The idea that a single person could move something as enormous as Earth sounds impossible at first. More than two thousand years ago, however, Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes used the image to demonstrate the extraordinary power of a simple mechanical principle. The statement “Give me a place to stand on, and I will move…
Image Credit: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Japan sent rice and koji to the International Space Station in 2025 to test whether sake could be brewed beyond Earth. As part of the DASSAI MOON Project, the ingredients were placed inside Japan’s Kibo module under conditions designed to reproduce the Moon’s gravity. After fermentation, the material was frozen…
Diamondback moth. Image Credit: Wikipedia Diamondback moths exposed to repeated heat for 3 years evolved traits that helped their descendants develop faster and survive extreme temperatures better. A 2026 study titled ‘Experimental evolution to thermal stress indicates climate resilience in a cosmopolitan arthropod’ tested moth populations under different temperatures for dozens of generations. It was…
Jackie Chan supported Save China’s Tigers, a conservation project attempting to restore the South China tiger after the subspecies disappeared from confirmed wild sightings decades ago. Once widespread across southern and central China, the tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) suffered a dramatic decline because of hunting, habitat loss and falling prey numbers. Founded by conservationist Li…
Image: Left/Ninia guytudori/By:Alejandro Arteaga/Right/Alejandro Arteaga/By:Kate Berry / Australia Zoo Alejandro Arteaga went into the cloud forests of Ecuador with a very specific mission, he was searching for reptiles to document for a book on the country’s extraordinary herpetological diversity. Instead, one of his field trips produced something far more significant, a snake that science had…
Mexico has brought American bison back to parts of the Chihuahuan Desert after the animals disappeared from much of their historical range in northern Mexico during the 19th century. In 2009, 23 bison from Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota were moved to Rancho El Uno in Chihuahua as part of a binational conservation…
Human activities can look very different through the senses of a wild animal. A pioneering project in Somerset invited 18 volunteers to see the landscape from the perspective of red deer, otters, earthworms, kestrels and Atlantic salmon. Over six months, they spent time around the River Tone near Taunton, exploring the risks these animals may…
In the high-elevation lakes of California’s Sierra Nevada, trout introduced into mountain lakes are affecting more than the water itself. Researchers studied 39 lakes in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, comparing bird abundance with aquatic insects emerging from the water. A study published in Ecosphere titled ‘Crossing boundaries: Introduced trout alter the bird community…
Spider webs may hold a surprising record of the animals living nearby. A study found that genetic traces from terrestrial vertebrates can be collected directly from spider webs, turning the structures into passive filters for environmental DNA. Researchers tested 49 webs from an Australian wildlife sanctuary and Perth Zoo and detected vertebrate DNA in every…
Tree branches could provide a simple way to filter drinking water. MIT engineers have developed water filters made from sapwood, the living wood found beneath the bark of trees such as pine and ginkgo. The material contains tiny channels called xylem that normally carry water through a tree. Thin membranes between these channels act like…
For decades, paleontologists have studied Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) through bones, teeth and isolated footprints. Those fossils reveal what the animal looked like, how large it was and what it may have eaten, but they rarely show the creature in motion. That changed with the discovery of a short trail in southwestern North Dakota. Four…
Wetland in South Australia. Image Credit: Department for Environment and Water (South Australian Government) Australia’s Green Triangle became a major plantation forestry region after large areas of land were converted to commercial forests. Decades later, the Lower South East of South Australia is facing growing pressure on its groundwater system. Assessments show that plantations can…
