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Some corals can swap out the algae that live inside their tissues for different strains that are more heat tolerant – and these coral species have a better chance of surviving global climate change in the coming decades.
When sea temperatures are too high, corals expel the microscopic algae living in their tissues. This is what occurs during coral bleaching. Losing algae in this way is harmful for the corals because the algae normally provide oxygen for them and remove their waste products. However, marine biologists have previously discovered that when some corals are exposed to warmer temperatures, they can swap the algae inside their tissues for strains that have a higher thermal tolerance.
Carlos Teixeira at Federal University of Ceará
Unidentified packages that appeared along the Brazilian coastline in 2018 have been confirmed as bales of natural rubber coming from German shipwreck from the Second World War.
Throughout 2018, around 200 square packages washed up along 1600 kilometres of the Brazilian coastline from the states of Maranhão to Sergipe. Each package weighed up to 200 kilograms and they ranged in size from 0.06 to 3.4 cubic metres. They caused considerable public concern as people were unaware of what they were … Continue reading Subscribe now for unlimited access
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The CIA’s efforts to capture Osama bin Laden via a fake vaccination drive in Pakistan led to a rise in vaccine hesitancy in the years after the scheme was revealed.
In 2011, it was reported that the CIA had organised a fake vaccination drive in Abbottabad, Pakistan, reportedly administering hepatitis B vaccines to babies, while obtaining DNA samples to compare with that of bin Laden’s sister, who died in the US the year before. The CIA was attempting to find a child who was related to bin Laden, in an effort to pin down his whereabouts.
FLPA / Alamy
Plants that are taller and more attractive are more likely to be studied by botanists, suggests an analysis of research conducted over the past 45 years.
Martino Adamo at the University of Turin in Italy and his colleagues analysed 280 scientific papers published between 1975 and 2020 that mention one or more of a selection of 113 small flowering plant species typical of the south-western Alps in Europe.
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Using a statistical model, they found that the physical appearance of a plant – its colour, the size of its flowers and the height of its stems – was the most important factor in explaining research interest amongst botanists, trumping ecological importance, rarity and abundance.
Stockbroker/MBI/Alamy
Older teenagers tend, on average, to be more popular than their younger peers in the same class.
Danelien van Aalst at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and her colleagues have investigated how relative age affects popularity among 14 to 15-year-olds in the Netherlands, Sweden and England. They collected survey data from 13,251 students from the three countries, who were quizzed between October 2010 and April 2011.
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Each teenager was asked to identify five of the most popular students in their class. The researchers then compared the popularity of each child to their age relative to that of their peers. They discovered a correlation: the older the student was, the more likely they were to be considered popular.