Science

This endangered British butterfly has 20% less genetic diversity, study finds The British swallowtail butterfly is the UK’s only native swallowtail and largest native butterfly. It may look similar to other swallowtails found across Europe, but its DNA tells a different story.A new study has found that the British swallowtail, also known as Papilio machaon…

An aerial view of the San Andreas Fault crossing the Carrizo Plain in California (Getty images) Scientists have discovered hidden movements beneath California’s San Andreas Fault with the help of artificial intelligence, revealing a type of slow fault slip that had largely gone unnoticed till now. The researchers say these silent movements may play a…

For mathematicians, there is not much in the world whose reasoning cannot be substantiated with calculation. The beings that are in love with numbers and associations, view the world through a numerical lens, as a puzzle to be solved with the right method. While many mathematicians have graced the world with shocking methods, theorems and…

Forecasts for the tropical Pacific have shifted noticeably over the past month, with climate scientists now placing greater confidence in the arrival of a particularly powerful El Niño later this year. While these events are part of a natural climate cycle, their effects rarely stay confined to the Pacific Ocean. Changes in ocean temperatures can…

As ice melts, the liquid water collects in depressions on the surface and deepens them, forming these melt ponds in the Arctic | Wikimedia Commons Climate change is often discussed in terms of global averages, but new research suggests that where warming or cooling occurs may be just as important as how much occurs. Using…

Mice are some of the most invasive animals on the planet. Quick to enter and escape they have managed to make many a human mind burst with anger and panic. The max that can be done about them is setting up a trap or spreading some poison around. But imagine an island filled with mice…

Every day, countless substances cling to surfaces around us without becoming part of the material itself. This fascinating process is known as adsorption, and the verb that describes it is adsorb. Although it is often confused with absorption, the two processes are fundamentally different. While absorption involves a substance being taken into the interior of…

For most of human history, the creation of new ocean floor has been something inferred rather than witnessed. Geologists could map ancient scars on the seabed, measure the slow movement of tectonic plates and study volcanic rock brought to the surface, but the actual process of seafloor spreading remained largely hidden beneath kilometres of water.That…

Sperm whales communicate by making clicks Scientists using artificial intelligence (AI) have uncovered a complex communication system among sperm whales, identifying a kind of phonetic alphabet. The discovery comes as experts also found sperm whales living in the eastern Mediterranean Sea have developed a distinct regional dialect that separates them from populations living in the…

Nikola Tesla (Image: Wikipedia) Anger has a strange way of taking up more room in your head than almost anything else. It can replay the same old argument for days, sometimes years, long after everyone else involved has moved on and forgotten about it. Nikola Tesla, the man whose work helped bring electricity into homes…