dam and its potential effects on fish. They collected water samples from three different locations with varying speeds of water flow – fast-flowing, slow-flowing, and stagnant – since water speed is known to affect the concentration of pollutants.

In the first part of the study, Nongthomba’s team analysed the physical and chemical parameters of the water samples. All but one of them fell within the prescribed limits. The exception was dissolved oxygen (DO), whose levels were much lower than they needed to be in samples collected from the slow-flowing and stagnant sites. Water from these sites also had microbes such as Cyclops, Daphnia, Spirogyra, Spirochaeta and E. coli, well-known bio-indicators of water contamination.

The researchers went further. Using a technique called Raman spectroscopy, they detected microplastics – minute pieces of plastic often invisible to the naked eye – and toxic chemicals containing the cyclohexyl functional group (a functional group refers to atoms in a compound that determine its chemical properties). Microplastics are found in several household and industrial products, and chemicals containing the cyclohexyl group, such as cyclohexyl isocyanate, are commonly used in agriculture and the pharmaceutical industry.

In the second part of the study, Nongthomba’s team investigated whether pollutants in water could account for the developmental abnormalities seen in wild fish. They treated embryos of the well-known model organism, zebrafish, with water samples collected from the three sites, and found that those exposed to water from the slow-flowing and stagnant sites experienced skeletal deformities, DNA damage, early cell death, heart damage, and increased mortality. These defects were seen even after microbes were filtered out, suggesting that microplastics and the cyclohexyl functional groups are responsible for the ailments in the fish.

The researchers also found unstable molecules called ROS (Reactive Oxygen Species) in the cells of the fish that developed abnormally. ROS build-up is known to damage DNA and affect animals in ways similar to what Abass and Nongthomba saw in fish treated with water from the slow-flowing and stagnant sites. Other studies have shown that microplastics and chemicals with the cyclohexyl group lead to decreased DO, which in turn triggers ROS accumulation in animals like fish.

A recent study from the Netherlands has shown that microplastics can enter the bloodstream of humans. So, what do the results from Nongthomba’s lab mean for the millions of people who use Cauvery water? “The concentrations we have reported may not be alarming yet for humans, but long-term effects can’t be ruled out,” he says. But he also admits that before they answer the question conclusively, they need to understand how exactly microplastics enter and affect the host. “This is something which we are trying to address now.”

REFERENCE: 

Anifowoshe AT, Roy D, Dutta S, Nongthomba U, Evaluation of cytogenotoxic potential and embryotoxicity of KRS-Cauvery River water in zebrafish (Danio rerio), Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, Volume 233, 2022, 113320, ISSN 0147-6513,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.113320

CONTACT: 

Upendra Nongthomba
Professor, Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics (MRDG)
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
upendra@iisc.ac.in
+91-80-22933258

Abass Toba Anifowoshe
PhD student, Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics (MRDG)
Indian Institute of Science (IISc
anifowoshea@iisc.ac.in

 IMAGES Credits: Abass Toba Anifowoshe and Upendra Nongthomba

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: 

a) If any of the text in this release is reproduced verbatim, please credit the IISc press release.
b) For any queries about IISc press releases, please write to news@iisc.ac.in or pro@iisc.ac.in.

20^th April 2022

– Rohith KMS

In collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), a team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has developed a sustainable method for making bricks out of Martian soil, using bacteria and urea. These “space bricks” can be used to construct building-like structures on Mars that could facilitate human settlement on the red planet.

Photo: Nitin Gupta, PhD student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IISc

The method for making these space bricks has been outlined in a study published in PLOS One. A slurry is first created by mixing Martian soil (simulant) with guar gum, a bacterium called Sporosarcina pasteurii, urea and nickel chloride (NiCl₂). This slurry can be poured into moulds of any desired shape, and over a few days the bacteria convert the urea into crystals of calcium carbonate. These crystals, along with biopolymers secreted by the microbes, act as cement holding the soil particles together.

