Science

Credit: Erik Karits from Pexels Hummingbird hawkmoths may have their own version of being left-handed or right-handed, using one preferred eye and one side of their long feeding tube together to search flowers for nectar.The discovery, made by a team of biologists at the University of Konstanz, shows how creatures with small brains save mental … Read more

A female typically mates with five males simultaneously, although groups of 10 to 15 are not unusual Female African treefrogs mate with several males at the same time, working together to whip up a larger foam nest that protects hundreds of eggs from drying out.This group nest-building behaviour provides a fresh explanation for why females … Read more

Representative Image (AI-generated) Around 1200 BCE, several of the eastern Mediterranean’s most powerful civilisations, including the Mycenaean kingdoms, the Hittite Empire, Canaanite city-states and parts of New Kingdom Egypt, began experiencing a period of dramatic decline. Historians have long debated whether warfare, invasions, earthquakes, internal unrest or climate change played the biggest role in this … Read more

Nasa astronaut Chris Williams, left, Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, center, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergei Mikaev are seen inside the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft after they landed in Kazakhstan (AP) A joint US-Russian crew safely returned to Earth on Sunday after spending more than eight months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), marking another milestone in continued … Read more

China achieves 99% hybrid rice seed cloning with HUAXU gene, cuts annual seed costs China’s new hybrid rice can preserve its high-yield traits across generations, potentially allowing farmers to replant seeds instead of buying new ones every year.Scientists at the China National Rice Research Institute in Hangzhou have developed a self-cloning hybrid rice system that … Read more

Unwritten social rules, not government oversight, help keep forest land sustainable Slash-and-burn farming was blamed for destroying rainforests, but a study of 18,000 forest patches found community rules can limit clearing and allow trees to return.Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research shows that unwritten social rules in small communities … Read more

zebra mussels (Representative image by Canva) In the late 1980s, an aquatic invader quietly entered North America through an unlikely route: a ship’s ballast water. That species was the zebra mussel, and within a decade it had spread across all five Great Lakes, triggering one of the most notorious invasive-species stories on the continent. More … Read more

Alexander Fleming (Image: Wikipedia) Some of the world’s most important discoveries were never part of the original plan. History shows that breakthroughs often happen when curious minds remain open to the unexpected instead of focusing only on what they hoped to find. Alexander Fleming’s insightful observation, “You do not know what you will find, you … Read more

For centuries, space has fascinated humans like no other. From the sun’s glare to the moon’s surface and even Saturn’s shimmering rings, we have wanted to go up close and see it all. Now, two ambitious NASA-backed projects aim to truly touch Saturn’s rings, venturing into what is known as one of the most dangerous … Read more

Vanderford Glacier (Credit: Monash SAEF) Governments have a crucial 30 to 50 year window to plan for rising sea levels using dependable computer models, before Antarctic ice melt becomes far harder to predict.Scientists say current Antarctic ice loss can guide sea-level planning until mid-century, but forecasts become far less certain later as retreat may accelerate. … Read more