Science

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…

A palm-sized AI drone weighing just 40 grams has achieved an engineering first by autonomously hunting and killing a flying insect in mid-air, paving the way for a new approach to mosquito control. Developed by US startup Tornyol, the tiny drone successfully detected, tracked and intercepted a flying moth during a controlled indoor demonstration without…

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…

Whales are well known for their songs. But scientists have discovered that, for some whales, those songs may also help them stay alive. A researcher from the University of Washington has found that some baleen whales, including blue, fin and minke whales, have evolved to sing at such low frequencies that killer whales, their only…