🐢 More than 180,000 giant tortoises are now roaming one Seychelles island — more than the country’s human population.
They were once down to fewer than 1,000. One of the Indian Ocean’s great conservation comebacks.
Sources: The Guardian, Ecology and Evolution
🏢 A concrete slab printed with energy-storing cement just lit up LEDs.
Scientists made a cement-based supercapacitor that could one day power alarms, sensors and emergency lights from the building itself.
Sources: New Atlas, ACS Nano
🌿 A giant waterlily so huge it can be seen from space was discovered in Colombia after a botanist spotted a swimmer’s plant selfie on Instagram.
It’s new to science — and already critically endangered. #Nature
Sources: The Guardian, Phytotaxa
💥 Some young stars are wrapped in warm dust from planet-scale smashups—possibly like the collision that made Earth’s Moon.
Webb found these “extreme debris disks” are rare, but they may reveal how rocky worlds are born.
Sources: Universe Today, The Astrophysical Journal
🐚 A giant clam on the Great Barrier Reef kept a daily climate diary in its shell for about 30 years.
Researchers read its layers to reconstruct month-by-month sea temperatures and wet-dry swings in the early 1800s.
Sources: Earth, Global and Planetary Change
🚵 He dropped 12.46 feet onto a tiny cardboard box — and crushed it with his back tire.
An Austrian mountain biker pulled off the precision stunt from an elevated platform and set a world record. Tiny target, huge nerves.
Source: UPI
🪝 An opossum was found dangling from a North Carolina tree after getting caught on a fishing hook.
Wildlife rescuers were called to the trail and got it down. A very strange reminder that litter can become a trap.
Source: UPI
🧗 Archaeologists rappelled down a cliff to a tiny cave and found 3 red glyphs that may prove Teotihuacan had real writing.
One seems to name a “Singing Mountain” — and hints the site was a sacred pilgrimage stop. Ancient graffiti, rewritten.
Sources: Earth, Antiquity
🍣 A double-decker bus in Tokyo now serves all-you-can-eat sushi from a conveyor belt as it rolls past the city’s sights.
Reviewers say the fish was genuinely good. Silly? Yes. Trap? Apparently not.
Source: SoraNews24
🦅 An osprey stopped for a meal on its southbound journey — and got chased off by terns before it could grab a sea bass.
A brief harbour pit stop turned into an aerial ambush. Migration is hard enough without locals policing lunch.
Source: The Guardian
🦋 Some migrating monarch butterflies now carry solar-powered tags lighter than a grain of rice—and your phone can help track them.
Early detections are already revealing unexpected routes and stopovers worth protecting.
Sources: Earth, Cape May Point Arts and Science Center
🌍 Earth from space
The Mediterranean glows at night, ringed by the coastal lights of Morocco, Algeria and Spain.
The lights also trace the Strait of Gibraltar and reach the Atlantic Ocean.
📷 NASA/Sultan Alneyadi · taken Jul 27, 2023
🌍 Earth’s northern lights were filmed as a full glowing ring around the North Pole in ultraviolet, rippling as a substorm burst through.
It’s the first complete UV aurora ring captured since 2008 — and it’s mesmerizing.
Source: EarthSky
🐸 A 14-year-old dug a backyard pond for school, and 9 years later it’s alive with frog calls, butterflies and hummingbirds.
It cost little, needed no filter, and turned patchy lawn into real habitat.
Sources: Earth, National Wildlife Federation