Walk through a damp garden or cellar and you may spot a silk sheet funneling into a dark tube. Spiders from distant branches of the family tree build this exact trap, and a new genome study now shows how they got there. What a Funnel Web Actually Is A funnel web has two parts: a flat sheet of tangled, non-sticky silk and a tube-shaped retreat at one end. The spider waits … [Read more...] about Hundreds of Millions of Years Apart, These Spiders Build the Same Trap — and No Single Gene Explains It
Science & Nature
What Are Those “Portholes” on Cows, and Why Do They Exist?
If you've ever seen a photo of a cow with what looks like a circular hatch in its side, you weren't imagining things, and it isn't a costume. It's a surgically placed device called a cannula, and it's been standard practice in agricultural research for nearly a century. What a Cannula Actually Is A cannulated cow, also called a fistulated cow, has undergone surgery to … [Read more...] about What Are Those “Portholes” on Cows, and Why Do They Exist?
Turkmenistan’s “Door to Hell” Has Burned for More Than 50 Years — Now Its Flames Are Fading, and Officials Want Them Out
For decades, a flaming pit in the Karakum Desert has drawn travelers who want to stand at the edge of what looks like the underworld. Now the Darvaza gas crater is losing its glow. Turkmenistan says it is doing it on purpose. A Fire That Wouldn't Quit The Darvaza gas crater, also called the Door to Hell or the Shining of the Karakum, sits in the desert about 260 … [Read more...] about Turkmenistan’s “Door to Hell” Has Burned for More Than 50 Years — Now Its Flames Are Fading, and Officials Want Them Out
Researchers Dumped 30 Truckloads of Coffee Waste on Barren Land — Two Years Later, It Was a Small Forest
Every cup of coffee leaves behind a mountain of waste at the other end of the supply chain. A team of scientists in Costa Rica decided to see whether that waste could do some good, and the results surprised even them. 30 Truckloads, One Bold Experiment Researchers from ETH Zurich and the University of HawaiÊ»i spread 30 dump-truck loads of coffee pulp across a … [Read more...] about Researchers Dumped 30 Truckloads of Coffee Waste on Barren Land — Two Years Later, It Was a Small Forest
Drilling Has Begun at Turkey’s ‘Noah’s Ark’ Formation. Here’s What’s Actually Been Found
For the first time since the 1980s, drill bits are going into the ground at one of the world's most debated "biblical" sites — and this time, one of them reportedly broke. What's Actually Happening An international team has begun core drilling at the Durupınar Formation, a boat-shaped mound in eastern Turkey's AÄŸrı province, about 29 kilometers south of Mount Ararat. The … [Read more...] about Drilling Has Begun at Turkey’s ‘Noah’s Ark’ Formation. Here’s What’s Actually Been Found