The aftermath of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City has extended beyond the war on terror and related efforts aimed at promoting the national security of the United States. Immediately and several years after the terrorist attack that caught the world by surprise, first responders and survivors who […]
The basis of homosexuality remains complicated and controversial. Several researchers and writers who perceive homosexuality with positivity usually begin their discussions by implying that this sexual orientation is natural. Nonetheless, science has directed its attention toward other animals to explore how homosexuality occurs in the greater natural environment. Bruce Bagemihl has been widely accredited for […]
German biologist Ernst Haeckel proposed the colonial theory of multicellular life in 1874. He suggested that ancestral metazoans or earlier animals originated from the symbiosis of many organisms of the same unicellular species—as opposed to the symbiotic theory, which suggests symbiosis of different unicellular species resulted in multicellularity. The colonial theory cited the symbiotic relationship […]
Did humans come from monkeys? Popular interpretation of human evolution would probably affirm this notion. And some creationists would take this otherwise gross misinterpretation against the theory of evolution. Thus, in an attempt to challenge the theory, they often ask, “If we evolved from monkeys, then why are there still monkeys?” This “monkey logic” of […]
Phosphorus shortage presents a major problem in the future of agriculture and livestock. A scarcity of this chemical element could create shortage in food supply and its complete depletion could spell doom for the human race. Remember that phosphorus is essential for all forms of life. Inorganic phosphorus in the form of phosphate plays a […]
Rising sea levels due to melting glaciers and ice sheets is one of the dire consequences of climate change. But despite the onslaught of global warming, sea levels are not really rising quite as quickly as scientists have predicted. The reason: Land water storage slows down sea level rise. A backgrounder on water cycle Around […]
Efficiency in food production has always been the cornerstone of civilisations. However, the ballooning global population and the environmental impacts of agriculture and livestock, coupled with economic hurdles create susceptibility to food shortages. In fact, in several parts of the world, hunger remains pervasive. But science has found another workaround through the introduction of cultured […]
In 2008, researchers and volunteers first noticed via their radar a young male lion walking somewhere in the Hwange National Park—a protected territory and game reserve in the far western corner of Zimbabwe. Accompanied by his brother, researchers believed that the two were born in 2003 and eventually left their pride in order to establish […]
Where did dogs come from? What was the original ancestor of the dog? When did the first domestication take place? Why did humankind domesticate the dog? What purpose did this domestication serve? How did dogs become one of the most popular animal companions of humankind? The aforementioned questions are hardly new. A considerable number of […]
A study led by Yale University has determined the physical characteristics and behaviour of the first snakes. Accordingly, the original ancestor of snakes was a nocturnal, stealth-hunting predator that had tiny hindlimbs with ankles and toes. There are more than 3,400 living species of snakes found in a wide range of habitats including land, water, […]
Domestication has resulted in the shift to lighter or weaker human bones. A team of researchers studied the bones of hundreds of humans who lived in Europe during the past 33,000 years and found out that rise of agriculture and a decline in mobility drove the shift. It is worth mentioning that modern lifestyles leaning […]
Staying cool through air conditioning brings comfort but with a far reaching price. A new energy model has examined the relationship between climate, income growth, and energy security. Accordingly, the continuous increase in income in developing countries coupled with increase in temperature due to global warming would result in more air condition use that in […]
Civilisations and modernity would not emerge if not for agriculture. However, because of the expanding human population coupled with environmental hurdles to farming including limited land resources, there is a need to reconsider how the global society produces food for mass consumption. Vertical farming offers a solution for cultivating agricultural produces without the use of […]
Louis Berger Group, a New Jersey based environmental engineering firm, released a report revealing that the oil contamination left by Texaco, now Chevron, in the Ecuador forest five decades ago continues to harm the environment and jeopardise public health. In 1964, United States based Texaco Petroleum Company began exploring oil in northeast Ecuador. This eventually […]
A research that involved a gambling experiment revealed monkeys have a high level of curiosity, thus implying that they are as thirsty for knowledge as humans. Researchers at the University of Rochester and Columbia University subjected a species of Old World monkeys known as rhesus macaque under an experiment that involved a game of chance. […]
The tiger population in India has increased by 30% since 2010 and the government has earned considerable compliments for this breakthrough. India is home to 70% of the world’s tiger population. On January 20, 2014, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar presented the findings from the latest tiger census. Accordingly, India’s tiger population had risen from 1,706 […]
Two miles below the surface of the ocean, particularly in undersea aquifers, researchers have discovered a species of unclassified microbes that “breathe in” sulfate in absence of oxygen. A joint study by researchers from University of Southern Carolina and University of Hawaii took samples from massive undersea aquifers under the Juan de Fuca Ridge, just […]