If you forget to water a houseplant for a week or two, it will droop quickly. Now imagine doing that to an entire rainforest on purpose. That is what scientists at Biosphere 2 in Arizona did in 2019. In a Science paper, Werner and colleagues describe how they turned off the rain for 9.5 weeks … Read more
Every three months, an ocean in the Arizona desert took a trip through time. In 1996, Columbia University researchers used Biosphere 2’s marine mesocosm to recreate three sets of ocean conditions: those of a glacial ice age, the present day, and the 22nd century. According to the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2 ecosystems page, the … Read more
Imagine a beach where the waves suddenly turn bright pink. In 2015, scientists made that happen on purpose off Southern California. According to Scripps Institution of Oceanography, researchers conducted three experiments near Imperial Beach, releasing non-toxic, bright pink fluorescent dye to see how it moved along the coast. The dye was used to simulate pollution. … Read more
Tempe , The brain is unbelievably complicated, which is both daunting and fascinating for neuroscientists like me. Optogenetics wins Nobel: One neuroscience breakthrough in line of tech innovations helping scientists map, control brain In the space of a cubic millimeter – about the size of a single poppy seed – there are tens of thousands … Read more
The newly discovered tooth provides another reason to reconsider how the region looked in the distant past, the report claims. The Atacama Desert is a landscape where water is measured in millimetres, not rivers. Today, parts of this vast Chilean desert receive almost no rain, making the discovery of an animal that depended on plentiful … Read more
Raccoons have long been credited with outwitting latches, and a study has tested that reputation. University of British Columbia researchers Hannah Griebling and Dr Sarah Benson-Amram gave captive raccoons a custom puzzle box with nine entry points, grouped as easy, medium and hard. Each 20-minute trial held a single marshmallow; the raccoons often kept opening … Read more
Deep in the Florida Everglades, a vast and difficult landscape, scientists are trying a new way to find invasive Burmese pythons; they are looking from above. Researchers are testing small drones fitted with radio tracking equipment or cameras to locate snakes more efficiently, follow their movements across difficult terrain, and cut the cost of searching … Read more
Green swordtail fish have taken part in a digital dating game to help scientists understand how animals choose their mates. Researchers from the University of Exeter placed individual fish in tanks with screens showing virtual partners. The fish could then spend time near the partner they preferred.Those choices were used to create new virtual fish … Read more
Representative Image of diverse Calosoma beetle species with a focus on their failed introductions to Hawaii (AI Generated Image) For six decades, scientists repeatedly introduced predatory beetles to Hawaii in an effort to control crop-damaging caterpillars, but none of the intentionally released species established a lasting population. A study published in Biological Control titled Calosoma … Read more
Native sedges growing in a wet meadow (Representational photo) Scientists who planted 40,000 native sedge seedling to restore the damaged Tuolumne Meadows in California’s Yosemite National Park, have found early signs of improvement after. The results, however, also show that restoring the meadow’s soil and its ability to store carbon could take several decades. Three … Read more