After months of summer, the sea ice fringing Antarctica has shriveled to its annual minimum. And for the third year running, scientists are shocked by just how much ice has gone missing.The annual minimum likely occurred on Feb. 20, tying with 2022 for second lowest in the 46-year satellite record, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The all-time record low occurred last year.This year’s minimum is 328,000 square miles below the 1981 to 2010 average summer minimum extent in Ant ...read more
Giant hornets, Burmese pythons and, perhaps less obviously, fig buttercups all pose threats to North American ecosystems. (Images public domain, via Flickr Creative Commons. Python: NPS, R. Cammauf; Giant Hornet: USDA, Lance Cheung; Fig Buttercup: John K. Thorne)Burmese Pythons! Northern Giant Hornets! Fig Buttercups! Okay, not all invasive species sound frightening. But all of them destabilize ecosystems, threaten native species, and/or spread pathogens. That’s why, in honor of Invasive Speci ...read more
Do you ever feel spacey, distracted and worn down toward the end of a long work-related task – especially if that task is entirely a mental one? For over a century, psychologists have been trying to determine whether mental fatigue is fundamentally similar to physical fatigue or whether it is governed by different processes.Some researchers have argued that exerting mental effort depletes a limited supply of energy – the same way physical exertion fatigues muscles. The brain consumes energy ...read more
Orcas know there is strength in numbers. The whales typically hunt in packs and ambush larger prey like seals, other whales, and sea lions. But, in an odd case, researchers have recently observed orcas hunting alone — and attacking the apex predator, the great white shark.An orca could attack great white sharks for their liver, which is rich in fats, as explained in a press release by Alison Towner, marine biologist and study author. Researchers have seen killer whales attack sharks before in ...read more
In January 2024, the tidy work of a Welsh mouse, caught on video cleaning the work bench inside a man’s shed, went viral.Night after night the mouse gathered up clothespins, corks, and other miscellaneous objects, stashing them inside a rectangular wooden box for safekeeping. Each time the man laid the items back out, the mouse had cleaned them up again by the following morning.While people across the world found the video adorable, many also asked the question: Why did the mouse keep doing th ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine