For decades, one idea has shaped discussions about human intelligence: our ability to recognise geometric patterns was thought to set us apart from other primates. People naturally notice features such as symmetry, parallel sides and right angles, and many researchers have argued that this reflects a uniquely human way of thinking.A new study was published…
Arika Kundu, 13, uses peanut shells to help remove pesticide residues from produce. A 13-year-old Indian-American student from Minnesota has invented a method to reduce pesticide residues on fresh fruits and vegetables by using peanut shells, something that is usually thrown away.Arika Kundu, a seventh-grade student at Minnetonka Middle School East in Shorewood, Minnesota, developed…
Science has answered questions that once seemed impossible from explaining how galaxies evolve to revealing the structure of DNA. Yet with every discovery comes the realisation that there is still so much we do not know. Many of history’s greatest scientists believed that knowledge does not take away the mystery of the universe; instead, it…
Spruce and birch trees are seen tilting along the edge Stevens Pond on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus on Sept. 18, 2022. Thick green tree canopies across northern forests act as giant sunshields, keeping permafrost cool enough to hold 59 billion tonnes of carbon safely in the ground.The discovery reveals that the forest canopy…
Specimen of Chondrosia reniformis transplanted into the harbor. Image credit: Carlota Escarré Scientists transplanted 42 sea sponges into a polluted Spanish marina, where 91.7 per cent of one hardy species survived for 455 days and began creating mobile clones.The study, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, shows that the chicken kidney sponge (Chondrosia reniformis) can…
At first glance, a sheet of folded paper may seem far removed from advanced engineering. But for Japanese student Kuribayashi, origami became the starting point for a scientific investigation into how structures move. The student from Sapporo Kaisei Secondary School studied the complex folding patterns of a ladybug wing, exploring how its delicate design allows…
A research team led by University of Michigan isolated and grew more than 200 kinds of fungi from the deep subsurface (Credit: Quinn Moon University of Michigan) Scientists drilling 1,640 feet beneath Michigan have discovered 689 kinds of fungi living in water that last touched the surface 11,000 years ago.The University of Michigan study shows…
The rapid expansion of artificial satellite constellations is changing the appearance and accessibility of the night sky, creating a new challenge to the field of astronomy. For decades, the primary concern for astronomers was light pollution present on earth, but the introduction of large-scale telecommunication networks, such as SpaceX’s Starlink, has introduced a new form…
For decades, the extinction of the dinosaurs has usually been pictured as a slow collapse. An asteroid struck Earth, sunlight faded behind dust, temperatures changed, and ecosystems gradually unravelled. That broad sequence still stands, yet a new study argues that the first chapter of the catastrophe may have unfolded far more quickly than many imagined….
At first sight, Pando appears to be an ordinary forest of thousands of trembling aspen trees stretching across Utah’s Fishlake National Forest. As reported by PBS, the reality beneath the ground is far more unusual. Those estimated 47,000 trunks are not separate trees competing for space, but parts of a single living organism connected by…
