A look into the weird and wonderful animal kingdom
Does the technology behind predictive texts, facial recognition, and our social media feeds offer the solution to struggling global wildlife conservation efforts? Katie Jones investigates.
In recent years, the use of underwater microphones called hydrophones has allowed scientists to listen in on the underwater world in a non-invasive way. Passive acoustic monitoring has already been used in various biological studies, such as documenting the distribution and migration of whales and characterising the responses of fish to environmental changes.
Sophie Berdugo explores the distinct north-south divide in paper wasps, with northerners being highly cooperative compared to southerners.
By Albini Dania From the food we eat to the air we breathe, plankton help maintain and produce life on Earth. What is plankton? The word ‘plankton’ derives from the Greek “planktos” (πλαγχτος), which in turn comes from the Greek verb “plazo” (πλαζω) meaning to “drift” or “wander” and is used to describe tiny plants…
Below fathom five, at depths you cannot fathom, both of them have found their forever home. Now their kids are leaving to find their own houses of glass, but they have to be careful—because they, just like their parents, will then become trapped for the rest of their lives. They will look out at the…
Sleep is a phenomenon that ties us irrefutably to our relatives in the rest of the animal kingdom. The requirement to sleep is not only present in the most complex of organisms, such as Homo sapiens, but also in more primitive species, such as the jellyfish Cassiopoiea and the nematode C. Elegans. Even in light…
Every autumn, billions of birds disappear from our fields, trees, and shorelines to make awe-inspiring migratory journeys, reliably returning again the next spring. The bar-tailed godwit, a long-legged wading bird, flies from Alaska to New Zealand over nine straight days without stopping. Short-tailed shearwaters migrate all the way round the Pacific with pinpoint accuracy, returning…
Feature Image Credit Ken Bohn / San Diego Zoo Global New Scientist by Laura Steel Humans are constantly creating novel compound tools from otherwise non-functional elements. From large scale technologies such as cars, to simply tying two non-functional bits of string together to make a useful longer piece. This skill comes so easily to us…
It’s Valentine’s day this week, and if you’ve had enough of flowers, cards and chocolates, you might want to take a peek into the romantic machinations of the animal kingdom – just to see how they’re getting on. We know that birds show a huge amount of sexual selection, with males producing some of the…
