Science

In 2019, scientists at the University at Buffalo developed an electricity-free cooling system that uses a thin aluminium film coated with the polymer polydimethylsiloxane, or PDMS, to send heat from its surroundings through the atmosphere and towards outer space. The approach, known as radiative cooling, was designed to overcome a key challenge: making passive cooling…

Wild saiga antelope. Image Credit: Andrey Giljov/Wikipedia In 2015, Kazakhstan’s vast grasslands became the scene of one of the most devastating wildlife losses in recent history. Around 200,000 saiga antelopes died within weeks, leaving a population already weakened by poaching and earlier declines facing another impossible setback. The disaster wiped out more than two thirds…

Michigan State University botanist William James Beal buried 20 glass bottles filled with seeds In 1879, Michigan State University botanist William James Beal buried 20 glass bottles filled with seeds and sand in an effort to answer a deceptively simple question: how long could seeds remain dormant in the soil and still grow when conditions…

It has no leaves, no branches and no green parts, and spends much of its life concealed beneath fallen leaves on the forest floor. Scientists have now described a bizarre new flowering plant from Thailand, naming it Thismia daemona, the “devil flower”, for its dark, horn-like appearance. Details of the discovery were reported by Pensoft…

British Columbia reservoirRepresentative image from Canva In the summer of 2026, workers and residents around the Williston Reservoir in northern British Columbia witnessed something that sounded like folklore: a large, forested island broke free from the shoreline, drifted across the lake, disappeared from view, and then turned up again about 30 kilometres away, still carrying…

Representative Image (AI-generated) A conservation effort that began nearly four decades ago is sending hundreds of tiny snails on a remarkable journey back to their native home. Five hundred Partula snails raised at the Detroit Zoo are travelling more than 5,000 miles from Michigan to Tahiti, where they will be released into the wild as…

When Lilah Mehta entered a biomedical research laboratory at Yale University as a 16-year-old high-school pupil, her main goal was to explore the biological questions that had interested her since her ninth-grade science classes. Two years later, the New Canaan resident and King School student in Stamford has reached an academic milestone rarely achieved before…

Illegal gold miners have encroached on Indonesia’s Jantho forest reservation, a vital reintroduction site for the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan. The country’s largest environmental pressure group, Indonesian Forum for the Environment, revealed that miners have breached the forest in Aceh province, where the animals rescued from illegal wildlife trade reside, according to a report by…

In an age when information moves faster than ever, distinguishing between what is true and what people simply want to believe has become increasingly important. People can form strong opinions about science, health, politics, technology and everyday events, sometimes accepting claims because they fit what they already believe. Astrophysicist and science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson…

At 12, Shubham Banerjee was looking for a way to make Braille printing more affordable. His search began after he saw a letter asking for help for blind people during his family’s Christmas celebrations at home. When he learnt that Braille printers could cost more than $2,000, he wondered whether the technology could be built…