Science

The spotted lanternfly has become one of the most destructive invasive insects in the United States, threatening vineyards, orchards and forests by feeding on the sap of hundreds of plant species. Finding its egg masses before they hatch is one of the most effective ways to slow its spread, but the eggs are well camouflaged…

The Pacific Ring of Fire, the horseshoe-shaped belt of volcanoes circling the Pacific Ocean, may have played a far bigger role in shaping Earth’s past climate than previously understood. Findings show that some of the largest volcanic eruptions of the past 12,000 years, many originating from this seismically active region, align closely with major glacial…

The fossil record has a habit of reshaping ideas that once seemed settled. In the Late Cretaceous, long before the extinction of the dinosaurs, small mammals occupied a world dominated by much larger reptiles. Most left behind little more than isolated teeth and fragments of bone, making it difficult to understand how they were related…

“The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.” — Nikola Tesla (AI-generated image) Two inventors can watch someone else take credit for their work in real time and respond in completely different ways. One spends what energy remains fighting for immediate recognition, determined to win the argument before it’s too…

Rewilded elephants on Khamab Kalahari Reserve, who were observed during this research project (from left to right: Ngwedi, Mana, Michael, and Chikwenya) South Africa released 11 elephants that had spent years in captivity into protected reserves. Five years later, researchers found that their behavior was very similar to elephants that had always lived in the…

Representative Image of Europa’s hidden ocean beneath its icy surface (AI-generated image) Europa, one of Jupiter’s icy moons, may hold more liquid water than all of Earth’s oceans combined, sealed beneath a thick shell of ice. For years, one of the most promising ideas for studying that hidden ocean was that water rising through cracks…

An ant (Camponotus renggeri), infected by a fungus, bites into a liverwort plant while holding onto nearby moss with its claws.Photo: IMA Fungus journal The so-called zombie-ant fungus has long fascinated scientists because of the way it takes control of infected ants, forcing them to bite plants before they die. Now, researchers in the Amazon…

Image Credit: inhabitat.com The global energy landscape is rapidly changing as the dangers of fossil fuels are becoming visible to researchers and the public. As traditional energy sources will probably diminish by the year 2088, the search for renewable options has expanded from wind and solar farms to personal, wearable technology. A prime example of…

Archaeologists excavating the renowned Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany have uncovered two exquisitely carved bird figurines made from mammoth ivory that date back around 40,000 years. Although each carving is no bigger than a thumbnail, researchers say the tiny sculptures demonstrate an extraordinary level of craftsmanship and artistic sophistication among some of Europe’s earliest…

Female birds have shorter lifespans than male birds, researchers find Female mammals usually live longer than males, but a 27-year study of North American birds has found the opposite pattern in birds.Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) analyzed more than 563,000 bird-banding records and found that adult female birds had a 12.4%…