Science

Unwritten social rules, not government oversight, help keep forest land sustainable Slash-and-burn farming was blamed for destroying rainforests, but a study of 18,000 forest patches found community rules can limit clearing and allow trees to return.Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research shows that unwritten social rules in small communities…

A new waterscape has been created on the Holnicote Estate in Somerset (National Trust photos) Just one year after work completing a river restoration project in south-west England, researchers say the restored landscape has reduced flood peaks downstream, improved water quality and created new habitats for many species.The project took place on the National Trust’s…

If many bats are sending out similar sound waves at the same time, their signals can overlap. (National geographic photo) Bats rely on echolocation to move through the dark and hunt insects. They send out high-pitched sound waves that bounce off nearby objects and return as echoes which helps them judge where things are.But when…

A tiny freshwater fish found only in Oregon quietly made conservation history after decades of being pushed to the brink of extinction. The Oregon chub, a species once reduced to fewer than 1,000 individuals across just eight known populations, was threatened by wetland destruction, river engineering and invasive fish. Many believed its future was bleak….

Alexander Fleming (Image: Wikipedia) Some of the world’s most important discoveries were never part of the original plan. History shows that breakthroughs often happen when curious minds remain open to the unexpected instead of focusing only on what they hoped to find. Alexander Fleming’s insightful observation, “You do not know what you will find, you…

zebra mussels (Representative image by Canva) In the late 1980s, an aquatic invader quietly entered North America through an unlikely route: a ship’s ballast water. That species was the zebra mussel, and within a decade it had spread across all five Great Lakes, triggering one of the most notorious invasive-species stories on the continent. More…

For centuries, humans have searched for ways to extend life, first through medicine that prevented early deaths and later through research aimed at slowing the biological processes associated with aging. But even if scientists eventually found a way to stop many age-related problems, the body might still face limits built into its own cells. A…

Across the globe, there are approximately 200,000 to 275,000 glaciers that hold 69% of the world’s fresh water. They are found in every continent except Australia and are in heavy concentrations in the Arctic, Alaska, and Antarctica along with high mountain ranges like the Himalayas and Andes. But what happens when climate change causes all…

At first glance, Neptune seems like the last place where violent weather should thrive. The ice giant circles the Sun at an average distance of about 4.5 billion kilometres, leaving it in a region where daylight is remarkably faint. Even at midday, the sunlight reaching Neptune would resemble a dim twilight compared with conditions on…

Long before Earth existed, before the Sun had fully formed, clouds of gas and microscopic dust drifted through interstellar space. Within those tiny grains, astronomers believe, some of the chemistry that eventually gave rise to planets, and perhaps even life, first began. Yet studying this process has always been difficult because the dust forms in…