The NICE Lab is proud to report that our study “Surviving in the mountains: temperature and elevation have contrasting physiological effects and no effect on morphology of the hoverfly Eristalis tenax in the Himalayas” has been published in the Journal of Comparative Physiology B. Through some of the first high altitude physiology experiments in the world, we show how abiotic factors have…
The NICE Group is proud to congratulate our own Aditi Mishra, Deepa Rajan, Gauri Gharpure and Maansi Sharan on their Cover Article for the October 2025 Issue of the Journal of Chemical Ecology! The cover shows Himalayan Eristalis tenax feeding from mustard at 2500m asl in Lachen, Sikkim, India. Our study found that these hoverflies are innately attracted to yellow…
Today Gauri successfully defended her thesis “How do insect pollinators fare in different environments?”. Gauri’s research studied the behavioral ecology, physiology, and morphology of pollinators at different elevations in the Eastern and Western Himalayas. For this work, she developed several techniques for assessment of floral cues, in field physiological measurement of heart rate and antennal sensitivity, and micro-CT. Gauri learned…
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Dear NICE Group, Happy New year to a fantastic group! 2022 was a tough year for our little lab, but one also filled with many joys from the amazing humans who make up the NICE Lab. You are all my family, and I am so blessed every day to have such strong, resilient, and kind colleagues to explore this universe…
The NICE Group is so proud to share that our own Gauri Gharpure has been featured by the The Gaia People as a “Woman of the Wild” India. Read Gauri’s story here, or at https://www.instagram.com/p/CmGbaSKSpNW/. Congratulations to an amazing scientist who makes us proud to work with her every day!
The NICE Lab is pleased to be featured in this week’s “Where I Work” in Nature Magazine! Below you can see the Instagram photo story on the article and also read the article (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04427-4). Congratulations to an amazing group who loves nature, works hard, and is always always NICE!
Host adaptation plays a large role in establishing our Earth’s biodiversity. In insects, adaption to new host plants often requires synchronization of growth and development during larval and pupal stages to the new host and adult preference for that host after metamorphosis. In insects, metamorphosis brings profound transformation of the nervous system. Here, we identified differences in the timing of…
The NICE Lab is pleased to announce the successful defense of Pavan Kumar Kaushik. Pavan’s thesis was titled “Prakruti māyé : Using Virtual Reality to deconstruct insect ecology” Pavan will continue his career as a postdoctoral scholar at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz, Germany. He will be working in the Department of Collective Behavior with Prof.…
By Shannon – Science is often considered a profession where we attempt to suppress our humanity for the sake of objectivity. Yet it is our very humanity that makes science possible. Science is a reflection of our curiosity, our passion, and our drive for exploration. These traits can only be built from a foundation of hope fostered by kindness and…
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