Science

Study says Northern Hemisphere lakes may lose 40 days of winter ice by 2100 (National Geographic photo) Winter ice on lakes plays an important role in keeping lakes healthy by controlling water temperature, supporting aquatic life and helping maintain the natural balance of freshwater ecosystems. However, scientists say this seasonal ice cover is disappearing faster…

“Do what you can do tomorrow, today,” says Roy Kim, a 13-year-old Oregon student who has solved the water crisis for numerous farmers in the region. The teenager developed a device that turns moisture in the air into water, helping farmers access a sustainable and reliable source of water in drought-prone areas, as per a…

The Massachusetts project is an example of agrivoltaics, a nascent farming practice that combines agriculture with solar energy generation on the same land. Farmers have relied on sunshine to grow healthy crops for generations. But as they say, excess of anything is bad and with climate change causing hotter summers, longer droughts and erratic weather,…

Ghana is transforming its plastic problems into paving blocks for its roads, sold below the price of concrete blocks. Behind this operation is Nelson Boateng, who graduated in computer network engineering, and was already manufacturing plastic bags and began transforming the same material into flooring. The plastic Ghana cannot contain Accra, the capital of Ghana…

More than 120 fish species have migrated from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean Since the Suez Canal opened more than 150 years ago, more than 120 fish species have migrated from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean. Researchers at Tel Aviv University have now created a statistical model that predicts which species are likely…

America is retiring coal plants slowly and steadily. The boilers are cut up for scrap, the smokestacks get dropped on camera and the land tends to sit in permitting limbo for a decade. But in Becker, Minnesota, the state’s biggest coal plant is being used, not for all this hardware but for a plug.On July…

Concrete is the most widely used manufactured material on Earth, yet most people only ever encounter it once it has already hardened into a wall, a road or a slab. Science communicator Derek Muller set out to understand what the material actually does while it is still wet, by climbing into a tank of fresh…

A lost chapter in the history of Ethiopia agriculture Picture yourself wandering through a tranquil village in the northern Ethiopian highlands, a gnarled grapevine sheltering from the afternoon sun over a stone courtyard. It is a familiar part of daily life for local families, a source of sweet fruit, a place to gather, and a…

Image(s): Florida Key Isaland/Canva Imagine erasing almost every insect and small animal from an island, then watching nature rebuild itself from scratch. That was exactly what a team of ecologists did in the Florida Keys during one of the most influential ecological experiments ever conducted. In 1966, researchers enclosed tiny mangrove islands in enormous plastic…

Rewilded elephants on Khamab Kalahari Reserve, who were observed during this research project (from left to right: Ngwedi, Mana, Michael, and Chikwenya) South Africa released 11 elephants that had spent years in captivity into protected reserves. Five years later, researchers found that their behavior was very similar to elephants that had always lived in the…