Science

The biological landscape is no longer just limited to the earthly realms, it has travelled far and wide into space. In a one-of-a-kind biological manufacturing operation, researchers managed to cultivate organs in space using technologies that are now being tested for scalability. Mission for biomanufacturing The mission was conducted in June 2026 and concluded with…

For decades, the coelacanth existed in scientific literature as a creature of the distant past. Fossils showed that members of this ancient fish lineage had lived alongside dinosaurs and vanished from the fossil record around 66 million years ago. The assumption seemed straightforward: they were gone.Then, in December 1938, a fishing trawler operating off the…

When eyeing a predator, horses keep a poker face as their hearts race Horses have a hidden poker face when they face danger, hiding severe internal stress from their handlers even as their hearts beat at extremely high speeds.A study from The Ohio State University found that horses can instantly recognise a predator just by…

Eucalyptus trees have become highly invasive in regions with similar climates to their native Australia, including California, South Africa, India. Scientists have compared the same invasive plant species in Europe and North America and found that they became 91% more productive after spreading to new habitats. The increase was seen only in the plants’ non-native…

It seems like a contradiction. Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, so it would be natural to assume it is also the hottest. In reality, that title belongs to Venus, where surface temperatures are hot enough to melt lead. The difference isn’t about distance from the Sun but about what happens after sunlight…

Less than a day after arriving aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Nasa astronaut Anil Menon offered a glimpse into his first hours in orbit, sharing a message that was as much about the people who helped him get there as it was about the view from space.Posting on X (formerly twitter) from the orbiting…

The Guam Kingfisher is known as the “sihek” in Chamorro, the native language of the Marianas Archipelago and is the rarest species at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia. The bird is classified by the IUCN as extinct in the wild, meaning a single one is not present outside the conservation centre….

Fossils from this period are displayed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. South Dakota is one of the most landlocked states in the United States. It is more than 1,000 miles away from both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. It is hard to imagine that this dry landscape was once covered by water.But…

For centuries, the ancient Maya have been celebrated for their remarkable achievements in astronomy, mathematics and calendar-making. They tracked the movements of planets with extraordinary precision, developed one of the world’s earliest concepts of zero and created complex calendars that guided agriculture, religion and governance. Yet the brilliant minds behind these discoveries have largely remained…

Every winter in Antarctica, emperor penguins gather in large groups called huddles to survive the cold. Temperatures can fall to -40 degrees Celsius, and strong winds make the weather even harsher. Without huddling together, these penguins would not be able to survive.But a penguin huddle is much more than a group of birds standing close…