At a time when science is helping solve the world's toughest problems, chemical warfare remains a sobering example of innovation gone wrong. Used to incapacitate or kill by exploiting toxic substances, chemical weapons have carved a grim legacy in modern history. Chemical warfare involves the use of manufactured chemical substances in military conflicts to harm humans, animals, or the environment. These agents—often dispersed through gas, aerosols, or bombs—affect the nervous system, lungs, or skin, depending on their composition. Historically, chemical weapons made their infamous debut in World War I when German forces released chlorine gas on the Western Front. Thousands of soldiers suffocated in trenches, unprepared for a threat they couldn’t see or smell. By the end of the war, over a million casualties were attributed to chemical agents. World War II saw limited battlefield use but introduced even deadlier chemicals. In Nazi concentration camps, the gas Zyklon B was used in ma...
The stock market, often portrayed as a world of high stakes and fast fortunes, is in reality a structured financial system where companies raise capital and investors trade ownership in those companies. In India, the primary hubs for such activity are the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE). When an investor buys a share, they are purchasing a small slice of ownership in that company. As the company grows and earns profits, the value of that ownership can rise, and in some cases, shareholders may receive dividends, which are a portion of the company’s earnings. Broadly speaking, there are two distinct ways people participate in the market: investing and trading. Investing is a long-term approach, often stretching over years or decades. It focuses on building wealth steadily by holding stocks, mutual funds, or exchange-traded funds, and relies heavily on the underlying strength and future potential of a business. Trading, by contrast, is a short-term activi...