This endangered British butterfly has 20% less genetic diversity, study finds The British swallowtail butterfly is the UK’s only native swallowtail and largest native butterfly. It may look similar to other swallowtails found across Europe, but its DNA tells a different story.A new study has found that the British swallowtail, also known as Papilio machaon…
Typical children going to an elementary school in Japan mostly spend their free time studying, playing baseball or reading all the manga they can get their hands on. But Jo Nagai, a ten-year-old resident of Kobe, Japan decided to spend his spare time hand-raising swallowtail butterflies. Identified with the bright dots that outline their wings,…
An aerial view of the San Andreas Fault crossing the Carrizo Plain in California (Getty images) Scientists have discovered hidden movements beneath California’s San Andreas Fault with the help of artificial intelligence, revealing a type of slow fault slip that had largely gone unnoticed till now. The researchers say these silent movements may play a…
The pink light visible in recent timelapse footage from the International Space Station is not a camera effect or a reflection from Earth. Instead, it comes from a small plant-growing facility tucked inside the station’s Columbus laboratory, where astronauts have been tending crops as part of an ongoing experiment into how plants behave beyond our…
Few natural experiences are as universally loved as the earthy scent that rises after the first drops of rain hit dry ground. Petrichor, what most people describe as the smell of fresh rain, but the rain itself has almost no scent. Instead, what your nose detects is a remarkable chemical called geosmin, produced by soil-dwelling…
As ice melts, the liquid water collects in depressions on the surface and deepens them, forming these melt ponds in the Arctic | Wikimedia Commons Climate change is often discussed in terms of global averages, but new research suggests that where warming or cooling occurs may be just as important as how much occurs. Using…
Forecasts for the tropical Pacific have shifted noticeably over the past month, with climate scientists now placing greater confidence in the arrival of a particularly powerful El Niño later this year. While these events are part of a natural climate cycle, their effects rarely stay confined to the Pacific Ocean. Changes in ocean temperatures can…
For mathematicians, there is not much in the world whose reasoning cannot be substantiated with calculation. The beings that are in love with numbers and associations, view the world through a numerical lens, as a puzzle to be solved with the right method. While many mathematicians have graced the world with shocking methods, theorems and…
Mice are some of the most invasive animals on the planet. Quick to enter and escape they have managed to make many a human mind burst with anger and panic. The max that can be done about them is setting up a trap or spreading some poison around. But imagine an island filled with mice…
Every day, countless substances cling to surfaces around us without becoming part of the material itself. This fascinating process is known as adsorption, and the verb that describes it is adsorb. Although it is often confused with absorption, the two processes are fundamentally different. While absorption involves a substance being taken into the interior of…