Some people spend a long time focused on a single topic. But how about a third of a century to find out how fast fingernails grow? (Spoiler alert: the short answer is about a 10th of a millimetre per day.)
A crunching of the numbers reveals some extremely sobering facts about the carnage caused by feral cats in Australia.
After spreading through most of Earth’s honeybee populations, the parasite known as the Varroa mite (Varroa destructor) recently got a foothold in Australia and has begun devastating our own bees.
Avalanches are terrifying things: they career down snow-covered mountains, smashing everything in their paths.
Proteins found in ancient Neanderthal DNA might help fight modern antibiotic resistance.
There seems to be strength – and intelligence – in numbers.
The Joni Mitchell song “Woodstock” has the following, surprisingly accurate, lines: “We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion-year-old carbon”.
Surprisingly, rotting fruit can ferment and reach a level of 4 per cent alcohol – close to, but not quite, the 5 per cent of beer.
Although they’ve been around for millennia, atmospheric rivers were only discovered by humans during the past 25 years.
Why is most bird poo white, even though birds eat food of many different colours?