Mountain yellow-legged frog. Image Credit: US Fish & Wildlife Service More than 3,000 endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs and tadpoles have been released into California’s mountain ranges in 2026, giving a once widespread amphibian another chance to survive in the wild. The reintroduction, carried out by the ‘San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’ and its partners, is…
When humans leave Earth, even something as basic as knowing which way is up can become confusing. That made fish surprisingly useful subjects for space research. In 1973, Nasa sent two mummichogs and 50 eggs aboard Skylab 3, giving scientists a chance to watch both adult fish and young that developed entirely in orbit. Soon…
In 1929, local homesteader and photographer Benjamin Loomis and his wife, Estella, formally gave 40 acres of valuable mountain land to the United States government. The donation included a hand-built museum and a working seismograph station beside Manzanita Lake. The deal was the first known case in American history of a privately built museum being…
PC: New Zealand’s Forest and Bird In 1965, Geoff Harrow walked into the Kaikōura mountains following a story about an unusual seabird nesting somewhere high above the valleys. He did not find the colony on his first attempt. The next morning, on a steep deer track, a decomposing bird provided the clue he needed. It…
A disposable coffee cup normally has a very short life. It holds a hot drink, travels with its owner for a while and is then left behind as waste. In 2015, an unusual idea proposed changing what happened next. Reduce. Reuse. Grow. Developed what it called the “World’s First Plantable Coffee Cup”, a paper cup…
Goblin shark, PC: University of La Laguna In May 2024, a group of recreational fishers off the coast of San Cristóbal, roughly 9.5 kilometres from Gran Canaria, hooked something none of them expected while fishing in 900 metres of water. What came up was a 2.5 metre goblin shark, a species so rarely seen alive…
In 1867, British settlers introduced brown trout to New Zealand, intending to enhance sport fishing. This decision led to the release of over sixty million trout, which had devastating effects on local fish populations, resulting in declines and even extinction of some native species. The presence of these invasive fish fundamentally changed stream ecosystems and…
AI representation/ChatGPT There was a time when going out to buy bread, collect a prescription or pay a bill almost guaranteed a few words with someone. You might chat with the shopkeeper, exchange a joke with the person behind the counter or say something to a neighbour while waiting in a queue. Most of those…
Archaeologists uncovered a rare stylus depicting Dionysus, PC: Superintendency of Caltanissetta/Sicilian Government In Gela, on Sicily’s southern coast, archaeologists have uncovered a rare and remarkably well-preserved bone stylus dating to the 5th century BCE, decorated with imagery that appears to connect craftsmanship with the worship of Dionysus. The object measures 13.2 centimetres long and was…
India also wants to build a new reusable rocket (representative image) For decades, launching a rocket into space followed a remarkably simple pattern: build it, launch it, use it once and throw most of it away.That model worked, but it was expensive.Now, the world’s space industry is trying to change the equation. Instead of watching…
Subsea fibre-optic cables. Image Credit: AI Generated Fibre-optic cables spread across the seafloor have long carried internet traffic between countries, but researchers are discovering another surprising use for this global network; detecting whales. A 2022 study in ‘Frontiers in Marine Science’ showed that existing submarine fibre-optic cables could be turned into vast underwater sensors capable…
Florida’s Everglades is facing a stealthy invasive threat beneath its waters as the Asian swamp eel spreads through wetlands and preys on fish, crayfish, frogs and other aquatic animals. The air-breathing fish, native to East and Southeast Asia, has been established in Florida for decades, but researchers are increasingly documenting severe ecological consequences in the…
In Florida’s canals and wetlands, some of the most consequential changes are difficult to see. An Asian swamp eel can spend much of its time buried in mud or hidden beneath vegetation, emerging to feed when water returns. That makes it very different from the Burmese pythons that have become a familiar symbol of the…
High in Costa Rica’s Tilarán mountains, the forest often appears to be suspended between land and sky. Mist moves through the trees, settles on leaves and mosses, and becomes part of the water moving down the slopes. At Monteverde, that moisture is not simply a feature of the scenery. The forest sits along the Continental…
Representative Image (AI-generated) Mount St. Helens is one of the most closely studied volcanoes in the United States, but scientists still cannot directly see the complex system of magma and rock hidden beneath it. In 2014, researchers launched an ambitious experiment to change that. According to the Imaging Magma Under St. Helens (iMUSH) project, a…
Mars may be millions of kilometres from Minnesota, but for Cloquet student Jeremiah Bents, one small part of a future Mars mission could be tested much closer to home. Instead of looking at how to reach the Red Planet, Bents turned his attention to what astronauts might do once they get there, particularly when dealing…
The technology could also potentially be used in places such as submarines and future human settlements on the Moon or Mars (American chemical society photo) Researchers at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIU Carbondale) are working on a technology that turns plastic waste from a water bottle into part of a cookie. For this, they programmed…
Leon Wang, the 17-year-old Connecticut student (Image Credit: Society For Science) Alzheimer’s disease remains one of the most difficult neurological disorders to treat, partly because the processes behind it can begin damaging brain cells long before symptoms become apparent. Now, a project by 17-year-old Connecticut student Leon Wang has drawn attention for exploring whether medicines…
Icebergs in Antarctica (Image Credit: Canva) Antarctica may look like a vast, frozen and unchanging landscape, but deep beneath its thick ice lies a surprisingly active world. In 2007, scientists reported findings based on measurements collected by NASA’s ICESat satellite between 2003 and 2006, revealing major changes in the surface of the West Antarctic Ice…
Beneath the surface of the Great Barrier Reef, a 165-tonne building is being slowly reshaped by the environment around it. The Coral Greenhouse, an underwater installation at John Brewer Reef, was designed to work with the sea rather than simply sit on the seabed. Coral can grow across its surfaces, fish can move through its…
