Egypt is testing a farming system that puts solar panels above crops instead of using separate land for agriculture and electricity generation. Known as agrivoltaics, the approach is being piloted at Habiba Farm in Nuweiba, South Sinai, where elevated panels provide partial shade while crops continue growing underneath. The project is designed for Egypt’s harsh…
A butterfly once declared extinct in Britain is now at the centre of one of the country’s most striking conservation success stories. The large blue, which disappeared from Britain in 1979, has been successfully reintroduced and now occurs at 33 sites in south-west England. New figures from the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme show its recorded…
The story of the Galápagos giant tortoise is one of exploitation, extinction and an extraordinary conservation comeback. Pirates, whalers and other sailors once collected the slow-moving animals from the islands as a reliable source of fresh meat, taking advantage of their ability to survive for months without food or water. On Floreana Island, relentless hunting,…
Sarufutsu, a village on the northernmost tip of Japan’s Hokkaido, is known for scallops. The village contributes to about 15% of the country’s entire scallop catch, and Japan eats tens of thousands of tons of the sweet, sashimi-grade shellfish. However, what people consume is the muscle, not the shell.The shells are nothing more than waste…
Restoring damaged oyster reefs can bring back the small marine animals that depend on them. A study examined restored, living, and dead oyster reefs in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon to track how their macroinvertebrate communities changed after restoration. The researchers collected 20,087 marine invertebrates representing 41 species from 14 families. Over time, the communities on…
Paleontologist John Moretti (left) and caver John Young after exploring Bender’s Cave. Image Credit: John Moretti The discovery beneath Bender’s Cave in central Texas began in an underground stream where fossils lay hidden beneath the water. John A. Moretti, a palaeontologist at the University of Texas in Austin, and caver John Young investigated bones preserved…
A mosquito’s proboscis is built for a very different job from manufacturing. It is a tiny biological structure designed to move through skin and handle fluid at a scale that is difficult to reproduce with conventional engineering. Now, researchers have found a way to put that natural geometry to work after the insect is dead.The…
Representative Image of pregnant guppies in a small aquarium, with embryos developing inside them and Earth in the background (AI Generated Image) On December 14, 1983, the Soviet Union launched an unmanned biosatellite called Cosmos 1514, carrying more than 60 experiments from nine countries, including 2 rhesus monkeys, 10 pregnant rats and a small group…
Acacia Senegal. Image Credit: Wikipedia Planting trees in Sudan’s drylands changed the soil in ways that became clearer as the plantations grew older. Acacia Senegal gradually built up more organic carbon and improved the soil’s ability to hold water for plants. A 2018 study titled ‘Changes in soil hydraulic properties, soil moisture and water balance…
Rowan Atkinson, Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons In 2006, Rowan Atkinson bought Handsmooth House, a 1930s property set on about 16 acres in Ipsden, Oxfordshire, for a reported £2.6 million. Rather than preserve the existing house, Atkinson wanted to replace it with a completely different kind of home. He eventually commissioned American architect Richard Meier, whose…
