Their loud buzzing sounds and large furry bodies can send one running for cover!
While bumblebees may look intimidating, they are, in fact, one of the gentlest bee species. They do not form swarms or sting unless provoked.
Unfortunately, these bees are on a decline. Scientists looked at 66 different species of bumblebees and found that 47% had disappeared from North America and 17% from Europe, compared to the period before 1974.
Pet turtles are, at most, the size of your hand, right? Now imagine a turtle the same size as a small car!
On February 12, paleontologists uncovered the fossils of the Stupendemys geographicus, an ancient species of freshwater turtles, that were up to thirteen feet long!
Found in Northern Venezuela and the Tatacoa Desert, the turtles lived twelve to four million years ago during the Miocene Epoch. These fossils will aid paleontologists in learning more about the turtle’s habitat and behavior.
Let’s learn more about this exciting discovery!
For those who live in the far northern regions of our world, the skies put up a spectacular show every now and then.
These beautiful northern lights, known as Aurora Borealis, are caused when charged particles from the Sun interact with our Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field.
Recently, amateur stargazers in Finland have discovered a new kind of aurora. Minna Palmroth and her coworkers realized that the aurora they were observing did not fit any of the known categories.
Types of Auroras
Have you ever wondered what the sun looks like?
A recent image from the National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope captures careful details of the sun’s complex surface.
The high-resolution picture reveals the solar activity of multiple “cell-like structures” that make up the sun’s plasma layer, along with a mass of swirling and boiling gases.
Let’s learn more about the science behind this discovery!
A Sphere of Plasma
You may have heard of the phrase -- it’s raining cats and dogs, but what if you were told it will be raining iguanas?
Believe it or not, falling iguanas were recently forecast in Florida! It turns out that when temperatures go below the 30s and 40s, these cold-blooded animals become lethargic and fall from their resting spots in the trees.
We cannot escape the fact that the world is getting uncomfortably warmer.
Rising temperatures over the past decade, extreme weather patterns, bushfires like the ones we are seeing in Australia are all reminders that our climate is changing.
Even as politicians continue to debate and not take action, companies like Microsoft are stepping up. The company has recently pledged to go “carbon negative” for this reason. Let's understand what this means.
Carbon Neutral vs. Carbon Negative
Dinosaurs were the unrivaled prehistoric reptilian rulers of the Earth. These massive reptiles appeared on Earth about 245 million years ago (mya) and dominated till 66 mya.
They disappeared suddenly, in what is referred to as a mass extinction event that wiped out 75% of all of Earth’s plants and animals.
This extinction transitioned our Earth from the Cretaceous to the Paleogene period and set the stage for the evolution of mammals.
