Prof Rohini Balakrishnan was interviewed by The Weather Channel. Check the interview in the link below!
Link: https://weather.com/en-IN/india/science/news/2019-02-15-chasing-the-musi...
Previous studies have argued that movement of organisms typically does not favour animals helping or cooperating each other. Therefore, in species that exhibit collective movement and fission-fusion among groups, cooperation is considered unlikely to occur. In a recent paper published in PLoS Computational Biology, Jaideep Joshi (PhD student), Vishwesha Guttal and collaborators from Germany and USA challenge this common perception.
A new study published in the journal eLife shows that tree crickets manufacture surprisingly accurate optimal aids for sound amplification. This work was led by Natasha Mhatre (a former PhD student of CES), Rittik Deb (a recent PhD student of CES), Rohini Balakrishnan and collaborators from UK (Robert Malkin and Daniel Robert).
Worker castes of fungus-growing termite depositing “agar boluses” on the fungal plug of weedy
Pseudoxylaria (from the October issue of Journal of Chemical Ecology). Photo Credit: Nikhil More
Lakshya Katariya and colleagues (Renee M Borges’ lab) discover that fungus-farming termites
selectively bury the weedy fungi that smell different from crop fungi
Recent research findings by a CES Ph.D. student Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel, Prof. Polani B Seshagiri (MRDG, IISc) and Prof. Raman Sukumar (CES, IISc) show that the stress levels and body condition of elephants varied between seasons. Wild Asian elephants were showed ‘poor’ body condition and were found to be ‘more’ stressed during resource-deficient periods. This pattern was more conspicuous in female Asian elephants.
The egg laying organ of insects, their ovipositor, is usually believed to only taste via chemical receptors. A recent study by CES PhD student Pratibha Yadav and Prof. Renee Borges shows that insect ovipositor can also sense smell.
Photo-credit: Nikhil More
Bower bird nests, bee hives and towering termite mounds have always fascinated architects, naturalists and laypersons alike but we barely know how they are built. A study by an interdisciplinary team consisting Nikita Zachariah (a PhD student) and Prof. Renee M Borges from CES, Aritra Das from the Centre for NeuroScience and Prof. Tejas Murthy from the Department of Civil Engineering, IISc offers interesting clues on how termites build huge mounds.
A recent paper from the lab of Dr Maria Thaker, with her student Amod Zambre, has received wide media coverage.
Congratulations to Rittik Deb, a PhD student at Prof.Rohini Balakrishnan's Lab for winning the Commended Poster Award of Commonwealth Science Conference 2014