Scientists have long tried to explain the origin of a mysterious, large and anomalously cold region of the sky. In 2015, they came close to figuring it out as a study showed it to be a “supervoid” in which the density of galaxies is much lower than it is in the rest of the universe. However, other studies haven’t managed to replicate the result.
Low energy efficiency is already a major problem for petrol and diesel vehicles. Typically, only 20% of the overall well-to-wheel energy is actually used to power these vehicles. The other 80% is lost through oil extraction, refinement, transport, evaporation, and engine heat. This low energy efficiency is the primary reason why fossil fuel vehicles are emissions-intensive, and relatively expensive to run.
When you hear the word desert, what comes to mind? Chances are, you’d think of sun, sand, and very little in the way of rain. Perhaps cacti, vultures, mesas, and scorpions come to mind as well, or possibly camels and oases? But in truth, deserts come in all shapes and sizes, and vary considerably from one part of the world to the next.
Speculating about what aliens look like has kept children, film producers and scientists amused for decades. If they exist, will extra terrestrials turn out to look similar to us, or might they take a form beyond our wildest imaginings? The answer to this question really depends on how we think evolution works at the deepest level.
With an estimated lifespan of 400 years, the Greenland shark has just been reported to be the longest-lived vertebrate on the planet. This is only the latest of a series of recent findings that push the boundaries of animal longevity, and it raises the perennial question of what factors enable some animals to achieve what we might call extreme longevity – lifespans that can be measured in centuries.
In scientific research on human impact the focus is usually aimed at the extinction of species. Nowadays however, scientists are becoming more and more aware of the fact that trough, for example animal domestication, we have also become a driving force of evolution. This driving force that has led to new species, traits and ecosystems.
The world’s oldest message in a bottle recently washed up on the North Sea island of Amrum, in Germany. It was one of 390 such bottles placed in the ocean by scientist George Bidder back in August 1906. During the 110-year voyage, the bottle had travelled just a few hundred miles – hardly a Robinson Crusoe-style call for rescue from a far corner of the globe. But nonetheless Bidder was on to something: such messages were and still are vital for scientists seeking to understand ocean circulation patterns.
As night closes in across Kentucky a small chubby spider makes a silk line between two plants. She then moves along her “trapeze wire” and waits. After a while a moth approaches within range, and the spider unleashes a swinging sticky ball, ensnaring the moth and pulling him in to be eaten. The attacker is a bolas spider, and she hunts by releasing an odour that precisely matches the chemical composition of female moth mating pheromones. The male moth is lured in, but instead of getting a mate, he gets eaten.
The question of whether animals other than humans can think and feel has been debated for centuries. Most of us would agree that humans have a level of consciousness, loosely defined as an ability to experience thoughts and emotions. But which other creatures have consciousness remains an open and controversial question.
