Science

PC: Swiss Academy of Sciences A photograph shared online has helped scientists identify a hoverfly species that had remained a mystery for years. The insect, named ‘Monoceromyia ndidiae’, was photographed in the Dominican Republic and posted on iNaturalist. Its unusual appearance caught the attention of an entomologist, who began asking whether the fly represented something…

Biofouling happens when marine organisms attach to or occupy submerged parts of a vessel The submerged surfaces of nearly 30,000 commercial vessels arriving in Alaska over 11 years created more opportunities for marine organisms to hitchhike to new locations, according to a research.The study, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, examined 29,799 commercial vessel arrivals…

The European turtle dove population in the United Kingdom had fallen to just 2 percent of its peak population in the late 1960s. The species is Europe’s only migratory dove and has become the fastest-declining bird species in the U.K. As the festive season approaches, a bird forever linked with love, devotion and Christmas is…

Pee breaks are one of the most relaxing times in the office when you finally get to have some sane moments to yourself. Which is why most employees take numerous such breaks within a day. But what if your normal pee break had you secretly contributing to the generation of electricity?Two hundred and sixty men…

After a cup of coffee is brewed, the grounds left behind are often discarded as waste. But researchers have found a way to turn them into a useful material for concrete. A 2023 study examined whether spent coffee grounds (SCG) could replace part of the sand used in concrete after being converted into biochar through…

Quote of the day by Alexander Graham Bell (Image: Wikipedia) In an age of constant notifications, endless open tabs and competing priorities, Alexander Graham Bell’s words feel genuinely surprising in how modern they still sound. “Concentrate all your thoughts on the task at hand,” he said. “The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to…

Nearly 100,000 sea urchins have been removed from three coastal sites in northern Norway by almost 500 volunteers working to bring back underwater kelp forests. Between April 2024 and May 2026, Rissa Citizen Science organised 23 restoration events at Sørsjetéen, Telegrafbukta and Øksfjord, with divers spending more than 20,000 minutes underwater clearing urchin barrens. The…

Restoring grazing by native large herbivores such as bison can produce sustained increases in native plant diversity In 1987, 30 bison from the Fort Riley Military Reservation were brought to Konza Prairie in Kansas. Nearly three decades later, researchers found that native plant species richness had increased by 103% at the local scale and by…

Singapore has turned part of a reservoir into a giant renewable-energy installation, covering about one-third of Tengeh Reservoir with more than 122,000 floating solar panels spread across 10 floating islands. The 45-hectare Sembcorp Tengeh Floating Solar Farm has a capacity of 60 MWp and generates electricity used to support five local water-treatment plants. The project…

A fossil found in southern Brazil is giving researchers a closer look at the reptiles that lived near the beginning of the archosaur lineage, the group that would eventually include dinosaurs and crocodile-line animals. The animal has been named ‘Silescelida acristata’ and is identified as an early-diverging eucrocopodan archosauriform from the Middle Triassic. A recent…