Science

In 1976, ornithologist George Archibald began an unusual daily ritual, dancing beside a whooping crane named Tex in an attempt to save one of the rarest birds on the planet. Tex had been raised in captivity and had imprinted on humans rather than other cranes, meaning she showed no interest in mating with her own…

Florence Nightingale is remembered as the founder of modern nursing, but her influence reached far beyond hospitals and healthcare. Through discipline, compassion and a determination to improve lives, she changed the way patients were treated and helped shape modern medicine. Among her many memorable sayings, one quote continues to inspire people across generations: “I attribute…

For nearly three decades, the Sun seemed to be winding down. Sunspot counts fell, the solar wind weakened, and by 2008 our star had reached its faintest measured state since satellites began watching it. Astronomers braced for a repeat of history’s great solar lulls, centuries-long stretches when the Sun barely stirred. Then, quietly, the numbers…

Credit: Erik Karits from Pexels Hummingbird hawkmoths may have their own version of being left-handed or right-handed, using one preferred eye and one side of their long feeding tube together to search flowers for nectar.The discovery, made by a team of biologists at the University of Konstanz, shows how creatures with small brains save mental…

Image Credit: guinnessworldrecords.com Shark is a unique animal that has survived five mass extinctions and swam in our oceans before trees existed. For many of us, the thought of a shark brings up the images of big, sharp teeth with terror. However, for one American marine biologist named ‘Emily Morrison,’ these marine predators are not…

Herbivore species dynamics is key to grassland food web stability In 2005, scientists began reshaping a semi-arid grassland in Inner Mongolia by changing its mix of plants. Years later, when researchers checked how the local food chain held together, plant-eating insects emerged as its strongest biological buffer.The long-term study, published on 18 July in the…

Out of everything that Jeff Bezos could be funding, a mechanical clock does not come to mind. But it seems some clock has been ticking in the mind of the Amazon founder who is quietly supporting the construction of a 10,000-year clock inside a Texas mountain.The work is called the Clock of the Long Now…

King ratsnake is known for hunting and eating deadly venomous snakes (Inaturalist photos) A nonvenomous snake that regularly hunts and eats some of the world’s most dangerous venomous snakes has given scientists a new mystery to solve. Researchers have now mapped the genome of the king ratsnake to understand how it survives the venom of…

Two centuries ago, a British geologist gave the world its first named dinosaur. Megalosaurus, described from a handful of fossilised bones, marked the birth of an entire scientific field. Back then, researchers worked with little more than fragments, guesswork and imagination to picture prehistoric life. Fast forward 200 years, and palaeontology looks unrecognisable. Scientists no…

How Fossilised wood shows the history of Europe Imagine you are holding a piece of fossilized wood. It might, at first sight, seem to be nothing more than a well-preserved relic of some ancient forest. But within its crystalline framework is a geological diary, quietly recording the rise and fall of continents, extreme underground temperatures…