Science

An ant (Camponotus renggeri), infected by a fungus, bites into a liverwort plant while holding onto nearby moss with its claws.Photo: IMA Fungus journal The so-called zombie-ant fungus has long fascinated scientists because of the way it takes control of infected ants, forcing them to bite plants before they die. Now, researchers in the Amazon…

Lake Allos (French Alps), the largest natural high-altitude lake in Europe and one of the two study sites for this research. Credit: Hervé Rogissart In 1924, Arctic charr from Lake Geneva were introduced into Lake Allos. A hundred years later, scientists found that their descendants had developed different metabolic responses, even when raised under the…

Image Credit: inhabitat.com The global energy landscape is rapidly changing as the dangers of fossil fuels are becoming visible to researchers and the public. As traditional energy sources will probably diminish by the year 2088, the search for renewable options has expanded from wind and solar farms to personal, wearable technology. A prime example of…

Archaeologists excavating the renowned Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany have uncovered two exquisitely carved bird figurines made from mammoth ivory that date back around 40,000 years. Although each carving is no bigger than a thumbnail, researchers say the tiny sculptures demonstrate an extraordinary level of craftsmanship and artistic sophistication among some of Europe’s earliest…

Female birds have shorter lifespans than male birds, researchers find Female mammals usually live longer than males, but a 27-year study of North American birds has found the opposite pattern in birds.Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) analyzed more than 563,000 bird-banding records and found that adult female birds had a 12.4%…

As concerns over plastic pollution continue to grow, a 14-year-old student in Brazil has developed a sustainable alternative using materials that would otherwise be discarded. Lucas Tadao Sugahara Wernick, a student from Curitiba in the southern state of Paraná, created biodegradable food trays made from cassava peels and araucaria tree residues. Designed as a substitute…

The deep ocean has a way of turning ordinary events into unanswered questions. Far below the waves, sounds travel through water in ways that can make distant sources appear much closer or far stranger than they really are. In 1997, a powerful low-frequency noise recorded across the Pacific Ocean created one of the most unusual…

For generations, indigenous communities in Arunachal Pradesh had been using a spice in their food for its citrusy, tongue-tingling flavour. The native plant was a part of their world and that’s all they knew. But today, the small spice is helping 200 families gain a livelihood while also protecting agricultural land.On autumn mornings, residents of…

Fourteen-year-old Sharvi Mahajan has developed NeuroDrive Alert (Picture: Young Scientist Lab) Sharvi Mahajan, a 14-year-old Indian-American student from California, has been named among the 10 finalists of the 2026 3M Young Scientist Challenge. Mahajan has developed a system to predict driver fatigue before it leads to accidents.Sharvi, an eighth-grade student at Bernardo Heights Middle School,…

Image Credit: Getty Images Lithium is of utmost importance for modern technology. It is powering the smartphones and the huge fleet of electric vehicles. As the world is shifting towards clean energy, the demand for lithium is also increasing quickly, which is placing a huge pressure on land-based mining. However, researchers at Texas A&M University…