Science

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…

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…

New Zealand introduced brown trout for sport fishing When British settlers packed thousands of brown trout ova onto ships bound for the Antipodes in 1867, they hoped to recreate the sport fishing they knew from Europe. Over the next five decades, acclimatisation societies bred and released more than 60 million brown trout into waterways across…

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…

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…