Quote of the day by Richard Feynman (Image: Wikipedia) Not knowing the answer to a question can often feel like a weakness. In school, at work and even in everyday conversations, people may feel pressure to appear knowledgeable and confident, even when they are uncertain. American physicist Richard Feynman viewed uncertainty very differently. Known for…
In September 2007, the European Space Agency launched roughly 3,000 tardigrades into low Earth orbit aboard the Biopan-6 platform on the FOTON-M3 mission. Known as water bears, these microscopic animals were dried into a dormant state before being exposed directly to the vacuum of space, alongside doses of solar and cosmic radiation, for ten days…
Kaia Minn at the National Academy of Inventors conference. Image Credit: kaiaminn.com A discarded citrus peel is not the sort of thing most people would associate with restoring forests. But for 13-year-old Massachusetts inventor ‘Kaia Minn,’ it became the starting point for a simple idea with potentially far-reaching environmental uses. Minn has developed a ‘biodegradable…
Representative Image of fluorescent scorpions glowing across a desert landscape after dark (AI-generated image) In 1945, an Arizona State University professor began wandering the desert at night, hunting scorpions that glowed under his black light, and few people around him understood why. That professor, Herbert L Stahnke, was already the nation’s leading authority on scorpions…
Representative Image (AI-generated) A tiny concentration of a synthetic hormone was enough to trigger a dramatic ecological change in a remote Ontario lake. In 2001, scientists began adding the synthetic estrogen 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2) to Lake 260 in northwestern Ontario, maintaining concentrations of about 5 to 6 nanograms per litre. The experiment continued for seven years,…
In the depths of the Grand Canyon, scientists were trying to give native fish a better chance of survival, by taking other fish out of the Colorado River. A four-year fish-removal experiment conducted between 2003 and 2006 dramatically changed the composition of fish being caught in one section of the river. According to a 2011…
Since 2015, British Columbia has killed 200-300 wolves annually to help endangered caribou populations recover. Recently, the provincial government has proposed extending its decade-long wolf cull program by five more years in areas that are home to 15 declining woodland caribou herds. But according to scientists, the deforestation, not the wolves, is the main driver…
Seven Indigenous Siekopai women in Ecuador’s Amazon are using ancestral knowledge, modern technology and community-led conservation to give vulnerable river turtles a better chance of survival. Known as the Tari Nomiowa’i, or “Turtle Women”, the group patrols the banks of the Aguarico River in search of charapa turtle nests, carefully collects eggs threatened by flooding,…
India’s digital payment journey has evolved from passwords, PINs and OTPs to fingerprints and facial authentication, making transactions faster and more seamless. Now, with AI, the next step could be completely hands-free payments, where systems recognise users, assess transactions and authenticate payments almost invisibly.The country may allow AI agents to make small UPI payments without…
The site was decommissioned. However, contamination remains underground. In 1967, the United States tried an unusual method to increase natural gas production. It detonated a 29-kiloton device and had an explosoion 4,227 feet below the ground in north-western New Mexico to stimulate the flow of natural gas.According to the US Department of Energy (DOE), the…