An advantage of this method is the reduced porosity of the bricks, which has been a problem with other methods used to consolidate Martian soil into bricks. “The bacteria seep deep into the pore spaces, using their own proteins to bind the particles together, decreasing porosity and leading to stronger bricks,” says Aloke Kumar, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IISc, one of the senior authors of the paper.

The research group had previously worked on making bricks out of lunar soil (simulant), using a similar method. However, the previous method could only produce cylindrical bricks, while the current slurry-casting method can also produce bricks of complex shapes. The slurry-casting method was developed with the help of Koushik Viswanathan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IISc, whose lab works on advanced manufacturing processes. In addition, extending the method to Martian soil proved challenging. “Martian soil contains a lot of iron, which causes toxicity to organisms. In the beginning, our bacteria did not grow at all. Adding nickel chloride was the key step in making the soil hospitable to the bacteria,” explains Kumar.

The group plans to investigate the effect of Mars’ atmosphere and low gravity on the strength of the space bricks. The Martian atmosphere is 100 times thinner than Earth’s atmosphere, and contains over 95% carbon dioxide, which may significantly affect bacterial growth. The researchers have constructed a device called MARS (Martian AtmospheRe Simulator), which consists of a chamber that reproduces the atmospheric conditions found on Mars in the lab.

The team has also developed a lab-on-a-chip device that aims to measure bacterial activity in micro-gravity conditions. “The device is being developed keeping in mind our intention to perform experiments in micro-gravity conditions in the near future,” explains Rashmi Dikshit, a DBT-BioCARe Fellow at IISc and first author of the study, who had also previously worked on the lunar bricks. With ISRO’s help, the team plans to send such devices into space, so that they can study the effect of low gravity on the bacterial growth.

“I’m so excited that many researchers across the world are thinking about colonising other planets,” says Kumar. “It may not happen quickly, but people are actively working on it.”

REFERENCE:

Dikshit R, Gupta N, Dey A, Viswanathan K, Kumar A, Microbial induced calcite precipitation can consolidate martian and lunar regolith simulants, PLOS One, 17.4 (2022): e0266415. 

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0266415

CONTACT:

Aloke Kumar
Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
Email: alokekumar@iisc.ac.in
Phone (office): +91 80 22932958

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: 

a) If any of the text in this release is reproduced verbatim, please credit the IISc press release.
b) For any queries about IISc press releases, please write to news@iisc.ac.in or pro@iisc.ac.in.

25^th April 2022

– Ranjini Raghunath

 A drug used to treat asthma and allergies can bind to and block a crucial protein produced by the virus SARS-CoV-2, and reduce viral replication in human immune cells, according to a new study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).   

 Approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the drug, called montelukast, has been around for more than 20 years and is usually prescribed to reduce inflammation caused by conditions like asthma, hay fever and hives.  

 In the study published in eLife, the researchers show that the drug binds strongly to one end (‘C-terminal’) of a SARS-CoV-2 protein called Nsp1, which is one of the first viral proteins unleashed inside the human cells. This protein can bind to ribosomes – the protein-making machinery – inside our immune cells and shut down the synthesis of vital proteins required by the immune system, thereby weakening it. Targeting Nsp1 could therefore reduce the damage inflicted by the virus.   

 “The mutation rate in this protein, especially the C-terminal region, is very low compared to the rest of the viral proteins,” explains Tanweer Hussain, Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics (MRDG), IISc, and senior author of the study. Since Nsp1 is likely to remain largely unchanged in any variants of the virus that emerge, drugs targeting this region are expected to work against all such variants, he adds.   

 Hussain and his team first used computational modelling to screen more than 1,600 FDA-approved drugs in order to find the ones that bound strongly to Nsp1. From these, they were able to shortlist a dozen drugs including montelukast and saquinavir, an anti-HIV drug. “The molecular dynamic simulations generate a lot of data, in the range of terabytes, and help to figure out the stability of the drug-bound protein molecule. To analyse these and identify which drugs may work inside the cell was a challenge,” says Mohammad Afsar, former Project Scientist at MRDG, currently a postdoc at the University of Texas at Austin, and first author of the study.  

