In 2005, crickets were fertilised aboard the ISS; 112 embryos and larvae were studied, and the microgravity-exposed larvae hatched earlier than ground controls

Cricket on a plant (Image Credit: Canva) In 2005, scientists conducted an unusual experiment aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to investigate how microgravity affects reproduction and early development. According to a NASA technical publication on ISS research, crickets were fertilised in orbit, allowing scientists to observe embryos and larvae that began developing under microgravity….

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In 2011, conservationists dropped 75 tonnes of poisoned bait on Henderson Island; only about 60–80 rats survived, but within two years their population was back to roughly two-thirds of its former level

Henderson Island (Image credit: Canva) In 2011, Henderson Island, a remote and uninhabited island in the South Pacific, became the site of one of the largest rodent-eradication attempts ever undertaken on an island of its size. Conservationists spread about 75 tonnes of poisoned bait across the island in an effort to eliminate invasive Pacific rats,…

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Chinese humanoid robots just beat Usain Bolt’s 100m record and the human high-jump record, are humans already losing to machines?

It seems technology is already outrunning humans not only in algorithms but also on the field. At a 100-meter sprint at the Beijing Robot Games, a humanoid robot is said to have beaten the human record of Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt. The robot named Lightning Bolt, achieved a result of 9.39 seconds, beating Bolt’s record…

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Scottish Water: Scotland recycles 72,000 contaminated single-use plastic bottles in a world-first move as new technology targets Petri dishes and pipette tips |

Scotland is taking a new approach to laboratory plastic waste. A new recycling system has already processed around 72,000 contaminated plastic sample bottles. The technology is now being expanded to Petri dishes and pipette tips. Scottish Water has become the first utility in the world to adopt Envetec Sustainable Technologies’ GENERATIONS technology. The system disinfects…

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After years of invasive rats threatening island wildlife, Tuvalu removed them from six islets; residents are now seeing birds and coconut crabs return |

On small islands scattered across the Pacific, changes in wildlife can be surprisingly easy to notice. A few more birds along the shoreline, coconut crabs appearing where they had become scarce, or native animals moving through places they once avoided can all point to a shift in the balance of an ecosystem. In Tuvalu, that…

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Planes, helicopters, crews: How Europe is scrambling to contain a record wildfire season

Romanian firefighters work to prevent a wildfire from reigniting as they tackle smoldering ground following a fire in the Deliblato Sands nature reserve in Serbia. (Photo: Reuters) Wildfires are stretching firefighting capacity across Europe, forcing countries to move aircraft, helicopters and crews across borders as several blazes burn at the same time. Serbia is using…

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Singapore unveils world-first biological data centre with 16 million living human neurons powering 20 computers in a landmark moment for AI |

Cortical Labs founder and CEO Hon Weng Chong at the Cortical Cloud biological data centre at NUS (Image: The Straits Times).. Singapore has unveiled a world-first biological data centre prototype that brings living human neurons into a server-rack environment, marking an unusual new step in the race to build more efficient and adaptive computing systems….

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After months of tracking, volunteers found five leopard cats breeding in Changi’s forest, but Terminal 5 construction is forcing them to relocate |

For months, the forest around Changi was being watched after dark. More than 50 volunteers, working with conservation groups and Singapore’s National Parks Board, set up cameras, collected evidence and searched for signs of one of the country’s most elusive wild cats. What they found was more significant than a handful of fleeting sightings. By…

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