Tech

Google Pixel 9a is now available for purchase in India. The new Pixel A-series smartphone debuted in March in the country in three colour options. The Pixel 9a runs on Google’s in-house Tensor G4 chip, paired with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It has a dual rear camera setup that is led by a 48-megapixel primary camera. The Pixel 9a packs a 5,100mAh battery that is claimed to deliver more than 30 hours of battery life on a single charge.

Google Pixel 9a Price in India, Sale Offers

Google Pixel 9a price in India is set at Rs. 49,999 and the phone is available in a single 8GB RAM + 256GB storage configuration. It is sold in Iris, Obsidian, and Porcelain colour options in the country. Customers in the US, and some other markets, can buy the Pixel 9a in a fourth Peony colourway. 

The Pixel 9a is now available via Flipkart and other retail partners. The company currently offers a Rs. 3,000 cashback and 24-month no-cost EMI option for payments made via HDFC Bank, IDFC Bank and Bajaj Finserv credit cards. Flipkart is offering a five percent cashback for purchases using a Flipkart Axis Bank credit card. No-cost EMIs start at Rs. 2,084 per month on the e-commerce website.

Pixel 9a Specifications

The dual SIM (Nano+eSIM) Pixel 9a runs on Android 15, and it is slated to receive seven years of OS and security updates. It features a 6.3-inch (1,080×2,424 pixels) Actua (pOLED) display with up to 120Hz refresh rate and up to 2,700nits peak brightness. The display has Gorilla Glass 3 protection. It has a Tensor G4 chip under the hood, paired with a Titan M2 security coprocessor. It has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of inbuilt storage.

The Pixel 9a features a dual rear camera unit comprising a 48-megapixel primary camera and a 13-megapixel ultrawide camera. It is also equipped with a 13-megapixel front-facing camera. It offers multiple AI-based camera features such as Add Me, Night Sight, Macro Focus, and Face Unblur.

Connectivity options on the Pixel 9a include 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, GPS, NavIC, and a USB Type-C port. Sensors onboard include accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer, ambient light sensor, and proximity sensor. It has an in-display fingerprint scanner for biometric authentication. It supports Face Unlock feature. The handset has an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance.

The Pixel 9a has a 5,100mAh battery with 23W fast charging and 7.5W wireless (Qi) charging. The battery is claimed to deliver more than 30 hours of battery life on a single charge. It has stereo speakers and two microphones. The phone measures 154.7×73.3×8.9mm and weighs 185.9g.

The silence of the Sahara desert unveils the evidence of a verdant past rooted in North African lineage, published on 2 April in the Journal Nature. The study took place in the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, together with an archaeological mission in the Sahara at Sapienza University of Rome, revealed that the two mummified individuals discovered from the Takarkori rock shelter in southwest Libya dated back over 7000 years. The findings predict the genetic history of early North African populations during the African Humid Period.

Genome Analysis

The Sahara desert was once a green savannah between 14,500 and 5000 years from the present, along the water bodies that promoted human occupation with pastoralism in the Holocene epoch. The Sahara Desert has rare DNA preservation due to its present habitat, leading to limited knowledge of genetic history. However, the Sahara was not a barren land that we know today; in fact, a green and fertile land dotted with grasslands and lakes. The study suggests that the DNA retrieval unveils a previously unknown North African ancestral lineage.

Evidence from the analysis predicts that these ancient people were different from both sub-Saharan and Eurasian groups, signalling a unique North African crowd that played a crucial role in the prehistoric period. However, the DNA contains no direct evidence of blending with neighbouring areas of that time. This, in turn, highlights the genetic isolation and importance in the history of human evolution.

The Takarkori individuals are closely related to the ancestors from Taforalt Cave, Morocco, linked with the Iberomaurusian lithic industry and predating the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process). However, Takarkri individuals show ten times less Neanderthal hierarchy than Valentine farmers, still significantly more than present sub-Saharan genomes. Taforalt individuals have half the Neanderthal blend of non-Africans.

Findings and Implications

The study demonstrates not just reshaping the understanding of ancient North African hierarchy but also puts strong emphasis on the importance of the Green Sahara in the past. Not just that, pastoralism flourished through cultural diffusion into a divergent, isolated North African ancestral lineage that spread in North Africa at the time of the late Pleistocene epoch. Researchers continue to explore the region, and there could be more secrets unleashed from this vast green landscape, bridging the gaps in the human origins story.

