Hey guys! Welcome to this group. I am AthenaDaBest, and I am creating this for all people who LUVVV mythology and Percy Jackson fans and other Rick Riordan books, but other mythology series are allowed. Have fun!!

Hello! This is the holiday contest. I know that the following options may not be your favorites. Don’t worry! Feel free to comment on your favorite, but please vote on the holidays listed below. The winners will have the chance to share their ideas, and I will even give a shout-out! Pick one and good […]

Every year, Muslims around the world observe Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. It is the holiest month in Islam. During this month, archangel Jibril revealed the first five verses of the Quran Islams holy text to Prophet Muhammad. Ramadan begins with the sighting of the new crescent moon. This year, it is expected to start at sundown on or around February 17, 2026.

Everything about The wizard of oz or wicked! Simple as that.

Hey friends, this is part 2 of the Christmas gift ideas. 1. Electronics: I would definitely recommend getting an Apple iPhone or an Apple iPad. I just got an iPad, and it’s working great so far! 2. Lip products: Some of the lip products that I recommend are actually on my Wishlist this year. […]

On February 17, 2026, more than 1.5 billion people worldwide will welcome the start of the Chinese New Year. Also called Lunar or Spring New Year, it is one of the most important holidays in China. The date of the two-week celebration is determined by the lunar calendar. It usually falls between late January and mid-February. For many families, it is a time to reflect on the past year and prepare for a fresh start.

Did you know that experts have uncovered more than 700 different species of dinosaurs so far? From the famous T. rex and Velociraptor to Brontosaurus and Spinosaurus, these dinosaurs roamed the Earth millions of years ago. Now, heres another cool fact: experts recently discovered a new dome-headed dinosaur in Montana. Amazing, right? This dinosaur is […]

One Yksi, kaksi, kolme, nelj, I whispered to myself while skating laps around the rink. The ice beneath my skates felt like home, but this time, home felt different. I was alone on the rink; none of my teammates or school friends, like Helmi or Juhani, were there. It was just me, skating endless laps, […]

If you like winter, this is the perfect post for you! 1) How Snow Really Works When it hits below freezing (0C or 32F), that doesn’t mean it can snow. There must be Precipitation in the air. If you don’t know, Precipitation is the scientific word for rain. So when there is precipitation, and it […]

Hi everyone! I’m not sure if all of you know me, cuz I see that so many new members have come to KN, while the old users left for a while since we all got busy with studies and life… Hehe! Ok, I’m Jase, a really old user, and you may see my name at […]

On February 19, 2026, American figure skater Alysa Liu delivered a flawless routine to win the womens individual title at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. Her victory ended a 24-year gold medal drought in the event for the United States (US). The last American woman to win was Sarah Hughes in 2002.

Did you know that a few years back, many states decided to stop teaching students how to write in cursive?  A big reason for this change was the rise of technology and digital communication. After the pandemic, students used more computers and tablets, so teachers felt it was more important for them to learn typing […]

Science fiction and fantasy are two genres of “speculative fiction” known for provoking readers to think more deeply about many aspects of life. They have a great influence over our culture, and are popular for their creativity, intrigue, and ability to expand one’s imagination. People often lump them together into one category, but despite their […]

Do you have a pet dog? If you do, Im pretty sure youve already wondered about how old your pet is in dog years.  While we measure our age in years, dogs age a bit differently. But before I explain how this works, I want to talk about a common myth that isn’t true. Many […]

Hey friends. So, this is book club part 2. Today, I’m going to be announcing the title as well as getting y’all’s opinions on the first few paragraphs of this book. ok, so the title of this book will be, ”Lucy’s busy life.” Credit to Messel for helping me choose a title! So now, all […]

Welcome! This is a group chat for everyone and anyone who is LGBTQ+, Furry, Therian, or an ally. Please respect everyone within this group! This is a safe space for you! We accept you! Here are a few standards that I would like people to follow! – Absolutely no: cussing, racial slurs, bullying, and pretty […]

When rain or snow falls, much of it seeps into the soil. From there it flows down through porous rock, gravel and sand, forming underground streams. This groundwater will sometimes travel long distances. Scientists have now attempted to calculate its path in North America. Their findings suggest water can travel below ground much farther and deeper and for a much longer time than had been expected.



