Cardiac arrest. For most of us, it spells the end. For wood frogs, however, it’s just their annual hibernation through the winter. Hibernation is usually a similar process among most species — eat as much as possible, find shelter, and live off those energy stores until the snow begins to melt. Usually, the animal spends […]
Frozen frogs: Nature’s not-so-tasty popsicles Read More »
Animals face numerous dangers, one of them being illnesses. Species have found a variety of ways to protect themselves from diseases, but not much is known about how they affect the physiological state of the individual. A phenomenon surrounding the immune systems of canaries was recently discovered by researchers at the University of Connecticut. The
The extraordinary empathy of canaries’ immune systems Read More »
According to the UN, approximately half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, with this number projected to grow. It is more essential now than ever to mitigate the toll urban areas have on local climates and environments. Urban areas tend to be significantly hotter than their surroundings due to heat trapping and heat
The future in terms of urban microclimates Read More »
What if humans created a leaf better at utilizing sunlight than plants? And what if that leaf was engineered with such efficiency that it could feed the future world? Researchers at Harvard University have created and improved their “bionic leaf” to do just that and are now ready to bring this new technology into the
Foliage of the future: How Harvard’s new tech aims to prevent a global food shortage Read More »
As you walk across campus on a warm fall day, you pass by what looks like a small, bright-yellow chunk of coral rising up from under some mulch. A few days later as you walk the same route — do you remember it correctly, or did that yellow mushroom-like blob move? That blob is no
Slime mold: the cell that’s smarter than you Read More »
Fields once green and lush, pockmarked and rife with forgotten land mines. Two cities, hundreds of thousands of lives, gone in an instant. Shrapnel in trees, poisoned air, scorched earth. These are the devastating effects of war. Like carbon emissions, oil spills, and deforestation, most of the environmental disasters we face today are man-made. War
War! What is it good for? Destroying the environment Read More »
When you think of glowing space entities, your mind might jump to the Sun, but what if I told you that our very own planet emits its own mysterious red light? You might be puzzled, and so were researchers in 2009 when a satellite detected shades of red light scattered throughout the planet. The root
The science behind earth’s red glow Read More »
A world without chocolate seems impossible, with grocery stores stocking shelf after shelf of products ranging from bars to powder. However, if climate change continues at its current pace, a world without chocolate may become a reality. Even the smallest changes in climate can have serious consequences for the agricultural industry. As global temperatures increase,
How climate change will change chocolate Read More »
Approximately 252 million years ago, the Permian-Triassic Mass Extinction was the deadliest event to ever take place in Earth’s 4.5 billion-year history. Over the course of 15 million years, the “Great Dying” wiped out nearly 70 percent of terrestrial plant and animal species and over 95 percent of marine species. It consisted of three phases
The Permian-Triassic Mass Extinction: Does anything seem familiar here? Read More »