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…

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%…

Image(s): Florida Key Isaland/Canva Imagine erasing almost every insect and small animal from an island, then watching nature rebuild itself from scratch. That was exactly what a team of ecologists did in the Florida Keys during one of the most influential ecological experiments ever conducted. In 1966, researchers enclosed tiny mangrove islands in enormous plastic…

The spotted lanternfly has become one of the most destructive invasive insects in the United States, threatening vineyards, orchards and forests by feeding on the sap of hundreds of plant species. Finding its egg masses before they hatch is one of the most effective ways to slow its spread, but the eggs are well camouflaged…

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…

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 Pacific Ring of Fire, the horseshoe-shaped belt of volcanoes circling the Pacific Ocean, may have played a far bigger role in shaping Earth’s past climate than previously understood. Findings show that some of the largest volcanic eruptions of the past 12,000 years, many originating from this seismically active region, align closely with major glacial…

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…

The fossil record has a habit of reshaping ideas that once seemed settled. In the Late Cretaceous, long before the extinction of the dinosaurs, small mammals occupied a world dominated by much larger reptiles. Most left behind little more than isolated teeth and fragments of bone, making it difficult to understand how they were related…