Science

Representative Image (AI-generated) What started as piles of concrete blocks on the seafloor off Prince Edward Island soon became a magnet for marine life. Researchers began installing the artificial oyster reefs in 2021 to test whether they could provide some of the ecological functions lost from areas where eelgrass no longer grew. Within two years,…

Among the species benefiting from the restoration are yellow-eye mullet. A major effort to remove invasive rice grass from Tasmania’s Duck Bay is showing major signs of recovery, with native vegetation returning and the number of fish species rising from five to 11. The changes came within just two to three years of the weed…

Phillip Island’s little penguins once faced a crisis that threatened to erase much of their presence from the island. By the 1980s, nine of its 10 penguin colonies had disappeared, while the final colony on the Summerland Peninsula was also under pressure from introduced predators, habitat loss and human activity. According to Phillip Island Nature…

The restoration covers a disaster-affected area in Aek Haminjon Village, Arse District, South Tapanuli Regency. Image Credit: KONSERVASI Indonesia Indonesia is restoring 159 hectares of land damaged by floods and landslides in the Batang Toru ecosystem of North Sumatra, an area that provides habitat for the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan. The restoration is centred on…

At 13, Kelvin Doe was searching through piles of discarded materials in Freetown for things most people would have left behind. Acid, soda, scrap metal and broken components became part of a series of homemade experiments that gradually moved from a battery to a generator and then a transmitter. The teenager had no conventional electronics…

Turuépano National Park. Image Credit: Wikipedia Guyana’s mangrove restoration programme planted more than 500,000 seedlings along 8 km of coastline, and a study published in Restoration Ecology has found that restored forests aged between 5 and 11 years were already supporting fish communities similar to those in natural mangroves. Researchers compared restored and naturally regenerated…

The eDNA autosampler to monitor for invasive aquatic species. Image Credit: CPR/USGS The Colorado River is getting a new line of defence against invasive species, with a $29,595 environmental DNA autosampler being used to search for traces of unwanted fish and other aquatic threats. Instead of waiting to catch an invasive animal, the machine collects…

A rare olive ridley sea turtle has laid eggs on a Southern California beach for the first time in recorded history. (Photo: NOAA) An olive ridley sea turtle has laid eggs on a beach in Southern California for the first time in recorded history, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The rare…

Scientists have grown microscopic algae aboard the International Space Station to investigate how spaceflight affects their genetic stability. Space Algae-1 grew ultraviolet light-mutagenised Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in the ISS VEGGIE plant growth chamber for approximately 40 mitotic generations over one month. Whole-genome sequencing of pooled cell samples collected every 10 generations found that the spaceflight cultures…

At 17, California student Cavon Hajimiri has developed a wearable device designed to warn pedestrians about vehicles approaching from behind. Called Hindsight, the invention uses radar technology to detect potential hazards and alert users through sounds and vibrations. Hajimiri, a student at Polytechnic School in Pasadena, began working on the project after experiencing several close…