Science

For years, having a drink with dinner or sharing a couple of drinks with friends has often been treated as a relatively harmless habit, provided it does not turn into heavy drinking. But new research suggests that consuming what many people consider a moderate amount of alcohol may carry a greater long-term health risk than…

Image: The New York Times At 16, Violet Clinton has turned her fascination with insects into an ambitious scientific research project, documenting 11,377 insects during a seven-month study of moth diversity and abundance in New York. A student at Horace Greeley High School, she spends two or three evenings a week exploring the Eugene and…

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a compact optical spectrometer that costs around $10 and delivers laboratory-grade precision for applications ranging from healthcare monitoring to food and materials analysis. The device was developed with GlitterinTech, a start-up founded by the same research group.According to the University of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, it uses…

A patch of pavement in South Florida offered an unlikely hiding place for a Burmese python during the busiest part of the species’ nesting season. The snake was discovered beneath a sidewalk, where it was guarding 20 eggs, after a passer-by noticed movement under the concrete. The encounter drew attention to the places where the…

Reducing ice cap due to global warming. A new study suggests that the Arctic was already moving towards another glaciation nearly 2,000 years ago, before rising greenhouse gas emissions reversed the trend. Researchers found that the Barnes Ice Cap in Canada’s Arctic began expanding again around that time, reaching its greatest extent in this advance…

Will BP pills soon be replaced? Image: Canva The worst thing about blood pressure medication is that they are for life. Once a person has been put on BP medication, it is for life in most cases. Doctors might adjust dosage but weaning from this medicine is quite uncommon. However a promising research published in…

PC: Brad Leue/ Australian Wildlife Conservancy The Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) has purchased 200 hectares of land on King Island, Tasmania, to protect threatened wildlife, including a critically endangered bird with fewer than 100 individuals remaining. The acquisition marks the organisation’s first conservation project in Tasmania and creates an opportunity to expand efforts to protect…

PC: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Four biology and biomedical engineering students at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology developed PneumaNode, a small sensor patch designed to continuously monitor the vital signs of babies in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). The device was created as part of their senior design capstone project after medical device startup ResperCare LLC…

(Alliaria petiolata) Garlic Mustard. Image Credit: US Department of Agriculture This plant was introduced to North America in the 1860s for its culinary and medicinal value, but has become a stubborn threat to woodlands throughout the continent. Native to Europe and Asia, garlic mustard was first reported in Long Island, New York and has since…

Scientists tracking Burmese pythons in southern Florida found that only four implanted radio transmitters were expelled over 20 years. The researchers implanted 305 transmitters in 142 adult snakes between 2005 and 2024 to study their behaviour, movement and ecology. The devices were used to follow the pythons in the wild and collect information about their…