Science

Mars still experiences powerful dust storms, but one patch of rock inside Gale Crater appears to have preserved something far older. What looks like a collection of layered stone has turned out to be a record of a single weather event that unfolded billions of years ago. Rather than relying on computer models or indirect…

On a remote stretch of sand in Assam’s Brahmaputra River, this person spent decades doing something that seemed almost invisible at first. Day after day, Jadav “Molai” Payeng planted trees on land that had been damaged by erosion and changing river patterns. There was no large campaign behind the effort, no immediate recognition, and no…

A coral reef in the southern Andaman Sea, in Southeast Asia Cavan Images An international team of scientists has mapped more than 64,000 square miles of coral reefs that can withstand severe heat stress. The findings provide a vital plan for saving marine life while the world’s oceans experience their worst bleaching crisis ever recorded.The…

Life on Earth isn’t just about the flora and fauna anymore, microplastics have entered the equation deep enough to reach the surface levels of vast oceans that no human has ever seen. Plastic pollution has become a global environmental crisis with an estimated 11 million tons of plastic entering the oceans annually. As larger plastic…

Isaac Newton (Image: Wikipedia) Every major scientific breakthrough starts the same unglamorous way, with a question nobody can yet answer. A line widely attributed to Isaac Newton captures that moment precisely. “No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess,” it goes. Before any evidence arrives to confirm or reject an idea, someone first…

A small piece of space history arrived through the roof of a New Jersey house. The meteorite that struck a home in Hillsborough in 2024 was not just an unusual visitor from the solar system; it became a rare scientific sample almost immediately after landing. Reportedly, it was preserved carefully by the homeowner who found…

Studies have shown that chimpanzee groups often rest on hilltops in places where conflicts with neighbouring groups are likely. (AI image) When we think about animals fighting, we often think that the fight happens in the heat of the moment. But scientists say the real story begins much earlier. Long before any fight starts, many…

Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP), a technology Japan is currently pioneering to ensure a sustainable future, has the ability to provide a world where solar energy never fades, even when the sun sets or clouds gather. At the heart of this journey is the OHISAMA project, named after a lovely Japanese term for ‘the sun’ that…

Across Massachusetts, an unusual partnership is bringing renewable energy and traditional farming together on the same land. Sheep are being brought onto ground-mounted solar farms, where the panels provide shade while the animals graze on grass and weeds growing beneath and between the arrays. Known as solar grazing, the practice gives solar operators a natural…

Sierra Nevada pond during low- and high-snowfall years, showing how snow levels change the landscape. ( Picture: Christine C. Bonadonna) High in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, small ponds may look peaceful and unchanged. Surrounded by rocky peaks and open skies, they appear calm during summer. But beneath the surface, these shallow water bodies are constantly…