Learning something from a finished textbook can give us a clear answer, but it does not always show us how that answer came to be. James Clerk Maxwell believed that students could gain something deeper by returning to the original work of the scientists who first developed an idea. In his words, “It is of…
Representative Image (AI-generated) A restoration project in northern California has shown how structures designed to mimic the work of beavers can create better conditions for threatened coho salmon, particularly during drought. According to a July 2026 study published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, juvenile coho salmon survival in one restored creek increased from a…
Total Solar Eclipse. Image Credit: Bob Linsdell/Wikipedia On 12 August 2026, a total solar eclipse will take place, which will cross the Northern Hemisphere from Siberia to the Mediterranean. This rare celestial event is expected to attract millions of observers from many continents. The path of totality (the narrow track or strip of land where…
The royals across the world are known to pull numerous extravagant moves with an aim to impress. While Cleopatra made guests dine on gold plates, King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France built temporary palaces of brick and glass for a meeting. But in modern times, such grand gestures have been…
When scientists have a will, there is always a way. In a shocking yet successful project, leftover hair from haircuts that is not suitable for wigs and would have gone to waste is now being used to prevent oil and other pollutants from getting into the water and the trees.In Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay,…
A critically endangered female red handfish, Thymichthys politus. (Photo: Joel Sartore) For 20 years, photographer Joel Sartore has been building a huge visual record of the world’s animals. His project, called the Photo Ark, has now reached another major milestone with its 18,000th species- the critically endangered red handfish. The milestone photo was announced by…
Representative Image of Australian magpies cooperating to remove tracking devices from one another (AI-generated image) Researchers in Queensland fitted five Australian magpies with tiny GPS trackers, hoping to map their movements and understand how age, sex or rank affected the way the flock behaved. The birds had other plans. Within about ten minutes, an untagged…
In September 2022, Nasa carried out a mission that had never been attempted before: deliberately crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid to change its path through space. The target was Dimorphos, a small moonlet orbiting a larger asteroid called Didymos. Neither object posed any danger to Earth, which made the pair an ideal testing ground…
Benjamin Franklin (Image: Wikipedia) Two people can spend a lifetime accumulating whatever they consider valuable and end up with completely different kinds of wealth to show for it. One collects money, property, and possessions, each one clearly priced, each one able to be counted. The other spends that same effort building something that resists being…
A couple, Margaret and Arthur Thorsborne, travelled north from Queensland’s Gold Coast to Hinchinbrook Island, a place they knew largely through photographs. They would return many times, eventually making the Cardwell area their home and becoming closely associated with its forests, wetlands and wildlife. Among the animals that caught their attention were pied imperial-pigeons, which…