The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many industries to a grinding halt. With travel restrictions, grounded airplanes, and closed borders, the tourism sector has been one of the hardest-hit industries across the globe. In Australia, this has meant that snorkeling and scuba diving tours of the Great Barrier Reef have been suspended until further notice. While...
Witnessing an entire pod of dolphins is, for most of us, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Imagine, then, if you saw one swimming below the water’s surface, and they were ‘glowing‘. This may sound like the stuff of science fiction novels, but one man recently witnessed exactly that- and has some incredible footage to prove it. Bioluminescent...
It’s clear as a sunny, summer day that distributed solar power is increasing in popularity. In 2013, a new solar power system was installed in the United States every 4 minutes. [1] By 2015, the number of new solar power systems installed in the United States accelerated to one every 2.5 minutes. [2] And last...
The global outbreak of COVID-19 has had a drastic effect on economies in every country around the world. Hardly any industry has gone unscathed and we are staring down the barrel of the worst economic downturn since the 2008 financial crisis. In times like these, it is always the small businesses that get hit the...
The most unusual breakfast companions, and yet they are the cutest. A guy from Pennsylvania has melted hearts all over the world after building the cutest picnic table for a squirrel in his back yard [1]. While socially isolating due to the coronavirus pandemic, Rick Kalinowski, 43, from Bryn Mawr, decided it was time to give...
In today’s fast-paced modern world, we are incessantly bombarded by information, images, and noise. We live in a state of constant sensory overload and interact with our environment and each other more often through our smartphones than in person. Since the Industrial Revolution, new technology has been invented at a dizzying pace, always with the...
130 years after being recorded for the first time, we finally have the first-ever photograph of the South Philippine Dwarf Kingfisher, a beautiful little bird native to the Philippines. (1) No Photos, please! This brightly colored bird is the smallest of the species of birds known as the King Fishers. It’s so tiny and so...
Last year, Californians near Lake Berryessa reservoir, located 75 miles north of San Francisco, were treated to a rare sight: a so-called “glory hole” in the reservoir draining excess rainwater. It’s been described as an inverted fountain and, perhaps less gloriously, like a toilet being flushed. No matter how you describe it, it’s an unusual...
Imagine you are walking on your favorite trail or through your local park, when you notice a tree stump that looks different from the rest. This stump looks like it’s covered in a beautiful rock, maybe even… a precious gem? That can’t be real, can it? What you are seeing is real and can happen:...
“I looked around the city and wondered what I would feed my newborn daughter. It became clear that I needed to create it myself. So I hurried to build a vegetable garden.” – Jamiah Hargin Jamiah Hargins was unaware that he was about to revolutionize his neighborhood when he moved to the West Adams area...
Hummingbirds are extremely smart creatures. In fact, they are some of the smartest birds in nature, with brains larger in comparison to their body size than any other birds [1]. Several studies have shown that they will recognize every single flower in their territory and even migration routes. Then there’s the parental care trait found...
After several decades of extensive research, scientists finally established that truly, embryos from several bird species such as quails and chicken can hear through their eggs [1]. Some other species listen to their parents’ incubation calls and may be able to mimic the sounds exactly when they hatch. However, embryonic learning has always been associated...
