We know that tardigrades are extremely cool. And now we can see them walk in this video.
Category: Science Blog
Fantastic Women Series: Eunice Newton Foote – The Woman Scientist Who Predicted Global Warming in 1856
Eunice Newton Foote – The Woman Scientist Who Predicted Global Warming in 1856. She was a campaigner for women’s rights. But she has been forgotten. Read about her here.
CFC Ban through Montreal Protocol bought us time against Climate Change
In 1987, one of the most successful multilateral environmental efforts were undertaken when the Montreal Protocol was signed, with the objective to completely phase out ozone depleting cholorofluorocarbons (CFCs). On September 16, 1987, 196 states and the European Union (a total of 197 parties) got together to sign the Montreal Protocol. This was such a huge success and 99% of CFCs were removed from the products in which they were used, helping to save the ozone layer that protects the Earth from harmful UV radiation from the Sun.
Now, a new study suggests that this treaty may also have helped us avert a climate crisis; otherwise we would be in an even worse situation than we are now. Read More.
Ancient Colombian Rock Art
You may remember reading an article or two in UK newspapers about a new rock art discovery in Colombia, which the papers called the “Sistine Chapel of Ancient’s Rock Art”. Well, the articles were not entirely accurate. They gave the impression that this was a new discovery and had been unseen till a UK tv channel crew and archaeologists got there to make a documentary. This is not true. They ignored the fact that Colombians have known about this for a very long time. After the article was published in the UK, it was picked up by international media, all of whom also neglected to mention that this was not a new discovery but something that has been part of Colombian history and culture for decades. Here’s the story.
The Eating Green Fad: Is your almond and soy latte all yout think it is?
How green is your almond milk and your soy latte? Find out here.
The Aztec Empire
The term Aztec is used to refer to the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, as well as the broader Nahuatl speaking people of central Mexico before and after the Spanish colonial era. The Aztec Empire in Mesoamerica was in power in Mexico between the 14th and 16th centuries.
Profile – The Women Behind the Vaccines l Astra Zeneca
Meet Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Cathering Green, the women who created the Astra Zeneca vaccines.
Saudi Arabia’s 7,000-year-old Stone Structures
The Arabian desert has been known as just that – a desert – including in archaeology. It was thought that there had been no iron-age activity in the area (the iron-age was around 1200 to 500 BC). However, research conducted over the past 30 years or so has slowly changed the knowledge and understanding of the habitation and culture of this area. And not just from the iron-age but long before that!
Thousands of stone structures, first discovered in the 1970s, and which are from 6500 to 2800 BC through to the present, have been identified across the region, as well as the whole of the Arabian Peninsula. They range from burial markers, tower and pendant tombs and open-air structures, also known as gates. The gates are now known as mustatils (meaning rectangle in Arabic).
Spacecraft OSIRIS REx Leaves Asteroid Bennu with Soil Samples
NASA’s spacecraft OSIRIS-Rex (the long-winded name is Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) is on its way back after collecting samples from an asteroid!
The Amazon is Now Emitting More Greenhouse Gases Than it is Absorbing l Blogpost
The Amazon is Earth’s largest tropical rainforest with its own self-sustainaing regional climate and hydrological system. It contains a diversity of forests – from montane to mangroves – across a range of distinct soils and substrates, supported by a biogeochemically-diverse riverine network that drives extensive seasonal rainfall. It has been clear for a while that this whole system is under pressure. Unsustainable developing practices – including deforestation for mining, agriculture and dairy farming, as well as illegal logging activities – have all brought it to an ecological tipping point.