Nintendo Switch 2 was fully unveiled earlier this month at a Direct showcase, with Nintendo finally sharing details about its next console and the games coming to it in 2025. In addition to first-party titles like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, several third-party developers announced their games for the Switch 2 at the presentation. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has now said in he intends to support the new console with Xbox games, too.

Phil Spencer on Switch 2

In a new interview with Variety, Spencer talked about Microsoft’s plans for Nintendo Switch 2 and said the platform offered the Xbox parent a way to reach new players.

“So we’ve been supporting Switch 1, I want to support Switch 2. Nintendo has been a great partner. We think it is a unique way for us to reach players who aren’t PC players, who aren’t players on Xbox,” the Xbox chief said.

“It lets us continue to grow our community of people that care about the franchises that we have, and that’s really important for us to make sure we continue to invest in our games.

“I’m really a big believer in what Nintendo means for this industry and us continuing to support them. And getting the support from them for our franchises, I think, is an important part of our future.”

Xbox Games Rumoured for Nintendo Switch 2

Spencer has previously confirmed that Xbox would support Nintendo’s new console. While Microsoft did not announce any of its games for the Switch 2 at the Nintendo Direct presentation on April 2, but some Xbox titles have been reported to be coming to Nintendo’s new console.

Earlier this year in January, industry insider NateTheHate had shared his predictions for Xbox and its games in 2025, where he said that Xbox exclusives Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and Halo: The Master Chief Collection would launch on Nintendo Switch 2 and PS5.

A separate Windows Central report at the same time, had claimed that Microsoft intended to double down on its multiplatform strategy in 2025 and launch more games on Sony and Nintendo’s platforms. According to the report, first-party Xbox games like Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, Age of Mythology: Retold and potentially Gears of War: Ultimate Edition could arrive on PS5 and likely on Nintendo Switch 2 this year. Microsoft has not yet confirmed any of its games for the Switch 2 yet.

But as Spencer mentioned in his latest interview, the Xbox parent has supported the Nintendo Switch platform in the past. Last year, in a pivot from its Xbox and PC exclusive launch strategy for its first-party games, Microsoft announced that four of its titles would launch on the Nintendo Switch and PS5.

These four games — Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, Hi-Fi Rush and Grounded — later launched on both platforms and are currently available on the Switch. Microsoft is set to launch Bethesda’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on the PS5 later this week after the game’s initial release on PC and Xbox Series S/X.

A new study has found that the private trade in Tyrannosaurus rex fossils is hampering researchers’ understanding of the iconic Cretaceous predator. Thomas Carr, an associate professor of biology at Carthage College, found that there are now more scientifically valuable T. rex specimens in private or commercial ownership than in public museums and other public trusts. The private market is likely to be an underestimate, as commercial companies are discovering twice as many T. rex fossils as museums.

Private Fossil Trade Threatens T. rex Research Progress

Carr concentrated on “scientifically informative” specimens—heads, skeletons, and isolated bones—to understand exactly how the private market sets the limitations for researchers able to obtain T. rex fossils. The most valued dinosaur sold in 2024 was a Stegosaurus, which sold for $44.6 million ; Carr wants to bring attention to his work so that other researchers may investigate how the commercial market is influencing other extinct species, including the T. rex.

As per the study, it is claimed that the private trade in Tyrannosaurus rex fossils is compromising knowledge of the famous Cretaceous predator. Director of the Carthage Institute of Palaeontology in Wisconsin and associate professor of biology at Carthage College, Thomas Carr, discovered that private or commercial ownership of T. rex specimens currently numbers more than those in public museums and other public trusts. The loss of juvenile and subadult specimens is especially worrisome, as the early growth stages of T. rex are bedevilled by a poor fossil record, and the loss of them carries the heaviest scientific cost.

Study Reveals T. rex Fossils Vanishing into Private Hands

Carr published his findings, titled “Tyrannosaurus rex: An endangered species,” in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica. He targeted “scientifically informative” specimens, such as skulls, skeletons, and isolated bones, to better understand the private market’s impact on the number of T. rex fossils available to researchers. He found 61 specimens in public trusts overall and 71 specimens—including 14 juveniles—in private ownership.

