Black soldier flies could help cut planet-warming methane produced when organic waste breaks down, Macquarie University team says
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A team of Australian scientists is genetically engineering a common fly species so that it can eat more of humanity’s organic waste while producing ingredients for making everything from lubricants and biofuels to high-grade animal feeds.
Black soldier flies are already being used commercially to consume organic waste, including food waste, but tweaking their genetics could widen the range of waste their larvae consume while, in the process, producing fatty compounds and enzymes.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/24/2024 - 04:00
07/24/2024 - 04:00
Reptile’s teeth found to have covering that helps keep serrated edges razor sharp and resistant to wear
With their huge size, venomous bite and the fantastical connotations of their name, Komodo dragons seem like the stuff of legend.
Now, that status has been elevated further: scientists have discovered that their teeth are coated with a layer of iron that helps keep their serrated edges razor sharp.
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07/24/2024 - 01:39
An American contestant on Race to Survive has apologised for eating a weka, a large, brown flightless bird known for its curiosity
Things got a little too real on the reality TV show Race to Survive when one of the contestants killed and ate a protected New Zealand bird species, prompting a warning from authorities.
The contestants had been warned that certain food groups – including protected ones – were off limits. Spencer Jones, who killed and ate the weka, has since apologised, saying, “I made a mistake. It was shortsighted, it was foolish,” according to the website RealityTea.com.
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07/24/2024 - 00:43
Video posted online shows people running away to escape the explosion at Biscuit Basin, which is now closed to visitors
A surprise hydrothermal explosion in Yellowstone national park has sent sightseers running for safety, after steam and dark-coloured rock and dirt shot up high into the sky.
The eruption happened around 10am local time on Tuesday in Biscuit Basin, a collection of hot springs a couple miles north of the famous Old Faithful Geyser.
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07/23/2024 - 22:30
Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists estimates $7.3bn a year for 30 years could avoid most extinctions, repair soils and restore rivers
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Saving Australia’s threatened wildlife, repairing degraded land and restoring ailing river systems is possible and would cost just 0.3% of Australia’s GDP, according to a new blueprint produced by more than 60 experts.
For the first time scientists, governance and business leaders have produced a dollar estimate of what it would take to fix Australia’s environment.
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07/23/2024 - 18:01
Two new AgustaWestland AW139s will be in use this year as total annual travel bill rises from £3.9m to £4.2m
The royal family spent more than £1m on journeys by helicopter last year, and will take delivery of two new ones to replace those they have used for the past 15 years.
In total, royals made 170 helicopter journeys, costing a total of £1,096,300, official accounts reveal, with the total travel bill last year rising to £4.2m from £3.9m.
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07/23/2024 - 13:38
Latest research shows how illegal drug consumption by humans is harming marine life
Wild sharks off the coast of Brazil have tested positive for cocaine, according to new study by Brazilian scientists, in the latest research to demonstrate how illegal drug consumption by humans is harming marine life.
According to a study entitled Cocaine Shark and published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, scientists dissected the bodies of 13 sharpnose sharks (Rhizoprionodon lalandii) caught in fishermen’s nets off a beach in Rio de Janeiro.
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07/23/2024 - 12:24
Allies of the 73-year-old anti-whaling activist Paul Watson have said that prison time would amount to a ‘life sentence’
The arrest of the anti-whaling activist Paul Watson in Greenland – where he could face extradition to Japan – has been condemned as “politically motivated” by supporters, who compared the case to the detention of the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange.
“The parallels are disturbing,” said Omar Todd, chief executive and co-founder of the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF).
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07/23/2024 - 11:33
World leaders must take advantage of a pivotal window of opportunity for forging a much-needed joined-up approach to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss, say scientists. Without this, work on tackling either crisis could inadvertently harm progress on the other.
07/23/2024 - 11:27
Preliminary data from Copernicus suggests temperature records were shattered, taking world into ‘uncharted territory’
World temperature records were shattered on Sunday on what may be the hottest day scientists have ever logged, data suggests.
Inflamed by the carbon pollution spewed from burning fossils and farming livestock, the average surface air temperature hit 17.09C (62.76F) on Sunday, according to preliminary data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, which holds data that stretches back to 1940. The reading inched above the previous record of 17.08C (62.74F) set on 6 July last year, but the scientists cautioned that the difference was not statistically distinguishable.
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