World travel can be life-changing. I’ve visited Hiroshima, Japan; China’s Great Wall; and Kenya’s savanna with its abundant wildlife. All have made a huge impression om me in their own special way. Now I’ve seen Antarctica and its unique and fragile ecosystem, and again, I’ve come away impressed. To a one-time tourist like me, all
Scientists have released a video of a chimpanzee mother using an insect to treat a wound on her son’s foot. Mom is an endangered female central chimpanzee named Suzee and her son is Sia. After inspection, Suzee snatched an insect from the underside of a leaf, then squeezed it in her mouth and applied the crushed
From Reuters: The French pet-care company AgroBiothers Laboratoire has announced it will no longer sell aquariums smaller than 15 litres and only in a rectangular shape. Putting fish in small bowls, especially without filtration and oxygenation, is now considered animal abuse. “People buy a goldfish for their kids on impulse, but if they knew what
Pets give us much comfort and companionship. And there is a segment of society to whom pets are doubly important — the homeless. Reportedly, 10 to 25 percent of homeless people have pets. Yet they require care, too. But it’s tough to look after an animal if you might not know where your next meal
This is something you probably haven’t thought of, but I think it’s interesting. Suppose you lived on another planet in the solar system. It starts raining and you’re caught without your umbrella. How big will the raindrops be? Two researchers at Harvard University published a paper on the physics of raindrops on March 15, 2021
I’m sure you’ve heard of some people being described as “swimming like a fish.” It might surprise you to learn that some fish don’t swim well at all. Why would some fish be poor swimmers? The simple answer is they don’t need to swim well. For example, if the pufferfish (also called blowfish) is chased, it
Of all the messages about climate change, perhaps the most original is the dinosaur who addresses the United Nations. Yes, in a recent YouTube video, a dinosaur walks into the UN’s General Assembly and delivers an impassioned speech to stunned delegates. The bottom line: Don’t choose extinction. “I know a thing or two about extinction,
There about a billion dogs on this planet. Over the past several thousand years, they have become our helpmates and companions. Which brings up the question — what would happen to our furry companions if we were to suddenly disappear? A new book, A Dog’s World by Jessica Pierce and Marc Bekoff (https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691196183/a-dogs-world), considers two
Recently a California homeowner was surprised when reptile rescue pulled more than 90 rattlesnakes from the house’s foundation. The haul included 22 adults and 59 juveniles, plus eleven more on a second trip. The foundation apparently had become a rookery: a place where rattlesnakes gather to give birth. Rattlesnakes actually birth their young alive. Sometimes
The Cala Gonone Aquarium in Sardinia, Italy is reporting a female smoothhound shark has given birth despite having been in a tank with only another female for the past decade. As reported by Newsweek (https://www.newsweek.com/baby-shark-born-all-female-tank-could-scientific-first-1622272), this may be a scientific first for this species. Not that this phenomenon is completely unknown. It even has a