Driven by the luxury fossil market spanning all types of dinosaurs, private sales of dinosaurs outside of T. rex, as he has done with the T. rex, and the most expensive auction ever for a stegosaurus for $44.6 million in 2024, Carr believes his effort will motivate other academics to investigate how the commercial market is impacting other ancient animals.

A recent study indicates that water on the lunar surface may come from the solar wind. Water—of most importance as rocket fuel—is present in lunar surface dust, or regolith, produced by meteoroids and charged particles impacting lunar rock. The researchers discovered that several of this graph had evidence of dampness, with between 200 and 300 parts per million of water and the molecule hydroxyl. The water and hydroxyl in the lunar graph were both low in deuterium, suggesting their hydrogen came from the sun, likely delivered to the moon by solar winds.

When the hydrogen particles interact with oxygen present in lunar surface rocks, water molecules arise. The results suggest that other airless bodies in the solar system may also have water on their surfaces, therefore highlighting the possibility of finding such water on the surface of other such objects.

NASA Confirms Solar Wind May Create Water on the Moon’s Surface

As per the report, it is claimed that scientists have hypothesised—since the 1960s—that the Sun is the source of elements generating water on the Moon. The idea is that water molecules would be produced by a chemical reaction set off by a stream of charged particles—the solar wind— slamming onto the lunar surface. NASA-led researchers have confirmed this prediction in the most realistic lab simulation of this process yet.

Given much of the water on the Moon is believed to be frozen in continuously shadowed areas at the poles, the result affects NASA’s Artemis astronaut activities near the South Pole.

Solar Wind Can Create Water on the Moon, NASA Lab Test Confirms

Constantly flowing from the sun, solar wind is mostly composed of protons—nuclei of hydrogen atoms deprived of their electrons. Our planet’s magnetic shield and atmosphere help most of the solar particles to avoid reaching the surface of Earth. But the Moon has no such protection. As computer models and lab experiments have shown, when protons smash into the Moon’s surface, which is made of a dusty and rocky material called regolith, they collide with electrons and recombine to form hydrogen atoms.

Scientists have discovered proof of both hydroxyl and water molecules beneath the moon’s surface. These molecules leave a chemical imprint that interacts with light on the regolith. Generally speaking, “water” refers to either one or a mix of both molecules since hydroxyl and water cannot be differentiated right now.

NASA astronaut Yeo and colleagues examined Apollo lunar samples using a customised tool employing two samples worth of dust. Their little particle accelerator battered the dust to create a copy of solar wind spanning many days.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope spotted a rogue magnetar, dubbed SGR 0501+4516, traversing our galaxy for a significantly long time. As per claims by scientists, it was first discovered in the year 2008 by NASA’s Swift Observatory as intense flashes of gamma rays in the outer area of the Milky Way. The lingering magnetar strongly indicates that not all the magnetars in the Milky Way Galaxy have originated from supernovae, claimed the researchers. The unusual nature of this magnetar could provide critical insights into the events of fast radio bursts.

Discovery of Magnetar

Magnetars are purely made of neutrons, the dead remains of stars. Their strong magnetic field makes them unique. Ashley Chrimes, lead author of the study in Astrophysics published on April 15, said that a magnetar has more than a trillion times higher magnetic field than Earth’s.

This magnetic influence is so strong that it can even wipe out credit cards if it were to come as close as the halfway point between the Moon and the Earth. If a human reaches even 600 miles near a magnetar, it can rip apart the atoms of their body, too. It was initially presumed to have originated from the remnants of supernovae called HB9, which was spotted nearby its original location. However, the strange nature of magnetar was identified using Hubble’s sensitive instruments, together with Gaia spacecraft from ESA raised questions about its origins.

Tracking the Magnetar’s Movement

Long-term observations with the help of Hubble led to the measurement of subtle magnetic currents across the sky. Its movement indicated it had not originated from the remnants of a supernova, thus suggesting it had a different origin. With the continuous tracking of its trajectory for almost a thousand years in the past, scientists found that there are no other supernova remnants or star clusters connected to this wandering Magnetar.

Comprehending Fast Radio Bursts

This magnetar is the best entity formed by the accretion-induced collapse, NASA explained. This discovery could be of significance in explaining the fast radio bursts originating from the stellar populations, which are very ancient. The research team has further planned Hubble observations to study the origin of Magnetars, comprehending how these extreme magnetic objects originate.