A question that many people deem only a philosophical and hypothetical quandary… When a tortoise has flipped onto its back, how does it get back up again? But being stuck upside down can be a very real problem for tortoises, but surprisingly, one that hasn’t been investigated in much detail. Until recently, that is, when a team from the University of Belgrade in Serbia has published their report on i ...

Most of us would have watched Spiderman scaling the side of a building using just his hands and wondered what it would be like if it were really possible to be able to do such a thing. Well, now it is possible, thanks to scientists from Stanford University in the US. The team, led by mechanical engineer Professor Mark Cutkosky, have developed hand pads that have been inspired by geckos. The pads were so suc ...

The ALMA telescopes have struck again - this time giving us the clearest ever picture of new planets forming around a star. And what make this image even more exciting is that the star is so young that it changes what we know about the formation of solar systems! As you can see from the picture below, dark rings are visible around the star at the centre. These rings are gaps in a vast cloud of dust and gas, ...

There are seven different species of musk deer that grace the forests and mountainous areas of Asia, most notably the Himalayas. Perhaps the most striking characteristic of a musk deer is its fang-like teeth. Only the males of the species grow the fangs, which are actually tusks because they are used during mating season to compete for female attention. Not only is the meat of the deer considered a local de ...

Engineers from Boston in the US have managed to find a way of making batteries safe if they are accidentally swallowed - potentially saving the lives of thousands of children around the world. The batteries in question are those small, round button-like ones that you might find in a watch, hearing aid, toy, or other small electronic device. They can easily be swallowed and thus result in injury, which can b ...

One of the most crucial ways of understanding the way certain animals behave is to study them in their natural environment. But even the most passive act of observation can change the way an animal behaves. Take penguins, for example. In the past, scientists attached transponders to the wings of penguins, to monitor the birds. These transponders were able to send signals over long distances. Unfortunately, ...

Google is working on new technology that could potentially diagnose health problems like cancer or heart attacks at a much earlier stage than is currently possible. As with treatment of many diseases, early diagnosis is key. Unfortunately, many can only be detected when they have already passed the treatable stage and have become fatal. But there are clearly noticeable differences between cancerous cells an ...

The dwindling numbers of the Galapagos tortoises have been something of great concern for conservationists for decades. But now, after 40 years of hard work, the Galapagos Island of Española now has a stable and breeding population of giant tortoises. In the 1960s, tortoise numbers had fallen so dramatically that there were only 15 left - 12 females and three males. The creatures were so rare that they had ...

The thigh bone of an ancient man that was found in Siberia has yielded some answers about the beginning of modern humans, published in Nature. The man is one of the earliest modern humans to have been discovered in Eurasia (the combined land mass of Europe and Asia), dating back around 45,000 years. A genome sequence taken from collagen teased from the bone - which helps to determine a person’s complete DNA ...

The old adage of eating all your greens so you grow up to be big and strong is true, according to analysis on the bones of Roman gladiators. A study from researchers from Switzerland’s University of Bern and Austria’s Medical University (MediUni) of Vienna, published online in PLOS ONE, examined remains from the Roman town of Ephesus. The graves in Ephesus - which is in what is now Turkey - date back to the ...