Watching a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis is enough to evoke wonder even from the most world-weary of souls. But rarely do we get to see behind the scenes of the pupa’s transformation. Current methods rely on dissection of the
Almost two thirds of British species have declined in the past 50 years and one in 10 faces the risk of extinction from our shores, according to an extensive new report into the state of Britain’s nature. The report, one
A tornado tore through Moore, Oklahoma, a suburb of Oklahoma City, on May 20, reaching wind speeds of up to 200 miles per hour, flattening entire neighborhoods, and destroying Briarwood Elementary School. The death toll has reached 51, according to
Rescuers are pulling children from the wreckage of two elementary schools after a tornado 1½ kilometres wide flattened entire neighbourhoods. At least 51 people died. At least 51 people were killed when an enormous tornado 1½ kilometres wide roared through
Mirjana Filipovic is still haunted by the land mine blast that killed her boyfriend and blew off her left leg while on a fishing trip nearly a decade ago. It happened in a field that was supposedly de-mined. Now, unlikely heroes
The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report put out by the Centers for Disease Control makes for fascinating reading sometimes. One came out recently that contains three startling case reports linked to clam beds on the US east coast, but they do not involve,
While a college student in the early 1990s at Northwestern, Peter Alagona became fascinated with the red-hot controversies swirling endangered species, from the California condor and desert tortoise to the northern spotted owl and black-footed ferret. As environmentalists and animal
The black and white ruffed lemur, the Mexican axolotl and the Sunda pangolin are among the species on a pioneering map of the world’s most unique and threatened mammals and amphibians. Scientists from the Zoological Society of London pinpointed areas
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas – so it’s rather odd that we find ourselves in mid-May. Snow fell across parts of Britain last night while another area had a month’s rain in just 24 hours as winds
There are a lot of shipwrecks in Sydney’s Homebush Bay, near the Olympic village, but none quite like the SS Ayrfield, also known as “The Floating Forest” for the lush mangrove vegetation that now covers its rusty hull. The SS
Plants have scientifically been show to draw alternative sources of energy from other plants. Plants influence each other in many ways and they communicate through “nanomechanical oscillations” vibrations on the tiniest atomic or molecular scale or as close as you
Any day now, billions of cicadas with bulging red eyes will crawl out of the earth after 17 years underground and overrun the East Coast. The insects will arrive in such numbers that people from North Carolina to Connecticut will
The Great Barrier Reef is set to be named as a World Heritage Site in danger by UNESCO next month. A long-awaited assessment of the reef by UNESCO and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), released on Friday
April has been a freakishly cold month across much of the northern USA, bringing misery to millions of sun-starved and winter-weary residents from the Rockies to the Midwest. “The weather map … looks like something out of The Twilight Zone,”
Honey contains chemicals that could help bees ward off parasites and protect them from pesticide damage, new research suggests. The findings, published today (April 29) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that the immune-boosting chemicals
A landmark step in the campaign to ban a nerve-agent pesticide blamed for causing mass die-offs in bees could be reached on Monday following one of the most intensive environmental lobbying battles of recent years. Months of furious argument which
The years between the first hydrogen bomb tests and the Limited Test Ban Treaty in 1963 saw more than just increased anxiety about the effects of nuclear testing on weather. They also saw increased interest in large-scale, purposeful environmental modification.
Synchronicity is the most mysterious thing in the world. Synchronicity is the term parapsychologists use for “meaningful coincidence.” It happens to everyone, more often than we realise. But synchronicities are not “mere” coincidences, random accidents without significance. Going through a
Yellowstone’s underground volcanic plumbing is bigger and better connected than scientists thought, researchers reported here today (April 17) at the Seismological Society of America’s annual meeting. “We are getting a much better understanding of the volcanic system of Yellowstone,” said Jamie
If you weren’t on the East Coast during Hurricane Sandy, you likely experienced the disaster through electronic means: TV, radio, the internet or phone calls. As people across the country tracked the storm by listening to information broadcast through electromagnetic waves, a
