Trees have their own version of muscles: Scientists discover how they sense a tilt and straighten themselves, a lesson in how nature finds its balance
To study proprioception alone, the researchers had to remove other cues that normally affect a tree’s growth. A tree might look like it’s stuck in place, quietly suffering whatever weather comes. But below that stillness is a remarkable system for…
Scientists removed just 20–40% of fish from a degraded Chinese lake; underwater plants and water clarity began recovering
Representative Image of a pristine highland lake transitioning from murky water to clear, with submerged plants thriving (AI Generated Image) Caohai Lake, a highland lake in southwest China, began losing its underwater vegetation after 2016. By 2019,…
In 2020, Ohio removed a dam from the once-polluted Cuyahoga River; it reopened 39 km of habitat, and scientists later detected 15 additional fish taxa
An 18-metre concrete dam on Ohio’s Cuyahoga River once stopped migrating fish from reaching important spawning areas for more than a century. Today, aquatic life is quickly returning to the river. Researchers from the US Geological Survey, working with…
A fungus turns beetles into zombies and makes them die on flowers; scientists say the timing helps infect the next generation
A fungus infecting goldenrod soldier beetles can alter their behaviour before death and cause changes to their bodies afterwards. Researchers investigating Eryniopsis lampyridarum found infected Chauliognathus pensylvanicus beetles clamped their…
Scientists rediscover a ‘ghost’ green mamba hidden in a Polish museum for decades after its 1885 discovery
A green mamba specimen from São Tomé Island that dates back to 1885 has been found after decades of being regarded as lost, which gives scientists a rare opportunity to revisit the identity of one of the Gulf of Guinea’s most mysterious snakes. Adolfo…
2,800+ wolves killed, nearly $10 million spent and 15 caribou herds still at risk: Why scientists say British Columbia is targeting the wrong problem
Since 2015, British Columbia has killed 200-300 wolves annually to help endangered caribou populations recover. Recently, the provincial government has proposed extending its decade-long wolf cull program by five more years in areas that are home to 15…
60 years after Dutch elm disease devastated America’s 100 million iconic trees, now scientists have infected 6,000 young elms in a radical bid to bring them back
Six decades ago, Dutch elm disease swept across the United States, killing an estimated 100 million American elms that once shaded streets, parks and college campuses from coast to coast. The fungus, carried by bark beetles, turned majestic, vase-shaped…
Scientists found a fungus that turns female flies into zombies, then uses their dead bodies to spread spores to healthy flies
A fungus that infects house flies has evolved a remarkable way to send spores towards new hosts. Entomophthora muscae grows inside an infected fly and, after the insect dies, it produces microscopic stalks that emerge from its body. Each stalk forms a…
Australia planted eucalyptus trees to fight rising soil salinity; decades later scientists found the plantations were changing groundwater but not the soil nature
Eucalyptus cladocalyx ‘nana’. Image Credit: ERA Nurseries Australia planted eucalyptus trees to fight rising soil salinity, hoping that thirsty, deep-rooted vegetation could help control the groundwater processes behind the problem. A long-running…
Nasa scientists grew corn seeds in space and found that microgravity changed how the seedlings’ roots and shoots grew
Long before astronauts ever plant a seed on the Moon or Mars, Nasa has been testing a much simpler question here on Earth’s doorstep: what happens when a corn seed germinates with no gravity to tell it which way to grow? Back in the early 1990s,…