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A species goes extinct when there are none of its kind left. In other words, extinction is about small numbers, so how does big data help us study extinction? Luckily for us, each individual of a species carries with it signatures of its past, information on how connected/ isolated it is today, and other information on what may predict its future, in its genome. The last fifteen years have witnessed a major change in how we can read genomes, and information from genomes of individuals and species can help better plan their conservation. 

All life on Earth harbours genetic material. Often called the blueprint of life, this genetic material could be DNA or RNA. We all know what DNA is, but another way to think of DNA is as data. All mammals, for example harbour between 2 to 3.5 billion bits of data in every one of their cells. The entire string of DNA data is called the whole genome. Recent changes in technology allow us to read whole genomes. We read short 151 letter long information bits many, many times, and piece together the whole genome by comparing it to a known reference. This helps us figure out where each of these 151 letter long pieces go in the 3 billion letter long word. Once we have read each position on an average of 10 or 20 times, we can be confident about it. If each genome is sequenced even ten times and only ten individuals are sampled, for mammals each dataset would consist of 200 to 350 billion bits of data!

Over time, the genome changes because of mutation, or spelling errors that creep in. Such spelling errors create variation, or differences between individual genomes in a population (a set of animals or plants). Similarly, large populations with many individuals will hold a variety of spellings or high genetic variation. Since DNA is the genetic blueprint, changes in the environment can also get reflected in these DNA spellings, with individuals with certain words in their genome surviving better than others under certain conditions. Changes in population size often changes the variety of letters observed at a specific location in the genome, or variation at a specific genomic position. Migration or movement of animals into a population adds new letters and variation. Taking all these together, the history of a population can be understood by comparing the DNA sequences of individuals. The challenge lies in the fact that every population faces all of these effects: changes in population size, environmental selection, migration and mutation, all at once, and it is difficult to separate the effects of different factors. Here, the big data comes to the rescue.

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Photo Credit: Dr Anubhab Khan

Genomic data has allowed us to understand how a population has been affected by changes in climate, and whether it has the necessary genomic variation to survive in the face of ongoing climate change. Or how specific human activities have impacted a population in the past. We can understand more about the origins of a population. How susceptible is a population to certain infections? Or whether the individuals in a population are related to each other. Some of these large datasets have helped identify if certain populations are identical and should be managed together or separately. All of these questions help in the management and conservation of a population.

We have worked on such big genomic datasets for tigers, and our research has helped us identify which populations of tigers have high genomic variation and are more connected to other populations. We have identified populations that are small and have low genomic variation, but also seem to have mis-spelled or badly spelled words, or a propensity of ‘bad’ mutations. We have identified unknown relationships between individuals within populations and have suggested strategies that could allow these isolated populations to recover their genomic variation. It has been amazing to peek into animals lives through these big data approaches, and we hope these types of genomic dataset will contribute to understanding how biodiversity can continue to survive on this Earth.


Uma Ramakrishnan is fascinated by unravelling the mysteries of nature using DNA as tool. Along with her lab colleagues, she has spent the last fifteen years studying endangered species in India.She hopes such understanding will contribute to their conservation. Uma is a professor at the National Centre for Biological Sciences.

Dr. Anubhab Khan is a wildlife genomics expert. He has researching genetics of small isolated populations for past several years and has created and analyzed large scale genome sequencing data of tigers, elephants and small cats among others. He keen about population genetics, wildlife conservation and genome sequencing technologies. He is passionate about ending technology disparity in the world by either making advanced technologies and expertise available or by developing techniques that are affordable and accessible to all.

This series is an initiative by the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF), under their programme ‘Nature Communications’ to encourage nature content in all Indian languages. To know more about birds and nature, Join The Flock


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A Planet with a Death Wish: How HIP 67522 b Is Forcing Its Star to Explode

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A Planet with a Death Wish: How HIP 67522 b Is Forcing Its Star to Explode

Scientists have caught a planet with a death wish, which is an alien world, orbiting very near to its star, and so speedy that it is causing the star to go to its death with bursting explosions. HIP 67522 b is the planet, and it is of the same size as Jupiter with a seven-day orbit around its host star. These orbits are disturbing the magnetic field of the star and causing enormous blasting eruptions to blow back the planet and make it wrinkled. This is the first time that a planet is influencing the host star, as the astronomers reported in a study published on July 2, 2025, in the Journal Nature.

A Planet with a Death Wish: HIP 67522 b’s Fiery Orbit

As per the study by NASA, Ekaterina Ilin, the first author of the study and an astrophysicist at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, said that the planet was observed to trigger the energetic flares. It has been predicted by the scientists that the waves are setting off explosions that are going to happen.

