Climate Change Series

Momentum grows for ocean preserves. How well do they work?

Jan 04, 2017 05:17 am UTC| Nature

What lies beneath the deep, dark expanse of the ocean is something that has fascinated sailors, fishermen, adventurers, poets and explorers for centuries. How could residents of New England, for instance, have known that...

Why do elephants bellow but whales squeak like a mouse?

Dec 29, 2016 13:04 pm UTC| Nature

Have you ever met a really tall man who has a high-pitched voice? Did it seem odd? We intuitively expect large mammals to have low, booming voices, while small mammals should have high-pitched, squeaky voices. The...

The global road-building explosion is shattering nature

Dec 19, 2016 00:15 am UTC| Nature

If you asked a friend to name the worst human threat to nature, what would they say? Global warming? Overhunting? Habitat fragmentation? A new study suggests it is in fact road-building. Road-building might sound...

Humans strive for efficiency but could learn so much from nature's resilience

Dec 17, 2016 06:49 am UTC| Nature Technology

Since the industrial revolution, humans have been driving towards ever greater efficiency. In fact, efficiency making the best possible use of the resources at hand has become the core concept of how we run the...

Eradicating fire ants is still possible, but we have to choose now

Dec 16, 2016 02:25 am UTC| Nature

Australia needs to spend millions of dollars more to eradicate one of the nations worst invasive species, the fire ant, according to recent reports. Fire ants, first detected in Brisbane in 2001, pose a major health and...

Getting smarter about city lights is good for us and nature too

Dec 16, 2016 02:15 am UTC| Technology Nature

Ideas to enhance the liveability and sustainability of our cities have attracted a lot of interest recently. Examples include establishing or enhancing urban forests, or bringing back nature into cities to support animals...

Space Science Series

Ice ages have been linked to the Earth's wobbly orbit - but when is the next one?

Dec 10, 2016 07:00 am UTC| Nature

Over the last two and a half million years the Earth has undergone more than 50 major ice ages, each having a profound effect on our planets climate. But what causes them and how do we predict when the next big ice age...