Wildlife
By Omar Cherif I have always been fascinated by ants. How they are social beings that operate in armies and live in colonies, and how they have made it to the Qur’an ― there is a full ‘Sura’ (Chapter) named after them. And since where I am staying now there are lots of ants, I […]
Are you an insect magnet? Insect magnets attract annoying insects the second they walk outdoors — or so it seems. If this describes you, take comfort in knowing that one of the ways you can fight back against mosquitoes, gnats, flies, no-see-ums and other pesky bugs doesn’t have to involve covering yourself with a sticky spray or engaging in chemical warfare. To help you enjoy going outdoors, try strategically placing insect-repelling plants in your garden or on your patio.
We’ve all seen those creepy crawly bugs around our homes. But what most of us don’t know is that our homes are filled with a profusion of insects and their relatives, collectively called arthropods, most of which we never see. What are the most common ones you should know about?
The Opah, or moonfish, lives deep below the ocean’s surface and uses its unique features to generate and store heat. Opahs are the first fish discovered to be completely warm-blooded.
The water supplies the world over, especially where medication drugs are both plentiful and affordable, have now reached dangerous concentrations and this is rarely addressed by public health authorities.
At 598 meters (1,962 ft) below the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, ROV Hercules encountered a magnificent sperm whale. The whale circled Hercules several times and gave our cameras the chance to capture some incredible footage of this beautiful creature.
Revealed within these articles is Halliburton’s long-standing relationship with the secret government and deep ties between the oil and nuclear industries. Teaming up with the U.S. Government and Union Carbide Corp., who operate nuclear materials divisions at the Oak Ridge National Laboratories in Tennessee, Halliburton was then credited with “solving” the radioactive waste problem faced by America’s secretive nuclear industry. Dumping waste via fracking had apparently been going on since 1960, according to these reports, but was only made public here in 1964.
Monsanto, the very company that scientists say has directly contributed to a 90% reduction in the monarch butterfly population, is now donating to ‘help save the butterflies.’
While the project had great support locally, it faced tough adversaries at the national level thanks to lobbying by the oil & gas industry, which would just love to drill nearby. But the defenders of nature prevailed, and the Obama administration finally gave the go-ahead to the expansion, which will also indirectly help protect the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary to the south
Brazil accounts for nearly two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest, the world’s largest tropical forest. Just under 20 percent of the Brazilian Amazon has been cleared, mostly for cattle ranching. IBAMA says that Castanha’s gang was responsible for chopping down 15,000 hectares of forests over the past decade, causing $15 million in environmental damage and racking up another $30 million in fines. Castanha faces up to 46 years in prison for land grabbing, counterfeiting, illegal deforestation and money laundering.
The number of species going extinct is increasing fast, at a rate that cannot be attributed to natural causes and it is clear that there is a human foot pressing down heavily on the accelerator pedal.
Virunga, the documentary which follows four different characters with different aspects of protecting the Virunga National Park, has sparked outrage toward the Congolese government.
Thousands of murmurating starlings form beautiful moving dark clouds over southern Israel. Plus, SciShow’s Hank Green explains the biology and mathematics behind this beautiful phenomenon.
Dolphins make up new whistles that other dolphins then use to signal each whistle’s inventor. But what happens when dolphins meet for the first time? And what about wild dolphins–do they use “names”? Well, according to this study, the answer to both of those questions is a resounding “yes”! It turns out that when wild dolphins meet at sea, one of the first things they do is introduce themselves using their unique whistles!
Presenting at the recent Bioneers Annual Conference, Paul Stamets gave bombshell evidence that there is hope for bees, colony collapse, and our entire ecosystem. Washington State University recently completed a longevity stress test on bee populations that appears to confirm that the genes for the detoxification pathways in bees are turned on by beneficial fungi they collect from their environment. What’s more, it has been confirmed in previous testing that the red belted polypore mushroom degrades pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides.
