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    Ants Learn From Experience and Can Hold Grudges, Study Finds

    Ants Learn From Experience and Can Hold Grudges, Study Finds

    Like humans, animals experience complex emotions like empathy, love, grief and joy. They can also hold grudges. In a recent study, a team of biologists found that ants can learn from experience and hold grudges when confronted with competitors from another nest with whom they’ve had previous negative experiences. “We often have the idea that […]

    Spiders ‘Smell’ Using Their Legs, Research Finds

    Spiders ‘Smell’ Using Their Legs, Research Finds

    Most spiders have eight legs, no ears and use fine leg hairs connected to nerve cells or their webs to hear sounds in their environment. But how do they smell? A new study by an international team of researchers has found that male spiders “smell” with their legs, using olfactory hairs — wall-pore sensilla — […]

    Global Ocean Temperatures Reached Record High in 2024

    Global Ocean Temperatures Reached Record High in 2024

    Global sea temperatures reached an all-time high in 2024, according to a new study published Friday in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.  The 54 researchers from seven countries deployed thousands of instruments to collect ocean data both at the surface and up to 2,000 meters below the surface — the latter called ocean heat […]

    2024 Global Average Temperature Was Hottest on Record and First Above 1.5°C

    2024 Global Average Temperature Was Hottest on Record and First Above 1.5°C

    Fueled by the climate crisis, the global average temperature soared above the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold for the first time in 2024, intensifying extreme weather. Experts from the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) have confirmed that last year was the planet’s hottest on record, reaching 1.55 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average, reported UN […]

    Scientists Engineer Bacteria to Break Down Microplastics Found in Wastewater

    Scientists Engineer Bacteria to Break Down Microplastics Found in Wastewater

    Microplastics — the ubiquitous tiny plastic particles that are the result of the breakdown of plastic water bottles, packaging and synthetic clothing fibers — can run through wastewater treatment plants, making their way into the environment. Researchers have engineered bacteria that is commonly found in the treatment plants to break down microplastic pollution before it […]

    Australia Mosquito Population Researchers Developing Genetically Modified ‘Toxic Males’ to Kill Females by Mating With Them

    Australia Mosquito Population Researchers Developing Genetically Modified ‘Toxic Males’ to Kill Females by Mating With Them

    In Australia, researchers are considering how genetic engineering could allow mosquitoes to produce venom proteins, like those produced by spiders and sea anemones, in their sperm to transfer the poison to female mosquitoes when mating. In a study led by Macquarie University, researchers first used genetically modified fruit flies to test what has been dubbed […]

    What Is Jimmy Carter’s Environmental Legacy?

    What Is Jimmy Carter’s Environmental Legacy?

    In 1979, when President Jimmy Carter famously unveiled 32 solar panels on the White House roof, he remarked, “A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most […]