Tag: Environment

There continues to be intense debate worldwide about the definition of biological sex, boosted by some recent executive orders. The official theme of LGBTQ+ History Month (February) this year is ‘Science & Innovation’ and the natural universe is replete with examples of how the simple binary of sexes and genders to which some people would...

Humans have climbed to the top of the food chain by skillfully hunting, trapping, and fishing for other animals at scales that far exceed other predators, altering how the animals behave and earning the tag of a “super-predator”. But a new study led by the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), suggests...

The spectre of climate change has come to haunt one of the ocean’s most ubiquitous — yet vulnerable — turtles: the strong-jawed loggerhead, named after its exceptionally large head. These omnivorous marine reptiles have been impacted in at least four ways by global warming. As the ocean warms and marine produce dwindle, these turtles are nesting earlier in the year, and more worryingly, they are producing...

The colours of the natural world are not what they once were. More than half of the oceans have become greener over the last 20 years, and forests are turning brown prematurely. Various species of flora and fauna have also been changing their colours to adapt to rising temperatures, loss of habitats, and pollution. This...

GUWAHATI: A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT-G) has developed a new way to identify where glacial lakes are likely to form in the Himalayas, offering a potential breakthrough in disaster preparedness for mountain regions facing rapid climate change. Their study focuses on the Eastern Himalayas, which has recorded the...

The cheetah is a spotted beast that can burn through savannas like a bolt of lightning to hunt prey vastly bigger than itself. This big cat is the world’s fastest terrestrial mammal, which purrs more than it growls and has been historically tamed and trained by people to hunt game. Cheetahs once roamed most of...

Uganda’s history with mountain gorillas is inseparable from its political turmoil. Mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) are restricted to Central Africa and number around a thousand individuals. They inhabit dense volcanic, bamboo, and montane forests at elevations of 2,200-4,300 m. Yet from Uganda’s independence in 1962 through Milton Obote’s centralisation, Idi Amin’s brutal dictatorship, and...

A: Waste-to-energy (WtE) is a technology to convert non-recyclable waste materials into usable fuel, typically heat or electricity. A common method is incineration in which trash is burned at a high temperature to boil the water off, creating steam that turns a turbine to generate power. Other methods include gasification, which uses a large quantity...

The connection between bats and evil spirits is, unfortunately, a deep, cross-cultural myth that refuses to die, but did you know there is another, more fun spirit they are intricately associated with? Agave plants, the source of tequila and mezcal, depend on bats, especially the Mexican long-nosed bat, for pollination and seed dispersal, says bat...

Since the end of World War II, the US has established a global military network consisting of around 750 bases in roughly 80 countries. While the US government has characterised this presence as a stabilising force, the local populations have often paid for the military’s presence with displacement and long-term exposure to hazardous industrial waste....