Bees have a reputation for being tireless workers, but it turns out that reputation only really applies to some of them. Researchers at the University of Illinois glued tiny numbered tags onto thousands of individual honeybees and tracked their comings and goings for almost two months across several separate colonies. What they found flips the…
Bees are among the world’s most important pollinators, helping sustain ecosystems and supporting the production of many fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Yet bee populations have been declining for years due to habitat loss, pesticides, diseases, parasites and climate change. More recently, another potential threat has entered the conversation: the rapid expansion of data centres….
Charles Darwin (Image source: Wikipedia) A bad experience is supposed to teach a lesson, yet people return to habits they already know are harmful more often than logic would suggest. Charles Darwin noticed the same contradiction and put it more bluntly than most. “An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it…
The Demogorgonichthys arcanus was discovered in a well-known area monitored by biologists for decades (Photo: Matthew Niemiller) A clumsy fall into an underground pool beneath an active US military base has led to the discovery of a strange, eyeless fish named after a TV series monster.Matthew Niemiller, an associate professor of biological sciences at the…
A small mark on an ancient jaw has opened a window into a moment of violence from a time far removed from written history. The remains of an early Homo sapiens individual from Qafzeh Cave in Israel have revealed signs of a serious facial injury, likely caused by a sharp stone tool. What makes the…
It’s not just humans that are at risk of extinction due to global warming, it’s the Earth, too. In research conducted over a period of 40 years, scientists have uncovered evidence that challenges long-held assumptions about forest soils.While on the first glance, the Harvard Forest seems like an ordinary woodland filled with oak trees, there…
Volunteers hand-collect native tree seeds from Scotland’s remote woodlands to help restore the country’s endangered Atlantic rainforest and native forests. In one of Scotland’s largest citizen-led woodland restoration efforts, around 100 volunteers have spent the past three years hand-collecting more than 11 million rare native tree seeds from remote forests, islands and rugged coastlines. The…
A prediction made by Stephen Hawking some 50 years ago has just come true and now, scientists are trying to understand how it reinforces fundamental principles of modern physics. A collision between two black holes about 1.3 billion light-years from Earth has provided the most precise observational evidence ever obtained for a prediction presented by…
Blood, fingerprints, and weapons aren’t the only evidence investigators look for at a crime scene; pollen is another. Pollen grains are one piece of evidence that has helped solve some of the highest-profile murder cases in recent years, one grain at a time. The tiny grains that might be invisible to the naked eye actually…
A tiny GPS tracker attached to a European honey buzzard revealed an extraordinary feat of endurance that few humans could match. Over 42 days, the bird travelled more than 10,000 km from its wintering grounds in South Africa to its breeding habitat in Finland, crossing deserts, mountain ranges and numerous countries along the way. The…
