Science

Sunlight at night, sold on demand by an American space start-up using Indian rockets, is moving from science fiction towards commercial reality. California-based Reflect Orbital plans to place giant mirrors in low-Earth orbit and steer reflected sunlight onto chosen spots on the ground after dark. Customers could include solar farms wanting longer generating hours, rescue…

Florida’s invasive Burmese pythons are known for moving through wetlands and dense vegetation, but new research has revealed that some also spend time high above the ground. Scientists tracking 356 snakes in Big Cypress National Preserve over eight years recorded occasional tree-climbing behaviour, with one adult male reaching a height of seven metres. The findings…

For years, residents of Pamarawan, a small fishing village on the edge of Manila Bay in the Philippines, watched floodwaters enter their streets and threaten homes whenever strong monsoon winds or typhoons sent waves crashing towards the coast. Even a concrete breakwater, standing up to four metres high, was not enough to keep the water…

Invasive species of rat in the Virgin Islands, USA Islands are often considered safe havens for wildlife, away from the rushing development of humanity, particularly for seabirds that depend on remote and undisturbed locations to lay their eggs and raise their young. However, humans cannot take a rest; human activities have led to the introduction…

Photo from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of NGC 4449 dwarf galaxy Image Credits: NASA Our cosmic neighbourhood is full of surprises, some you cannot even imagine. In a paper published on Monday in The Astrophysical Journal, researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope studied 37 nearby dwarf galaxies and found that much of the oxygen they…

What can eating one avocado and mango every day do? An apple a day keeps the doctor away.We all laud apples for their health benefits. Of course, no other fruit has an entire idiom centred around its pros. But, we often overlook these other fruits in the supermarket aisle, as the apple tempts us with…