Science

PC: Kristen Grace/ Florida Museum of Natural History A 35-year study of the endangered Schaus’ swallowtail butterfly has found that high winds associated with hurricanes were linked to both short-term and longer-term changes in its population. Researchers analysed mark-release-recapture data collected on Elliott Key in Biscayne National Park between 1985 and 2021. The population varied…

A 132-acre section of one of Henry County, Georgia’s largest remaining undeveloped properties is set for a 10-year forest restoration project, with a data-centre company funding the effort as part of a broader environmental partnership. The Southern Conservation Trust (SCT) is leading the restoration at Towaliga Preserve, a 403-acre protected property in Hampton, with support…

For much of the 20th century, factories and paper mills along Michigan’s Detroit and Kalamazoo rivers discharged waste that settled into the sediment and lingered for decades. The legacy includes polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, mercury and other pollutants that have kept both waterways on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s list of Great Lakes areas…

Representative Image of EcoMusa mulch made from plantain peels, showcasing its agricultural benefits (AI Generated Image) A seventh-grade student in Puerto Rico has turned plantain peels thrown away by her school cafeteria into a bioplastic mulch that reduced weed growth by as much as 53% in a four-week experiment. Wileidy Enid Feliciano-Rivera, a student at…

Representative AI-generated image Coral reefs are facing increasingly intense heat stress, and scientists in Florida have tested an unusual way to give vulnerable corals temporary relief: underwater “umbrellas”. During a 2024 experiment in the Florida Keys, researchers placed custom-built shade structures over colonies of two brain coral species as ocean temperatures climbed to exceptionally high…

A US Cold War-era spy satellite launched in 1988 to collect electronic intelligence has broken apart in low Earth orbit after nearly four decades circling the planet. Catalogued as USA 32 and identified by analysts as FARRAH III, the spacecraft fragmented on September 13, 2026, at an altitude of about 775 kilometres. US Space Forces-Space…

The discovery may also reshape ideas about where CRISPR came from. The researchers found VIPR systems in viruses that appear to use them against competing viruses, suggesting that viral competition helped shape this unusual molecular weapon. The genetic code is usually described as an orderly language, read one letter after another in precise three-letter units….

Golden Bandicoot. Image Credit: Tim Henderson/AWC Australia’s Golden Bandicoot population has reached about 300 animals at Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary in Central Australia, around two and a half years after 80 were reintroduced into a fenced predator-free area. The Australian Wildlife Conservancy says the population has tripled since the animals were released in August 2023. The…

A mysterious radio signal from deep space has astronomers asking a big question: is someone out there trying to say hello?The answer, however, is far less sci-fi and much more magnetic.Astronomers have detected radio emission directly from an exoplanet for the first time, with the signal from Beta Pictoris b pointing to an exceptionally powerful…

Tim PeakePhoto credit: Esa.int ESA astronaut Tim Peake took 2kg of rocket seeds to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2015 as part of his six-month Principia mission. The seeds endured intense vibrations from launch and spaceflight and received up to 100 times more radiation than they would have experienced on Earth. After returning in…