Every winter, councils grit our roads and pavements to keep the traffic moving safely. But a new study has revealed that the road salt they use can wash into ponds and have an alarming impact on the frogs that breed there. The research found that naturally occurring chemicals in the road salt have a ‘masculinising …
Chemicals in Road Salt Have Been Found to Adversely Affect Frog Biology Read More »
Next time you munch on a chocolate bar, think of chimpanzees. Researchers have found that wild chimps in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa, are helping farmers to cultivate cocoa plants by dispersing the seeds. After eating the pulp, chimpanzees spit out the seeds – or, erm, expel them from the other end. Farmers later tend to the saplings, clearing trees so …
Tagging huge elephant seals on an Antarctic beach isn’t a job for the faint-hearted. Mature males weigh up to four tonnes, and can easily mistake a human for another seal looking for a fight. “Elephant seals don’t have good vision,” says Dr Horst Bornemann, a researcher from Germany’s Alfred Weneger Institute for Polar and Marine Research. …
How Sensor-Equipped Seals Are Helping Scientists Peer Below the Antarctic ice Read More »
What do elephants and ballerinas have in common? They both walk up on their toes. Researchers at the University of Queensland have found that elephants put most pressure on the outside toes of their front feet as they plod around.
Prolonged exposure to energetic charged particles, such as those found in cosmic rays, could cause significant long-term brain damage resulting in cognitive impairments and dementia, researchers from the University of California have found.
What did they do? A team at the Humboldt University of Berlin set up a specially designed ‘tickling area’ and monitored the brain activity and ultrasonic squeaks of rats while they were being tickled. What did they find? Rats have previously been observed to give out high-pitched, laughter-like squeaks when being tickled. The Humboldt team …
The T. Rex just got a little less terrifying. A team at the University of Texas has found that rather than roaring, dinosaurs made a honking sound similar to that made by geese.
In a breakthrough that’s been described by researchers as the ‘Holy Grail’ of genetics, a team at the Salk Institute have successfully used gene-editing tool CRISPR to repair broken genes in the retinas of blind rats, partially restoring their sight. The same technique could be used to cure a range of genetic diseases, the researchers …
Gene-Editing Breakthrough Restores Sight in Blind Rats Read More »
1. Space Shuttle Program Date: 1981-2011 Cost: $199 bn 2. International Space Station Date: 1998-2020 Cost: $160 bn (estimated) 3. Apollo Space Program Date: 1961-1972 Cost: $109 bn 4. SLS and Orion (NASA’s replacement manned rocket and capsule) Date: 2014-2018 Cost: $23 bn (estimated) 5. Global Positioning System (GPS) Date: 1978-present Cost: $12 bn 6. …
Strictly speaking, flying squirrels – scientifically known as Pteromyini or Petauristini – cannot really fly, and are gliders not flappers. Glides of up to 90m have been measured, but not one of this tribe of 43 species has wings or feathers. To understand how flying squirrels evolved, some 18-20 million years ago, you just have …
Watching zebra finch parents nesting, behavioural ecologist Mylene Mariette at Deakin University in Geelong, Australia, noticed something interesting. When the weather was hot, the birds produced a fast, high-pitched call around their eggs. ‘To find out whether there was any effect on the embryo, we did an incubator experiment,’ she says. They found that unborn …
A golf ball makes use of the same principle of bumps on its surface to reduce drag. Originally smooth, manufacturers began making dimpled balls in the late 19th century after golfers noticed that balls with nicks and dents in them travelled farther. Like the whale fin, the bumps create a turbulent layer of air that …
Bumblebees are not pests. They’re largely passive creatures who really have no interest in dive-bombing your picnic. Unlike honeybees, they can sting more than once, but unless you do something daft like disturb their home, they rarely do so. A nest won’t damage property (they don’t guzzle wood like wasps) and don’t worry if you …
What’s it like? This RSPB nature reserve is set on the stunning eastern shores of Loch Lomond, where ancient oak woodland rises from the shore, giving way to moorland with wide open views. It’s chilly up here in winter but that doesn’t seem to deter the wildlife. What can I see? Large mammals such as …
Walks On the Wild Side: Inversnaid, Stirling, Scotland Read More »
A high-school student in New Zealand has invented an award-winning tool to prevent small shellfish from being killed by divers. Diving for the shells of the edible abalone is legal in New Zealand, but they have to be 12.5cm long to be fished or they must be discarded, and levering them off the rocks for …
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