Science

GRAPHIC WARNING: Rare video footage has emerged showing an adult polar bear killing and eating a young cub, and it’s been suggested that climate change could be to blame. The National Geographic video shows the adult male overtaking its victim – before eating it in front of its mother. Scientists have recently observed that the cannibalism is on the increase …

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have managed to escape with their lives after a ‘gorilla’ went bananas inside the orbiting laboratory – or so it would seem. In a video posted by his brother on Twitter on Monday, Kelly is shown wearing the gorilla suit and chasing down another astronaut, who quickly flees from the unexpected passenger.

Big carnivores are scary, both to humans and the animals they prey upon. But as a new study demonstrates, the fear that these predators instill among their prey can have a positive influence on ecological health and biodiversity, a finding with important implications for conservation. These findings from Western’s Liana Zanette and PhD student Justin Suraci, in collaboration with Simon …

Europeans need to eat less beef and consume less dairy products in order to reach the EU’s climate goals, according to a new study by Swedish researchers. “Reductions, by 50 percent or more, in ruminant meat (beef and mutton) consumption are, most likely, unavoidable if the EU targets are to be met,” according to the findings published in the Food …

A study ten years in the making found that sea levels are rising at the fastest rate in the last 2,800 years. The scientists say that greenhouse gas emissions that build up in the atmosphere and heat the planet, melting glaciers and ice sheets, are to blame for this sharp rise. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the …

The vast majority of Canadians, in all provinces, believe climate change is real, according to a new research. Scientists from the University of Montreal, University of California Santa Barbara, Utah State University and Yale University have just released a new interactive tool to visualize, with unprecedented detail, the geographic distribution of climate opinions across Canada. It allows users to download …

Nearly all US Forests are Threatened by Droughts, Study Claims. Throughout the United States, forests are feeling the impact of climate change and increasing drought, as noted by a new study by individuals from 14 research institutions. “Over the last two decades, warming temperatures and variable precipitation have increased the severity of forest droughts across much of the continental United …

NASA scientist Philip Lubin is working on a photonic propulsion system that could reduce Mars travel from six months to three days. NASA’s concept of laser-based propulsion was revealed through NASA 360 – the space agency’s own video podcast – in a video (below, originally posted on 11 February) featuring Philip Lubin, a professor of physics at UC Santa Barbara …

This ancient armadillo roamed the earth millions of years ago and was the size of Volkswagen Beetle, according to researchers. Researchers have sequenced the entire mitochondrial genome of the ancient glyptodont, a giant, strange mammal and ancestor of the modern-day armadillo, which first appeared approximately 4 million years ago, roaming the Earth until its extinction during the Ice Age.

NASA sent two Microsoft HoloLens augmented reality headsets into space to the International Space Station in December. Now Microsoft has posted an image of astronaut Scott Kelly wearing the HoloLens headset on board the ISS. The project, called Sidekick, helps the crews with work on repairs, saving them the strain of going through a manual. They are also given support …

A man has been filmed wrangling a small shark from the ocean in Florida for a series of photographs, merely a week after the world was shocked following a similar incident involving a baby dolphin. A beach-goer in Florida has been filmed pulling a shark from the sea and pinning it down to pose for pictures.