Jellyfish in Space – A Case Study of Microgravity
Reading Time – 7 Minutes, Difficulty Level – 2/5
In 1994, NASA sent jellyfish to space to investigate how microgravity can impact their sense of balance. Scientists launched a jellyfish species Aurelia aurita on the Space Life Science-1 (SLS-1) mission …
The Power of Time: Entropy and Human Experience
Reading/Listening Time – 5 Minutes, Difficulty Level – 1/5
Time, a fundamental dimension intrinsic to the universe, is as enigmatic as it is essential. It orders the sequence of events …
Ancient Engineering: The World’s Oldest Wooden Structure
Reading Time – 4 Minutes, Difficulty Level – 1/5
In September 2023, archaeologists made a discovery: a wooden structure.
What’s the big deal about this discovery of some old wood?
It’s actually a very groundbreaking discovery! It is evidence of …
Vertebrate Evolution: Ancient Retroviruses and Myelination
Reading Time – 7 Minutes, Difficulty Level – 2/5
As vertebrate organisms have evolved over time, ancient retroviruses have quietly shaped the development of our brains, playing a surprisingly important role in moulding them into the complex organs they are …
The Spectacular Superpowers of Sharks
Reading Time – 6 Minutes, Difficulty Level 1/5
Over 500 species of sharks inhabit our oceans, and represent a 400 million year legacy. They might be most well-known as powerful, high-speed predators, but their long evolutionary history has allowed sharks …
Navigating the Skies: The Fascinating World of Bird Migration
Reading Time – 10 Minutes, Difficulty Level 1/5
Every year around April, the Arctic tern, weighing just four ounces, begins one of the most extraordinary displays of endurance in nature. Undertaking one of the longest migrations in the world, the …
The Genetic Legacy of Ancient Humans
Reading Time – 5 Minutes, Difficulty Level 1/5
Homo sapiens, our species, are the only living species of humans on our planet. Over the course of the last few million years however, there have been multiple species of human, sometimes …
From Ranks to Clades – The Old and New Of Taxonomy
Reading Time – 6 Minutes, Difficulty Level 2/5
If you’ve studied GCSE biology you may have come across the rank-based system for classifying organisms. The classic sequence of Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus & Species. This system was …
What Types of Sounds Could Dinosaurs Have Made?
Reading Time – 7 minutes, Difficulty Level 2/5
When we imagine dinosaurs, we often conjure up an image of monstrous beasts roaring and snarling across the primordial landscape. This has been helped in part by their representation in popular media. …
Convergent Evolution – Nature’s Winning Designs
Reading Time – 8 minutes, Difficulty Level 2/5
Evolution is a fascinating process. The slow progression of change over generations across unfathomable periods of time has allowed life on Earth to thrive in every habitat imaginable, from the freezing polar …
