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Muslim pilgrims gather at the top of the rocky hill known as the Mountain of Mercy, on the Plain of Arafat, during the annual haj pilgrimage, near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, June 15, 2024. | Photo Credit: AP Each year, millions of Muslims from across the world embark on the haj…
Read More “Climate change has made the Hajj pilgrimage more risky” »
In parts of South Australia, long stretches of beach are often blanketed in large patches of pink sand. Strong swells can dump drifts of reddish grains of garnet along the shore – but the origin of these colourful crystals has until now been a mystery. Garnet is rare in beach sand, as it is destroyed…
Read More “Australia’s enigmatic pink sand was born in Antarctic mountains: new research” »
Image for Representation. | Photo Credit: The Hindu The landscape along the Buffels River in South Africa’s Namaqualand region is dotted with thousands of sandy mounds that occupy about 20% of the surface area. These heuweltjies, as the locals call them (the word means “little hills” in Afrikaans), are termite mounds, inhabited by an underground network of…
Read More “World’s oldest termite mounds found in South Africa, storing carbon for millennia” »
A new study conducted by scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay), Mumbai published in NPJ Systems Biology and Applications, has shed light on the process of speciation, meaning the formation of new species, in the absence of geographic barriers. Traditionally, it is believed that speciation largely occurs when populations of a…
Read More “Study reveals how new species evolve without geographic barriers ” »
A bumblebee flies between poppy flowers near the buildings of the banking district in Frankfurt, Germany, Friday, May 24, 2024. The Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union, or NABU, invited people to spend an hour counting the insects they see in a 10-meter radius (33-foot) radius and report what they see to NABU. The Citizen-Science-Projekts named…
Read More “Summer of insect-counting gets underway in Germany” »
A computer-generated 3D model of Venus’ surface provided by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows the volcano Sif Mons which is exhibiting signs of ongoing activity, in this undated handout image. Using data from NASA’s Magellan mission, Italian researchers detected evidence of an eruption while the spacecraft orbited the planet in the early 1990s. | Photo…
Read More “Venus has more volcanism than previously known, new analysis finds” »
The world’s first wooden satellite made from wood and named LignoSat, developed by scientists at Kyoto University and logging company Sumitomo Forestry, is shown during a press conference at Kyoto University in Kyoto on May 28, 2024. The world’s first wooden satellite has been built by Japanese researchers who said their tiny cuboid craft will…
Read More “World’s first wooden satellite built by Japan researchers” »
It was the kind of task any competent seamstress has completed hundreds of times before: altering denim jeans and jerseys. But there was something different about this piece of work. Though our team of scientists were paying for it, we weren’t her ultimate customers – the clothes were to be worn by dead pigs. The…
Read More “How clothed pig carcasses are revealing the secrets of mummification” »
Mosquitoes cling to the inside of a jar loaded with repellent during a test as part of a tour of the Center for Disease Control laboratory, Thursday, April 4, 2024, in Fort Collins, Colo. | Photo Credit: AP The spread of the mosquito species Anopheles stephensi across Africa poses a significant problem to a continent already heavily…
Read More “Mosquito species from Asia pose growing risk to Africa’s anti-malaria efforts” »
A view of the site of a landslide in Yambali village, Enga Province, Papua New Guinea, May 27, 2024. | Photo Credit: Reuters A devastating landslide struck several remote villages in the mountainous Enga province in Papua New Guinea late last week. While it is too early for official confirmation, estimates place the death toll between 690…
Read More “What causes landslides? Can we predict them to save lives?” »