Science

Mangroves naturally occur along the southeast Chinese coast and traverse the provinces of Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Taiwan. Thirty-seven mangrove tree species, representing 20 families and 25 genera have been documented in the country. Yet a remarkable decrease of species richness has taken place over the past 40 years in China, with the nation…

For most people, opening their eyes underwater turns the world into a blur. The human eye is designed to focus light passing through air, and once submerged, much of that focusing power is lost. Yet for generations, the children of the Moken, an Indigenous sea-nomad community living around the Andaman Sea between Thailand and Myanmar,…

Antarctica is the coldest continent on Earth, featuring a deadly combination of extreme temperatures, high elevation and ice-covered terrain. The Russian Vostok Station here averages minus 55°C and on July 21, 1983, it recorded the lowest reliably measured air temperature on Earth, −89.2°C.Yet sealed beneath the white ice sheets of the region is a hidden…

Mid-listen, you can tap a button, ask your question, hear the answer, and then pick up the story right where you left off NEW YORK: Imagine a world where you could ask a book a question as you read it. That’s the pitch from a wave of new AI tools letting readers do exactly that….

Image(s): International Mathematical Union Two Chinese mathematicians have made history by becoming the first Chinese recipients of the Fields Medal, widely regarded as the highest honour in mathematics. Hong Wang and Yu Deng were recognised for solving long-standing mathematical problems that had challenged researchers for more than a century, marking a milestone not only for…

Before major surgeries and operations, doctors often detect diseases in humans using minimally invasive methods like a blood or urine test, before symptoms become severe. Now, researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) are applying a similar concept to coral reefs. They have shown that the water surrounding reefs contains chemical and microbial signals…

Benjamin Franklin (Image: Wikipedia) Life gets measured in years, but it is really defined by what actually happens inside them. A line widely credited to Benjamin Franklin puts that gap sharply. “Many people die at twenty-five and aren’t buried until they are seventy-five,” it goes. It is obviously not describing literal death. It is describing…

Millions of tiny oysters are being returned to the Chesapeake Bay in an ambitious conservation effort that scientists hope will transform one of the United States’ most important estuaries. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), in partnership with the Severn River Association, recently planted three million juvenile oysters in a protected sanctuary reef in Maryland’s Severn…

Tasmanian devils, dogs and shellfish are some of the only animals that are known to carry naturally occurring cancers that can pass between individuals. But scientists in Vermont have discovered a new animal species that can do the same, catfish. When they researched the mysterious black skin lesions afflicting catfish in Lake Memphremagog and other…

A team of scientists has uncovered a naturally occurring microbial process that could change how uranium-contaminated water is cleaned up. Studying bacteria living in the flooded Königstein uranium mine in Germany, the researchers discovered that certain microorganisms can transform highly soluble uranium into a rare, stable mineral that remains locked in place instead of spreading…