 Working with the group of Sandeep Eswarappa, Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Hussain’s team then cultured human cells in the lab that specifically produced Nsp1, treated them with montelukast and saquinavir separately, and found that only montelukast was able to rescue the inhibition of protein synthesis by Nsp1. 

Targeting Nsp1 with montelukast helps prevent shutdown of host protein synthesis (Credit: Mohammad Afsar) 

“There are two aspects [to consider]: one is affinity and the other is stability,” explains Afsar. This means that the drug needs to not only bind to the viral protein strongly, but also stay bound for a sufficiently long time to prevent the protein from affecting the host cell, he adds. “The anti-HIV drug (saquinavir) showed good affinity, but not good stability.” Montelukast, on the other hand, was found to bind strongly and stably to Nsp1, allowing the host cells to resume normal protein synthesis.   

Hussain’s lab then tested the effect of the drug on live viruses, in the Bio-Safety Level 3 (BSL-3) facility at the Centre for Infectious Disease Research (CIDR), IISc, in collaboration with Shashank Tripathi, Assistant Professor at CIDR, and his team. They found that the drug was able to reduce viral numbers in infected cells in the culture.  

 “Clinicians have tried using the drug … and there are reports that said that montelukast reduced hospitalisation in COVID-19 patients,” says Hussain, adding that the exact mechanisms by which it works still need to be fully understood. His team plans to work with chemists to see if they can modify the structure of the drug to make it more potent against SARS-CoV-2. They also plan to continue hunting for similar drugs with strong antiviral activity.   

REFERENCE: 

Afsar M, Narayan R, Akhtar MN, Das D, Rahil H, Nagaraj SK, Eswarappa SM, Tripathi S, Hussain T, Drug targeting Nsp1-ribosomal complex shows antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2, eLife (2022). 

https://elifesciences.org/articles/74877 

CONTACT: 

Tanweer Hussain
Assistant Professor,
Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics (MRDG),
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
hussain@iisc.ac.in
080-2293 3262 

Mohammad Afsar
Former Project Scientist,
Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics (MRDG),
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
afsar3232@gmail.com 

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: 

a) If any of the text in this release is reproduced verbatim, please credit the IISc press release.

b) For any queries about IISc press releases, please write to news@iisc.ac.in or pro@iisc.ac.in.

04 April 2023

Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Gitam University, and Water Technology Centre – Water & Effluent Treatment (WET IC) Division of L&T have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to advance research and development in areas relevant to India’s needs.

The MoU signing ceremony was held on 24 March 2023, at the IISc campus in Bengaluru. The agreement was signed in the presence of Prof G Rangarajan, Director of IISc, by Capt Sridhar Warrier, Registrar at IISc, Prof MS Mohan Kumar, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Gitam University, and Mr S Jagannathan, Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Water & Effluent Treatment Division of L&T.

Under the MoU, the three organisations will collaborate in areas such as water and wastewater transport & treatment, hydrology, AI and ML interventions in water and wastewater treatment, and environmental protection. The partnership will focus on developing innovative and sustainable solutions to address India’s challenges in these critical areas.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof Rangarajan said, “IISc is pleased to collaborate with Gitam University and L&T’s Water Technology Centre, WET IC, to advance India-relevant R&D. This partnership will enable us to leverage our collective expertise and resources to develop cutting-edge solutions that can address pressing challenges facing our country.”

Prof MS Mohan Kumar, Pro Vice-Chancellor of GITAM University, said, “We are excited to partner with IISc and L&T’s Water Technology Centre, WET IC, in this important national initiative. This MoU will enable us to work together to create impactful solutions that address the challenges facing India and contribute to the country’s development.”

Mr S Jagannathan of L&T said, “We are delighted to collaborate with IISc and GITAM University in this most important area of water. Our partnership will enable us to develop innovative, scalable and sustainable solutions that address India’s challenges in water and wastewater transport & treatment, smart water management, energy-neutral treatment plants, implementation of digital solutions in the water domain and environmental protection at large.”

