The morning sun had barely cleared the jagged Himalayan foothills, casting a deceptive calm over the steep valleys of Nepal, when the earth itself seemed to scream. Last Wednesday, a devastating glacial lake outburst sent a colossal wall of water and mud thundering down the Bhotekoshi River, shredding through villages in Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts with a violence that left seasoned rescue workers breathless. Homes were flattened in seconds, bridges snapped like brittle twigs, and massive trucks were carried downstream as if they were leaves in a gutter. For the local people, there was no warning, no siren, no time…

The findings presented in this report offer a deeply insightful, and at times unsettling, snapshot of how we interact with science today. What stands out most prominently is the swift and dramatic shift in how people seek out information. The rise of artificial intelligence as a primary source of scientific knowledge, particularly among younger demographics, is a trend that no one in the field can afford to ignore. This isn’t simply about a new tool replacing a search engine; it fundamentally alters the user’s relationship with information itself. The report suggests that users are increasingly consulting generative AI systems not…