Mar 9th, 2026 - Birds of prey have always captured human curiosity, but few species have a story as dramatic and inspiring as the red kite. Recognized by its striking reddish feathers and distinctive forked tail, the red kite is not only visually impressive but also an important part of the natural ecosystem. Today, these birds can be seen gliding gracefully across parts of the United Kingdom and Europe, but their presence in the sky is the result of years of careful conservation and research. Understanding the red kite's journey from decline to recovery helps reveal how coordinated wildlife protection ... [Read More]

Mar 9th, 2026 - A white fluid on a 3,300-year-old papyrus was used to make the figure of a jackal slimmer, researchers have found New light has been shed on the working methods—and attention to detail—of Ancient Egyptian craftspeople, after researchers at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, UK, identified what has been described as a very old form of "Tipp-Ex". Analysis of a papyrus from an approximately 3,300 year-old Book of the Dead showed a whiteish fluid had been used to make the figure of a jackal slimmer. The discovery was made as part of ongoing work around the Fitzwilliam's exhibition ... [Read More]

Mar 6th, 2026 - Global health authorities are once again sounding the alarm over polio , a disease many countries had hoped was nearly eradicated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a Level-2 travel advisory warning travellers to take enhanced precautions against poliovirus as cases and environmental detections resurface across multiple regions worldwide. The advisory, aimed particularly at healthcare professionals such as pharmacists, comes as global surveillance systems detect circulating poliovirus in dozens of countries, reminding health experts that the fight against polio ... [Read More]

Mar 6th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Lightning has always felt like one of those things that only nature can pull off: miles-wide storm clouds, crazy voltages, and sudden flashes that are still hard to predict. But a new theoretical study suggests something wild: lightning -like discharges might be possible inside ordinary solid materials – think glass, acrylic, or quartz – on a lab bench. The research was led by scientists at Penn State . Using mathematical models and detailed simulations, the team found that under the right conditions, dense insulating materials could build up the same kind ... [Read More]

Mar 6th, 2026 - By A major new study finds the pace of species discovery is accelerating, not slowing, and suggests the true number of species on Earth could reach into the billions. It has been roughly 300 years since Carl Linnaeus began the project of naming and classifying life on Earth. A University of Arizona-led study published in Science Advances now reveals that scientists are discovering new species at a faster rate than at any point in human history, with more than 16,000 species added each year. The research analyzed the taxonomic histories of roughly 2 million species across all groups of living ... [Read More]

Mar 6th, 2026 - Reading time 3 minutes Field researchers call them "Lazarus taxa," species once presumed extinct that suddenly appear to have risen from the dead. And scientists have found one more—a marsupial thought to have disappeared over 6,000 years ago. Researchers with the Australian Museum and the University of Papua discovered this elusive marsupial—known as the pygmy long-fingered possum ( Dactylonax kambuayai )—still doing its thing within the remote rainforests of Indonesia's Vogelkop Peninsula on the island of New Guinea. But the pint-sized, tree-dwelling mammal had company: a ... [Read More]

Mar 6th, 2026 - Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An asteroid that NASA used for target practice a few years ago was nudged into a slightly different route around the sun, findings that could help divert a future incoming killer space rock , scientists reported Friday. It's the first time that a celestial body's orbit around the sun was deliberately changed. The asteroid that NASA's Dart spacecraft slammed into was never a threat to Earth. "This study marks a notable step forward in our ability to prevent future asteroid impacts ... [Read More]

Mar 6th, 2026 - The binary asteroid's orbit around the Sun was affected by the impact. On September 26, 2022, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft crashed into a binary asteroid system . By intentionally ramming a probe into the 160-meter-wide moonlet named Dimorphos, the smaller of the two asteroids, humanity demonstrated that the kinetic impact method of planetary defense actually works. The immediate result was that Dimorphos' orbital period around Didymos, its larger parent body, was slashed by 33 minutes . Of course, altering a moonlet's local orbit doesn't seem like enough to ... [Read More]