News
They covered a Dutch lake with solar panels and dropped strange shell-filled "biohuts" underwater until mussels, sponges, and other creatures began hiding there from hungry birds
1+ hour, 49+ min ago (568+ words) A quiet lake in the Netherlands became the site of an unconventional environmental experiment. First came the floating solar panels. Thousands of them spread slowly across the water's surface, turning sections of the lake into a power station. The devices…...
Brazil built a wind farm without measuring the noise, and now frogs are changing their calls just to be heard again
1+ week, 1+ day ago (565+ words) Frogs living beside Brazilian wind turbines are changing the way they call each other. Not because of predators. Not because of climate shifts. But because giant wind turbines now drown out their calls. Some males now change pitch, timing, and…...
Someone thought focusing the light from 173, 000 mirrors at 1, 000 F was a good idea, until more than 50, 000 birds were found incinerated in midair
1+ week, 2+ day ago (592+ words) In the Mojave Desert, three 450-foot towers concentrate sunlight to 990 F (537 C). Over 173, 000 mirrors focus intense beams onto central boilers. This creates a glowing orb of light visible for miles. However, the "solar flux" is a death trap. Ground crews regularly…...
Researchers taught a lemur to open a food box and discovered it only "tattles" to the animals it likes, following a strange jungle social network
1+ week, 2+ day ago (604+ words) Researchers hid a puzzle box inside an enclosure to see if an "innovator" could spark a troop-wide revolution. The task was simple: slide a lid to reveal a grape. The shock wasn't the solve'it was who the lemur chose to…...
Researchers tracked a mysterious bird for 10 years and discovered it synchronizes its movements with the Moon whenever it hunts, migrates, or lays eggs
1+ week, 4+ day ago (621+ words) For 10 years, researchers tracked a nocturnal forager between Europe and Africa. They discovered a life governed by a lunar calendar. This species synchronizes its hunting, migration, and breeding seasons almost entirely with the glow of the Moon. When moonlight fades,…...
Hummingbirds, pelicans, and diving birds fly toward these solar panels looking for water, but instead they die, and more than 71 species have already been affected
1+ week, 4+ day ago (527+ words) Hundreds of birds are falling from the sky at solar farms across the American Southwest. Pelicans, hummingbirds, grebes, and other species suddenly dive toward the panels below. Impacts often prove fatal or leave birds stranded on the scorching desert floor....
Researchers tracking mule deer in Utah discovered the animals move through invisible "energy landscapes" that quietly reshape their migration routes
1+ week, 4+ day ago (548+ words) Each spring, 300, 000 mule deer migrate across Utah's rugged terrain. For years, researchers believed the animals simply followed food, weather, and instinct. But GPS collars revealed something far more complex. GPS data showed deer swerving away from empty spaces long before…...
Researchers tracking cheetahs and lions with GPS discovered that rising heat is altering their "fear maps" and pushing the predators into conflict
1+ week, 6+ day ago (601+ words) Lions and cheetahs usually maintain a "landscape of fear." A single encounter often ends in death for the smaller cheetah. Record-breaking heat in Botswana is shattering these ancient lines in the sand. Cheetahs and lions have been changing their movement…...
Scientists found something strange in the Pacific until its bizarre molecular barcodes revealed a form of life that doesn't fit anywhere on the biological map
2+ week, 21+ hour ago (568+ words) The deepest parts of the ocean are often referred to as the final frontier of Earth. But a recent expedition to the Pacific proved we barely understand who lives there. Researchers pulled something from the darkness that defied biology. It…...
A solar plant in Sri Lanka was built on land elephants had used for 2, 500 years, and now a herd of 450 is moving toward it as their food disappears
2+ week, 1+ day ago (579+ words) A herd of 450 elephants is moving back toward a solar plant in Sri Lanka. A solar plant was built on the very ground they lived on for 2, 500 years. They are now returning to the land they depended on for thousands…...