Magnetic Chaos: Planet Triggering Star’s Explosions

Stars are burning plasma, gigantic balls with charged particles or ions that move on their surface to form strong magnetic fields. Since the magnetic fields cannot cross each other, sometimes these field knots suddenly snap to launch flares of radiation known as solar flares, which are often accompanied by coronal mass ejections, also known as surface plasma.

As many planets have a magnetic field, scientists have long wondered whether the planets, having close orbits near their stars, might disturb these strong magnetic fields and trigger the explosions. For years, scientists have observed whether the planets can influence the magnetic behaviour of their host stars, especially the ones that are close to their orbits.

A New Era of Star-Planet Relationship Studies

A planet with a strong magnetic field orbits around a star which has a delicate magnetic field, then it might be bombarded with solar radiation. These interactions helps int he study of star and planet bond and further the evolution of atmospher and magnetic field.

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Pebble Halo Smart Ring Launched in India With In-Built Digital Display: Price, Features



Dolby Cinema Debuts in Pune Featuring Dolby Vision With 4K Laser Projection, Dolby Atmos

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Webb Telescope Spots Possible Jellyfish Galaxy 12 Billion Light-Years Away

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Webb Telescope Spots Possible Jellyfish Galaxy 12 Billion Light-Years Away

Astronomers have discovered a new “jellyfish” galaxy about 12 billion light-years away using the James Webb Space Telescope. It appears to have tentacle-like streams of gas and stars trailing off one side, a signature feature of jellyfish galaxies. These galaxies develop such trails via ram pressure stripping as they move through dense cluster environments, triggering star formation in the stripped gas. The find was made by Ian Roberts of Waterloo University, and details are described in a preprint on arXiv. More analysis is needed to confirm the classification, but early signs strongly suggest this object is indeed a jellyfish galaxy.

What Are Jellyfish Galaxies?

According to NASA, jellyfish galaxies are so named because of the long, trailing streams of gas and young stars that extend from one side of the galaxy. This phenomenon occurs when a galaxy moves rapidly through the hot, dense gas in a cluster, and ram pressure strips material away. The stripped gas forms a wake behind the galaxy, and this wake often lights up with bursts of new star formation. At the same time, the process can deprive the galaxy’s core of gas, potentially slowing star formation in the galaxy’s center.

Because the jellyfish stage is short-lived on cosmic timescales, astronomers rarely catch galaxies in this act. Studying jellyfish galaxies gives scientists insight into how dense environments affect galaxy evolution and star formation.

Discovery and Future Research

The researchers caution that the galaxy’s apparent “tentacles” may partly be an artifact of the imaging method. If confirmed, this object (COSMOS2020-635829) would be the most distant known jellyfish galaxy, offering a rare glimpse of how ram pressure stripping and cluster-driven quenching operated in the early cosmos. As the study authors note, finding a jellyfish at z>1 reinforces the idea that these environmental effects were already at work near the peak of cosmic star formation.

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Mars Dust Devils May Spark Lightning, Might Pose Risks to Rovers: Study

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Mars Dust Devils May Spark Lightning, Might Pose Risks to Rovers: Study

Dust devils on Mars – swirling columns of dust and air that often scour the Red Planet’s surface – may be crackling with electricity, a new computer-modeling study suggests. Researchers led by Varun Sheel simulated how Mars’s dry atmosphere and frictional dust collisions charge up grains inside a vortex. They found these fields could grow so strong that brief lightning-like discharges might occur. This electrification is a concern for surface missions, since charged dust could cling to rover wheels, solar panels and antennas, blocking sunlight and interfering with communications.

Formation and Features of Martian Dust Devils

According to the study, dust devils form when the Sun heats Mars’s surface, causing warm air to rise and spin into vortices. Colder air rushes inward along the ground, stretching the rising column upward and whipping dust high into the sky. Because Mars has lower gravity and a thinner atmosphere than Earth, its dust devils can tower much higher, three times larger than storms on Earth. NASA’s Viking mission first detected Martian dust devils; later rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance have filmed them sweeping across the dusty plains. These whirlwinds clean off solar panels – as happened with Spirit in 2005 – but more often they stir up fine dust that can coat instruments.

Electrification and Risks to Rovers

Dust grains in Martian whirlwinds can pick up charge through collisions (a triboelectric effect). Sheel’s models predict that this charge separation can create strong electric fields inside a dust devil. These fields could even exceed Mars’s atmospheric breakdown threshold (around 25 kV/m), enough to spark lightning in the vortex. NASA’s Perseverance rover recorded what appears to be a small triboelectric discharge when a dust devil passed overhead.

Even without lightning, any static buildup is problematic. As planetary scientist Yoav Yair notes, “Electrified dust will adhere to conducting surfaces such as wheels, solar panels and antennas,” potentially reducing sunlight reaching panels and jamming communications. Rovers may need new design features or procedures to handle this unusual Martian weather.

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