You might have a favourite spot to sit, but a small cave-dwelling amphibian from Europe takes this to the next level. Scientists found out that most olms will spend years in the same ten-metre area. One particularly comfortable individual was found in the exact same place seven years after it was first spotted. Olms, which … Continue reading Olm is where the heart is
Category: Biology
Ig Nobel Prize summary 2019
Last month I wrote about the Nobel Prizes, the most famous awards in science. Now it’s time for their more fun cousins – the Ig Nobel Prizes. These awards honour “achievements that make people laugh, then think”. The result is one of the quirkiest collections of research and development from science and beyond. Here is … Continue reading Ig Nobel Prize summary 2019
Nobel Prize summary 2019
Every year, the Nobel Prizes for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace and economics are presented. Each is considered the field’s most prestigious award, celebrating the greatest contributions made by living people to modern society. Here is my summary of the Nobel Prize winners of 2019. Physics – Michel Mayor, Didier Queloz & James Peebles Exoplanets … Continue reading Nobel Prize summary 2019
Eyes light up with radiation therapy
For years, cancer patients have reported seeing flashes of light during radiation therapy. After careful observation, scientists have caught this light on camera, and discovered what causes it. Cherenkov radiation is a type of light caused by charged particles (such as electrons) travelling through a material at high speed. This effect is the reason that … Continue reading Eyes light up with radiation therapy
Ginkgo trees: Forever young
All living things have a life cycle: they’re born, they age and eventually they die. At least, most living things follow this pattern. Ginkgo trees don’t suffer from old age, which means they may be able to live forever. Chinese researchers studied a group of trees ranging between three and 667 years old. They found … Continue reading Ginkgo trees: Forever young
The curious case of the three-tailed lizard
Imagine being able to regrow lost body parts. This sounds useful until it goes wrong: what happens if you grow an extra part you don’t need? This is what happened to a lizard I found last year - it had three tails. The lizard was a Ragged Snake-eyed Skink (Cryptoblepharus pannosus) that lived near my … Continue reading The curious case of the three-tailed lizard
Squawkzilla: King of the parrots
When scientists unearthed large fossilised leg bones in New Zealand, they assumed they belonged to an ancient eagle. Ten years later, they realised they were wrong – these were the fossils of the largest parrot to ever walk the Earth. Heracles inexpectatus (Hair-a-cleeze in-ex-pec-tay-tus) stood about a metre tall – as tall as a four-year-old … Continue reading Squawkzilla: King of the parrots
Slugs put predators in sticky situation
If slugs are so slow, how do they escape predators? Easy – slow them down even more. Scientists from Newcastle were doing research in the nearby Watagan Mountains when they found a tree frog stuck to a branch. Right next to where it was trapped was a red triangle slug. The scientists watched it for … Continue reading Slugs put predators in sticky situation
Wasps learn their A, Bee, C’s
If A is larger than B, and B is larger than C, which is larger out of A and C? This question tests a kind of logic called transitive inference. It allows you to figure out information you haven’t been told, based on relationships you do know. Only some animals, including humans, monkeys and fish, … Continue reading Wasps learn their A, Bee, C’s
Meet the world’s newest old trees
A group of bald cypress (SIGH-press) trees in the United States have just been discovered to be among the oldest in the world. One of them is at least 2624 years old, making it the fifth-oldest living tree on the planet. Researchers measured this by taking a small core sample of the tree’s trunk, from … Continue reading Meet the world’s newest old trees
Lachlan Writes Science 