Even the precursors to birds — extinct bird-like dinosaurs — benefited from folding their wings during the upstroke, as they developed active flight. Among flying animals alive today, birds are the largest and most efficient. This makes them particularly interesting as inspiration for the development of drones. However, determining which flapping strategy is best requires …
Feathered robotic wing paves way for flapping drones Read More »
The Institute for the Ocean and Fisheries at UBC, British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada scientists analyzed tissue samples from six southern resident killer whales and six Bigg’s whales stranded along the coast of B.C. from 2006 to 2018, according to a recent study. They discovered that chemical pollutants …
Toxic toilet paper and long-lasting chemicals found in endangered killer whales Read More »
When clothing made from plastic fibers, such as polyester and nylon, are laundered, the fabric sheds microscopic fibers that eventually end up in wastewater and the environment. Though researchers have investigated the amount and types of microplastic fibers shed while laundering clothing, most studies have focused on washing machines. In many countries, however, it is …
Hand washing fabrics reduces microplastic release compared with machine washing Read More »
“Those same reasons that make sound so advantageous for animals to use also make them susceptible to disturbance from noise in the environment,” says first author Pernille Sørensen of the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. “Within the last couple of decades, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in human-made noise, and noise pollution in the oceans …
Dolphins ‘shout’ over loud underwater noise to complete a cooperative task Read More »
While studies have shown that noise pollution affects cognitive performance in some animal species including birds, a study by Florida Atlantic University is the first to test whether exposure to this noise has any effects on a bird’s beak. For the study, researchers tested a songbird — the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). Males have a …
Noise from urban environments affects the color of songbirds’ beaks Read More »
The genetic variations linked to urbanization underlie physical differences in the urban lizards, including longer limbs and larger toe pads that show how these lizards have evolved to adapt to city environments. Urbanization has dramatically transformed landscapes around the world — changing how animals interact with nature, creating “heat islands” with higher temperatures, and hurting …
Urban lizards share genomic markers not found in forest-dwellers Read More »
Missing Plastic Paradox Since the mass production of plastics began in the 1950s, a significant portion of plastic waste has made its way to the ocean via rivers, blown of from land by winds or directly dumped from ships. But the amount of plastic that is actually found in the ocean is only a fraction …
By gathering data from 108 countries around the world and quantifying the emissions by country, a McGill-led team, which includes researchers from Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, University of Texas (Austin) and the University of Maryland, has estimated that total global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the life cycle of gas-fired power is 3.6 billion tonnes …
Significant reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions still possible Read More »
Globally, the Haber-Bosch process for making ammonia uses about 1% of all fossil fuels and produces 1% of all carbon dioxide emissions, making it a major contributor to climate change. Now, University of California, Berkeley, chemists have taken a big step toward making ammonia production more environmentally friendly: a “greener” ammonia for “greener” fertilizer. A …
A big step toward ‘green’ ammonia and a ‘greener’ fertilizer Read More »
The study, recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, analyzed the productivity and biodiversity in the world’s symbiotic coral communities and found that the maintenance of water optical quality in coral reefs is fundamental to protect coral biodiversity and prevent reef degradation. “Coral reefs are one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth,” said Tomás …
Better access to sunlight could be lifeline for corals worldwide Read More »
