Nature

If mosquitoes were to become extinct, would the ecosystem collapse?
Every day, Jitwadi Murphy opens a stuffy padlocked room at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland, to a swarm of malarial mosquitoes. She grinds up fish food and feeds it to millions of tsetse, then delivers unconscious mice for the many "pregnant mosquitoes" to suck blood from their abdomens - they suck 24 of these rodents dry each month. Murphy has studied mosquitoes for 20 years and has worked to limit the spread of parasitic organisms carried by mosquitoes. That said, Murphy says she'd still rather wipe mosquitoes out of the world altogether.
By conant abram3 years ago in Earth
Why Peru is reviving a pre-Incan technology for water
Pre-pandemic, in the austral winter, I drove north out of Lima, up into Peru's highlands to the village of Huamantanga (wa-mon-TONG-a). I was traveling with scientists who were studying local farmers' use of a 1,400-year-old technique to extend water availability into the long dry season.
By Gu Wei Di Qi3 years ago in Earth
Want to Know What Dinosaur Has 500 Teeth? Find Out Here
Want to Know What Dinosaur Has 500 Teeth? Find Out Here The internet brings up hundreds of terrific things every day. One of those trending things is what dinosaur has 500 teeth. People are falling so much for this thing. They are searching google for an answer to this like crazies, so much so that even Google’s auto-suggestions show it.
By Abhishek Saini3 years ago in Earth
The Winter Storm Experience Customized by Mount Katahdin
"Are you ready to hike?" My father asked me as my mother finished lacing up my boots. I was eight years old at the time, so you would expect that I would have been tying my hiking boots. The problem was that my snowsuit made it, so every time I leaned over to tie them up, I would fall over onto my face. So to save me from the longing attempt to get back up to my feet, my mother tied them up for me instead.
By M3 years ago in Earth
The lost generation of ancient trees
At around 1,100 years old, and almost 11m (36ft) in girth, the Big Belly Oak is the oldest tree in Savernake Forest in south-west England. A tiny sapling at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, Big Belly Oak has lived through the War of the Roses, the Black Death, the English Civil War, the Industrial Revolution and two world wars. Now gnarled and knobbly, Big Belly Oak’s trunk is strapped up with a metal girdle to keep it from falling apart.
By Fra Tusha3 years ago in Earth
Can investors save the Amazon?
When you think of your retirement savings, your bank, or your investments, it's unlikely that you associate these with trees being chopped down in lush tropical rainforests. And yet, well-known banks, asset managers and other financial institutions either own shares in or provide credit to companies that have links to deforestation.
By Baru Ku3 years ago in Earth
The tiny islands leading the green transition
ust off the north coast of Northern Ireland, in the chilly waters of the Atlantic, lies a tiny, L-shaped island called Rathlin. It is home to around 160 people. Mains electricity only arrived on Rathlin in the early 1990s, with the construction of three wind turbines. One islander enthused to local media about the benefits it would bring – she would no longer have to light a candle when getting up to feed her baby in the middle of the night.
By Fra Tusha3 years ago in Earth
The mystery of Mexico's vanishing stream oaks
y the banks of a seasonal riverbed in north-western Mexico, a collection of towering, gnarled oak trees stand guard. These trees descend from ancestors that lived more than 50 million years ago and their species has faced, and survived, any number of challenges.
By Baru Ku3 years ago in Earth
The rush to claim an undersea mountain range
One of the most mysterious mountain ranges in the world is not visible on any ordinary map. You can’t see it on the most popularly used flat map of the world, the Mercator projection, or on the Peters projection that is a popular (and more accurate) alternative. On a spinning globe, the plastic axle at the North Pole often covers it up, as if there’s nothing to see.
By Baru Ku3 years ago in Earth
Covid-19’s far-reaching effect on a turtle sanctuary
t may be at the apex of the Coral Triangle, but the Philippines isn't exactly on top of mind when it comes to global marine resource protection efforts. While it boasts thousands of different species of fish, coral, and other forms of marine life, it is also the world's third-worst plastic polluter after China and Indonesia. The environmental group Ocean Conservancy says the country is responsible for generating and adding as much as 2.7 million metric tonnes of plastic waste to the environment each year.
By Baru Ku3 years ago in Earth
The detectives hunting for underwater volcanoes
uring the summer of 1883, a caldera in the Sunda Strait, located between the islands of Java and Sumatra, became increasingly turbulent, releasing huge plumes of ash and steam into the sky. Then, on 26 August, an underwater volcano ejected approximately 25 km3 (six cubic miles) of debris, hurtling pumice ash and boiling lava flows across nearby settlements. The eruption killed tens of thousands of people. Krakatoa remains one of the most deadly underwater eruptions in history.
By Baru Ku3 years ago in Earth
Why the US military is listening to shrimp
Whale skeletons stand guard around the coastline of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, a stark reminder of the damaging effects of military sonar. Sonar from ships and submarines is thought to be one of the contributing factors to whale strandings, confusing the whales' own sonar and casuing them to beach themselves on the shore.
By Fra Tusha3 years ago in Earth