This MoU signing marks a significant milestone in advancing India-relevant R&D in water-related areas through collaboration between academia and industry.

CONTACT
Office of Communications | news@iisc.ac.in

06 April 2023

–Narmada Khare

Just like humans, animals move about to find food, shelter, and mates. Movement in the wild, however, comes with increased risk, as it can be tracked by predators.

To understand how katydids (bushcrickets) are hunted by their predator – the lesser false vampire bat – a group of researchers led by Rohini Balakrishnan, Professor at the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), fitted tiny radio tags onto these insects and tracked their movement in the canopy. They found that female katydids are at greater risk than males, likely because the former are frequent fliers who cover longer distances.

Published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, this is the first insect radio tracking study in India, explains Harish Prakash, postdoc at CES and an author of the paper. He says that in addition to field observation, they carried out experiments in a controlled environment to answer key research questions on predator-prey interactions.

Lesser false vampire bats – native to South and Southeast Asia – bring their prey back to their roost to eat. A large proportion of the bat diet consists of insects like katydids. In earlier studies, Balakrishnan and others found that there were a lot more remnants of female wings than males, suggesting that the bats preferred to prey on female katydids. This was unexpected, because katydid females are usually silent, unlike the males that make themselves conspicuous by calling out to attract the females. This led the researchers to ask the question: What about katydid females made them more attractive to the bats?

A whistler male with radio tag attached (Credit: Kasturi Saha)

One possibility is that bats can detect females more easily, since they are usually larger than males. Second, female katydids might be more nutritious than males and therefore preferred by bats. To test these possibilities, the researchers focused on a group of katydids called “whistlers”, in which females are almost double the size and weight of the males. They presented free-flying whistler females as well as males to bats in a large, outdoor cage. Surprisingly, the bats approached both males and females with equal frequency. In fact, in this experimental setup, females escaped capture more often than males. So, it was not the size or nutritive value of the females that increased the risk of their predation.

Then the researchers hit on a third possibility: perhaps the females were flying out more often. To test this, the team glued tiny radio transmitters onto the backs of male and female katydids and tracked them as they flew across trees. What they found was that females tend to move 1.5 times more frequently and 1.8 times farther than males. This led them to conclude that flying more frequently and traveling longer distances across trees may put females at a higher risk of being hunted by bats than males. Kasturi Saha, PhD student at CES and corresponding author on the paper, suggests a possible reason for these frequent long flights: “The females may move around in search of mates, as well as suitable egg-laying sites”.

Lesser false vampire bat (Credit: Kasturi Saha)

“In systems where males produce conspicuous acoustic signals and females move silently, it has been assumed that males rather than females perform the higher-risk behaviours,” says Balakrishnan. However, contrary to this view of risk-taking males and risk-averse females, the current study shows that female katydids might be at greater risk of predation.

There are still many unanswered questions about predator-prey interactions. For example, Saha explains that the bats seem to hunt more female katydids during non-breeding seasons. “This is another mystery we are trying to solve.”

REFERENCE:
Saha K, Prakash H, Mohapatra PP, Balakrishnan R, Is flying riskier for female katydids than for males? Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (2023).
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-023-03298-7

CONTACT:
Kasturi Saha
PhD student
Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES)
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
Phone: 9486172985
Email: kasturisahaks@iisc.ac.in

Rohini Balakrishnan
Professor
Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES)
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
Phone: +91-80-23602971
Email: brohini@iisc.ac.in
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/rohinibalakrishnanlab/home

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS:
a) If any of the text in this release is reproduced verbatim, please credit the IISc press release.
b) For any queries about IISc press releases, please write to news@iisc.ac.in or pro@iisc.ac.in .

17 April 2023

– Shrivallabh Deshpande

What did the Earth look like about two billion years ago, when the planet’s atmosphere was being oxygenated?

By analysing ancient dolomite (carbonate) deposits found in Vempalle, in the Cuddapah district of Andhra Pradesh, researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the University of Tennessee have estimated the temperature and composition of a shallow, inland sea that most likely existed back in that time, called the Palaeoproterozoic era.

