Science

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…

How one iceberg changed everything for Antarctic penguin colony When it comes to nature, it often reminds us that even the smallest change in the environment can ripple through an entire ecosystem. According to experts, in Antarctica, life depends on a fine balance of sea ice, open water and seasonal rhythms. A lone iceberg has…

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…

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…

The spotted lanternfly has become one of the most destructive invasive insects in the United States, threatening vineyards, orchards and forests by feeding on the sap of hundreds of plant species. Finding its egg masses before they hatch is one of the most effective ways to slow its spread, but the eggs are well camouflaged…

“The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.” — Nikola Tesla (AI-generated image) Two inventors can watch someone else take credit for their work in real time and respond in completely different ways. One spends what energy remains fighting for immediate recognition, determined to win the argument before it’s too…

Representative Image of Europa’s hidden ocean beneath its icy surface (AI-generated image) Europa, one of Jupiter’s icy moons, may hold more liquid water than all of Earth’s oceans combined, sealed beneath a thick shell of ice. For years, one of the most promising ideas for studying that hidden ocean was that water rising through cracks…

Image Credit: inhabitat.com The global energy landscape is rapidly changing as the dangers of fossil fuels are becoming visible to researchers and the public. As traditional energy sources will probably diminish by the year 2088, the search for renewable options has expanded from wind and solar farms to personal, wearable technology. A prime example of…

An ant (Camponotus renggeri), infected by a fungus, bites into a liverwort plant while holding onto nearby moss with its claws.Photo: IMA Fungus journal The so-called zombie-ant fungus has long fascinated scientists because of the way it takes control of infected ants, forcing them to bite plants before they die. Now, researchers in the Amazon…

Archaeologists excavating the renowned Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany have uncovered two exquisitely carved bird figurines made from mammoth ivory that date back around 40,000 years. Although each carving is no bigger than a thumbnail, researchers say the tiny sculptures demonstrate an extraordinary level of craftsmanship and artistic sophistication among some of Europe’s earliest…

Female birds have shorter lifespans than male birds, researchers find Female mammals usually live longer than males, but a 27-year study of North American birds has found the opposite pattern in birds.Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) analyzed more than 563,000 bird-banding records and found that adult female birds had a 12.4%…