As It Happens6:05Spider webs catch more than prey. They’re also jam-packed with animal DNA Josh Newton probably isn’t very popular with spiders. After all, the Australian scientist has a tendency to go around undoing their hard work. “I liken it to when Princess Fiona in Shrek makes some cotton candy for Shrek from spider webs, where … Read more
The Current16:20Huge ancient city discovered in Amazon “Wow” was all archaeologist Stéphen Rostain could say when LiDAR (light detection and ranging) laser technology revealed several ancient cities hidden deep in the Amazon rainforest. “It’s a gift for an archaeologist,” he told The Current‘s Matt Galloway. Using the laser-scanning technology, researchers have uncovered a complex network of … Read more
A cache of scientific equipment that could fit in the back of an SUV has been lowered into the sea north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and is already streaming open-source data for anyone wanting to monitor the Southern Ocean’s health. Scientists say the underwater observatory collects measurements, including temperature, oxygen concentration and chlorophyll levels, and … Read more
Canada’s forestry sector is responsible for far more greenhouse gas emissions than show up in official tallies, potentially leading to policies that aren’t in line with the country’s climate goals, a new study suggests. The peer-reviewed study, published in the academic journal Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, found that annual greenhouse gas emissions attributable … Read more
A few years ago, a couple of Google employees reached out to a Minnesota scientist with an unusual proposal: What if they could teach computers to spot beaver habitats from space? “They wanted to know if I thought it was possible to find beaver wetlands from aerial imagery myself, and then if that could be … Read more
In a converted shipping container perched oceanside in Ketch Harbour, N.S., a group of people gather to peer into tanks filled with fuzzy pieces of gravel. The rocks are covered with tiny blades of sugar kelp. Soon, the squares of steel mesh they’re fixed to will be suspended in the water at a kelp farming demonstration … Read more
In a converted shipping container perched oceanside in Ketch Harbour, N.S., a group of people gather to peer into tanks filled with fuzzy pieces of gravel. The rocks are covered with tiny blades of sugar kelp. Soon, the squares of steel mesh they’re fixed to will be suspended in the water at a kelp farming demonstration … Read more
2023 was a busy year in science. Here are 10 stories worth revisiting as we wind up the year. 1. Canadian Jeremy Hansen chosen to fly to the moon A Canadian astronaut was selected as part of the crew for NASA’s Artemis II mission to the moon. Jeremy Hansen and three crew mates will fly … Read more
As It Happens6:18Chimps and bonobos remember friends and families’ faces, even after decades apart When Laura Simone Lewis visited Kendall the chimpanzee for the first time in six months, she wasn’t sure how he would react. The researcher had been working with the chimp at the North Carolina Zoo in 2015 as part of her … Read more
It’s not every day that a video of a cat goes viral. OK, it’s not every day that a video of a cat goes viral and marks a historical milestone for space exploration. But that’s what happened when NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment beamed an ultra-high definition streaming video back to Earth on Dec. 11 from 31 million kilometers … Read more