Their findings provide insight into how the conditions during that time provided just the right ambience for the emergence and bloom of photosynthetic algae. It also shows how a wealth of data about our planet’s past remains hidden inside ancient rocks.

“The story of our planet is written in the different strata of rocks,” explains Prosenjit Ghosh, Professor at the Centre for Earth Science (CEaS), IISc, and corresponding author of the study published in Chemical Geology.

Outcrop of the Palaeoproterozoic section in the Cuddapah basin (Photo: Yogaraj Banerjee)

Planet Earth hasn’t always been this hospitable for life. It has been through different phases of climatic extremes, including periods when carbon dioxide levels were almost too toxic for living creatures, just like our neighbour, Venus. However, various studies of fossils from the Palaeoproterozoic era have shown that some life might have existed even under these harsh conditions.

The large amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere were absorbed by the sea and trapped as carbonates in dolomites, says Yogaraj Banerjee, a former PhD student from CEaS and one of the authors.

“[Dolomite] is a direct precipitate from seawater. It provides a signal not only of seawater chemistry but also of seawater temperature,” explains Robert Riding, Research Professor at the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, USA, and another author of the study.

The team of researchers collected dolomite samples from chert – hard rocks formed by the interaction of microbes with seawater – as well as deposits underneath them called dolomitic lime-mud. Having first identified the strata of rock where the dolomitic mud could be found, the researchers extracted and transported them back to the lab. Then, they used a state-of-the-art technique known as clumped isotope thermometry to analyse them. The technique allows scientists to narrow down the temperature and composition of the deposits by looking at the arrangement of the carbon and oxygen bonds.

After two years of intense analysis, the team was able to figure out from the dolomitic mud that the temperature of the seawater during its original time period was about 20°C. This is in contrast to previous studies that analysed only chert samples from around the same period, and had estimated that the temperature was higher, around 50°C. The lower temperature estimate from the current study agrees more closely with the theory that the conditions were ideal for supporting lifeforms.

During the Palaeoproterozoic era, the type of water present was earlier believed to be only heavy water, containing a specific set of isotopes or forms of hydrogen. However, in the current study, the team showed that light water – the regular form of water found even today – was also present back then.

Palaeoproterozoic (around 2 billion years-old) stromatolite fossils studied in this project (Photo: Yogaraj Banerjee)

Taken together, these insights – the lower seawater temperature and the presence of light water – strongly support the hypothesis that the conditions around two billion years ago were just right for photosynthetic algae to emerge. These algae were mainly responsible for pumping oxygen into the atmosphere, and making way for other lifeforms to evolve and populate the planet.

“It is fascinating to unravel the conditions that led to the emergence of life from a rock which was waiting to be picked up,” says Sanchita Banerjee, former PhD student at CEaS and first author of the study.

The team now plans to search for similar lime-mud deposits in other places around the world to gather additional insights about the Palaeoproterozoic era.

REFERENCE:

Banerjee S, Ghosh P, Banerjee Y, Riding R, Oxygen isotopic composition of Paleoproterozoic seawater revealed by clumped isotope analysis of dolomite, Vempalle Formation, Cuddapah, India, Chemical Geology(2023).

CONTACT:

Prosenjit Ghosh
Professor, Centre for Earth Sciences (CEaS) & Divecha Centre for Climate Change
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
Email: pghosh@iisc.ac.in
Phone: +91-80-2293-3403
Lab website: https://www.oasislab.co.in/

Yogaraj Banerjee
Postdoctoral research fellow, National Taiwan University
Former PhD student, Centre for Earth Sciences (CEaS)
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
Email: ybanerjee15@gmail.com

Robert Riding
Research Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
University of Tennessee
Email: rriding@utk.edu

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS:

a) If any of the text in this release is reproduced verbatim, please credit the IISc press release.
b) For any queries about IISc press releases, please write to news@iisc.ac.in or pro@iisc.ac.in.