Science

Researchers clipped a few wing and tail feathers of wild Alaskan kittiwakes (AI enhanced image. Credit: Nature Counts) Researchers who clipped a few wing and tail feathers of wild black-legged kittiwakes in Alaska to make flying harder, have found that the effects lasted well beyond a single breeding season. The birds struggled to raise chicks…

How Fossilised wood shows the history of Europe Imagine you are holding a piece of fossilized wood. It might, at first sight, seem to be nothing more than a well-preserved relic of some ancient forest. But within its crystalline framework is a geological diary, quietly recording the rise and fall of continents, extreme underground temperatures…

Two people can watch the exact same machine respond to a question and reach completely different conclusions about what just happened. One assumes anything convincing enough must be simulating a mind somewhere underneath. The other insists that convincing behaviour and actual thought are two entirely separate things, no matter how good the imitation gets. Alan…

Dutch microbiologist Professor Henk Jonkers holds a sample of self-healing concrete, an innovation that uses bacteria to repair cracks automatically. Concrete is the backbone of modern civilisation, supporting everything from homes and skyscrapers to bridges, tunnels and dams. Yet even this remarkably strong material has a costly weakness. Tiny cracks inevitably develop over time because…

Elon Musk has expanded on his long-standing vision of making humanity a multi-planet species, arguing that a self-sustaining colony on Mars could serve as a crucial safeguard against civilisation-ending catastrophes on Earth. Responding to a debate on X (formerly Twitter), Musk said his views had been misunderstood, emphasising that he has never claimed Mars would…

A ship sails through the Lemaire Channel in Antarctica (AP file photo) A new study has found that several former Antarctic tour guides decided to leave their jobs because they could no longer balance their love for the continent with the environmental impact of the tourism industry. Researchers spoke to 25 former guides who said…

When surprised, a myotonic goat’s muscles briefly stiffen, sometimes making it fall over. A viral video that has received more than 5.4 million likes shows a baby goat jumping down from a small staircase before suddenly freezing with all four legs stiff and toppling over. Within seconds, it gets back on its feet and starts…

Astronomers have directly detected four previously hidden white dwarfs orbiting nearby red dwarf stars, solving a long-standing observational challenge and improving our understanding of how close binary star systems evolve. The newly confirmed stellar remnants lie within 20 parsecs (around 65 light-years) of the Sun and had remained concealed because their faint light was overwhelmed…

A tiny puffin chick has achieved something conservationists on England’s south coast had not witnessed in three decades. After 15 weeks of careful monitoring by National Trust volunteers and seabird expert Dr Richard Caldow, the chick was photographed emerging from a rocky crevice at Dancing Ledge on Dorset’s Isle of Purbeck. The sighting marks the…

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…