Wednesday, 8 February, 2012

When walking in the woods, if you stumble upon a large yellow or orange shelved mushroom growing on a tree, it is quite possible you have found a species of Laetiporus, colloquially known as chicken of the woods, among other name variations. If cooked correctly, it does in fact taste like chicken. Laetiporus is a [...]

Just west of tiny Alviso, Calif., lies the remnant salt pond named A8, which is soon to return to its glory days as a thriving wetland, hopefully. If all goes as planned, this future salt marsh will be part of a 15,000-acre swatch of restored wildlife habitat in the southern portion of the San Francisco [...]

The world’s most abundant form of life—plankton—makes the electric blue swirls in this image of the North Atlantic Ocean off Ireland. This massive bloom is an annual springtime phenomenon. Also known as the “grass of the sea,” plankton are microscopic marine plants at the base of the ocean’s food chain—all marine life directly or indirectly [...]

Can you find the snot otter in this picture? The snot otter, more officially known as the hellbender salamander or Cryptobranchus alleganiensis, is North America’s most super-sized salamander, growing up to 30 inches long. It inhabits streams and rivers from Arkansas to New York, and has evolved very little since the time of dinosaurs. However, [...]

The dry Colorado River delta in the Baja/Sonoran desert may leave a fascinating mark on the earth, but ecologists and fish are alarmed. Human use and climate change are draining rivers around the world, endangering fish and entire ecosystems in the process. When rivers dry up, the food chain gets shorter, claims a study published [...]

Five billion years ago small, short-lived galaxies played games of galactic bumper cars with each other, leaving debris in their aftermath. As the Milky Way began to form, it gathered some of the wayward fragments, which are now the ancient stars that roam its stellar halo, a new study by Durham University claims. By running [...]

Mysterious holes in clouds, such as this one, have long fascinated the public and, until recently, baffled scientists. New research shows that turboprop or jet aircraft punch these holes, causing narrow bands of rain or snowfall. Clouds often contain supercooled water, or water droplets that persist in liquid form despite subfreezing temperatures due to a [...]

This elaborate is a masterly crafted peace of artwork, yet it represents much more. This creation is the size of a penny, and folded from a printed sheet of titanium hydride ink. It was created at the University of Illinois, and presents a new method for the creation of microsystems, including three-dimensional structures for biocompatible [...]

Paleontologists have recently discovered the fossilized remains of new species in the Cloudina genus, which are among the first animals to have developed an exoskeleton approximately 550 million years ago. The Cloudina carinata, discovered at the site El Membrillar (Badajoz) of Spain, is an important discovery for understanding the origins of skeletal systems. “The specimens [...]

Rivalries in nature regularly produce clashing outcomes, and a recent study proved that this can also be the case for some bacteria. Colonies of the bacterium Paenibacillus dendritiformis have been shown to produce a lethal chemical to keep their competition at a distance. The study forced two colonies of bacteria into the same space, and [...]