Researchers at the University of Kentucky Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment (CAFE) have discovered that a fungus living inside a common Kentucky woodland grass produces a rare combination of chemicals that likely helps protect the plant from hungry insects.
Scientists have helped solve a longstanding mystery about how Earth remained habitable after oxygen first accumulated in its atmosphere more than 2 billion years ago, providing evidence that ancient ocean chemistry sustained life-friendly conditions.
Since its launch in 1998, Google, the world's leading search engine, has transformed how people find information online. For years, search results appeared as ranked lists of sources: Google decided what to show, but users decided what to read and whom to trust.
Over the last several years, invasive plant and insect species have found their way into more and more social media feeds. From the tree of heaven to Bradford pear trees and the ubiquitous spotted lanternfly, home gardeners are spreading the word about problematic species to their networks.
A commercial mission to boost NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory ended without raising the spacecraft's orbit, but the agency and Katalyst Space gained experience that will benefit future in-space servicing programs.
Plastic pollution is a growing threat to marine environments, with discarded waste reaching from coastlines to the deepest parts of the ocean. Now, a six-year study has revealed how quickly debris can accumulate on a beach in Ecuador, with one monitoring site collecting about 570 grams (1.25 pounds) of debris every week.
How do we know when an animal virus might pose a risk to humans? Canada confirmed a human case of H5N1 avian influenza (often called "bird flu") in 2024, the first known to have been acquired in Canada. The patient, a 13-year-old from British Columbia, suffered severe symptoms, including respiratory failure, but recovered with intensive care in a hospital.
Three much-loved glaciers in British Columbia are set to disappear completely within a few decades, according to a Simon Fraser University study.
Like many parasites, nematomorphs are known to manipulate their hosts' behavior to complete their life cycles. Also known as horsehair worms, among other names, these creatures develop in their hosts' body cavities and lure their terrestrial arthropod victims into the water, where the parasites reproduce. Some species have even been observed to induce positive phototaxis, attracting the host toward horizontally polarized light reflected on the water's surface.
A false sense of security can be dangerous. The "Safe Development Paradox" is a phenomenon in which flood-control infrastructure makes people feel safe, so communities subconsciously start building closer and closer to historically vulnerable lowlands.
