Science

Representative Image of the Chicxulub asteroid striking Earth amid devastated prehistoric landscapes (AI-generated image) Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid roughly 10 kilometres wide slammed into what is now Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, gouging out the Chicxulub crater and triggering the most devastating mass extinction event in the history of complex life on Earth. Non-avian dinosaurs,…

In northeastern Spain, the spread of zebra mussels continues to baffle water management experts, keeping them on alert over the damage to water infrastructure caused by these invasive species. Their presence in reservoirs, irrigation canals and water distribution networks has begun to disrupt water supplies, especially in Catalonia’s Lleida province, as per a report by…

The Moon does not travel across the sky at a constant pace. Its speed changes throughout each orbit, a detail ancient astronomers noticed long before they had the mathematics to explain it fully. More than two thousand years ago, the makers of the Antikythera Mechanism found a way to reproduce this unevenness using bronze gears…

In a world that often celebrates quick answers, instant success and sudden flashes of brilliance, Isaac Newton’s words offer a very different view of achievement. “If I have done the public any service, it is due to my patient thought,” Newton wrote in a 1692 letter to the English theologian Richard Bentley. The remark reflects…

PC: Study: A programmable fungal platform for engineered living textiles Researchers in China have created a textile made from living fungal mycelium that can heal its own cuts, grow new surface layers on command, and biodegrade completely within weeks. The material, built from Cordyceps militaris fungus, keeps its cells alive throughout the manufacturing process, unlike…

Representative Image of astronauts investigating potential water ice reserves on the Moon (AI-generated image) Beneath the permanently shadowed craters near the Moon’s south pole, scientists believe significant deposits of water ice may be buried out of reach of the instruments currently used to search for it from orbit. A new study led by researchers at…

Ant Supercolony. Image Credit: Anagoria/Wikipedia The Argentine ant (Linepithema humile) has created one of the most remarkable biological phenomena ever recorded: a super-colony stretching around 6,000 kilometres along the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Portugal, Spain, France and Italy. According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), these…

Alsek on July 5, 1984. Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the US Geological Survey. The coastal plain of southeastern Alaska is currently witnessing a rapid transformation where water is replacing ice at an unprecedented rate. Glaciers in this region are melting, which leads to the formation of…

In March 2016, researchers identified the globe skimmer dragonfly, Pantala flavescens, as the world’s longest-distance flying insect. Led by researchers at Rutgers University-Newark, the study used genetic analysis rather than direct observation to reach its conclusion, comparing DNA samples collected from dragonfly populations scattered across multiple continents. Rutgers University-Newark findings suggested these insects were travelling…

Black fire beetle, Melanophila acuminata. Image Credit: Prof. Schmitz/Wikipedia Black pine jewel beetles, scientifically named Melanophila acuminata, belong to a unique group of insects that exhibit pyrophilous behaviour, which means they are naturally attracted to forest fires. These beetles are primarily found across boreal and temperate forests of the north, where they play a vital…

Galileo Galilei, whose studies of falling bodies and accelerated motion laid the groundwork for the principle later demonstrated by Apollo 15 on the Moon. Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons. Two people can be equally skilled at the same subject and end up producing very different amounts of lasting work. One treats the subject as a career,…

Milking a snake for the production of antivenom. Image Credit: Barry Rogge/Wikipedia Snakebite envenomation(condition where toxic venom is injected into a body via the bite, sting, or puncture of a venomous animal such as a snake, spider, scorpion, or insect), remains a global health issue, causing up to 100,000 deaths per year and affecting millions…