For instance, some groundwater can travel up to 238 kilometers (148 miles), the new study reports. And it can seep to depths of more than 90 meters (300 feet).



Or consider the deep groundwater pumped up for drinking. Most was believed to be separate from polluted water that often resurfaces in streams and rivers. But through long, buried treks, groundwater can link areas thought to be separate sharing pollution it picked up along the way. 



Explainer: Earths water is all connected in one vast cycle



All that water now appears a lot more connected, says Reed Maxwell, an author of the new study. He works at Princeton University in New Jersey. As a hydrologist, he studies the movement of water.



His team shared its findings on how water moves in the January 6 issue of Nature Water.



Understanding these connections between water sources, they say, is important. It could help water managers work together to make better decisions about how to use water for drinking, irrigating crops and supporting ecosystems.





How they investigated waters movement



A watershed (also known as a catchment) is the broad expanse of land that funnels snowmelt and rain downhill to a body of open water (such as a lake or ocean). Some rain and snowmelt will remain above ground. But much will seep underground as it moves.



Water managers decide who gets to use the water within a watershed and how. Watersheds are managed separately. But water can flow freely underground across watershed boundaries, says Laura Condon. Shes a hydrologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson. 



If watersheds are connected, then problems in one might affect another, says Maxwell. This got him thinking: If you dump pollution in one watershed, does it get to another? 



Others had mapped groundwater flows in various parts of the United States. But how distant sources of underground water might be connected hadnt been clear. That was one motivation for this study, says Maxwell. Understanding how water moves across a continent underground can help show how, when and where impacts to that water may occur.




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Maxwell and Condons team decided to track groundwaters flow beneath most of continental North America. They started with where this water reemerges in streams. Then, working backward, they figured out where it must have first seeped into the Earth.



To do this, they built a computer model. It simulated North Americas underground layers of rock to depths of 392 meters (1,200 feet). Next, they divided the continent into little blocks. Each was one kilometer long by one kilometer wide.



Then they asked the model to calculate how much water would likely flow through each block. That would depend on the shape and thickness of Earths underground layers and the space between the rocks.



Each block is like a Lego brick, Maxwell says. Once they calculated waters flow in each one, they stacked them together 85 million of them.



Then they added simulated water droplets to the computer model. The model pushes these droplets around based on how water would flow through the layers of below ground rock. And the scientists tracked everywhere they would go.



Think of a video game: Where would the little ball go? Itll be pushed by the velocity this way, says Condon.  Then, where would it go next?



Water often travels more than 97 kilometers (60 miles), the model showed. That wouldnt be far if water was streaming across the surface, says Maxwell. But it was far longer than it had been expected to flow below ground.



Most water stays below the surface for five to 10 years, the model found. But buried aquifers (underground layers of water-filled rock) also exist. Water can collect in them for 100,000 to 1 million years.





Rain and snow seep into the Earth, forming streams of groundwater that travel long distances below the surface.



Impacts to water



Knowing how far water travels and for how long helps determine impacts to water. How? If you have pollution underground, you need to understand where its going to go, Maxwell explains.



Consider, for instance, the nitrate fertilizers that farmers apply to soils. In large amounts, nitrates can harm people and aquatic life. Rain can wash these chemicals into groundwater. From there, they can potentially travel far from the farms on which they had been used. That can pollute water once thought to be free of such chemicals.



Models might also point to where water being pumped from the ground at one site (for drinking or irrigation) had been on its way to hydrate a distant wetland. Knowing this, says Claudia Faunt, managers might then make sure they leave enough water in the ground to sustain that wetland and the ecosystem it supports. Faunt didnt take part in the new study. But as a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in San Diego, Calif., she understands these issues. 



Everythings connected, Maxwell says. By knowing how one watershed may be linked to others, you can understand how the system works as a whole, he explains. And that could be key to managing Earths life-giving resource.  

Hey Bloomies! This is a fan page for all of you people who LOVE electric Bloom (bloomies ofc!) Js chat about electric Bloom!

Hello everyone! Thanksgiving is coming, so I wanted to make a post about a tradition. Now, for those who dont know, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade is a parade that takes place in NYC on Thanksgiving Day. The Macy’s parade contains floats, characters, and even Santa! Now, if you think of any floats that you wish […]

When 13-year-old Austin Appelbee went on a beach adventure with his family on January 30, 2026, he expected a fun afternoon on the water. Instead, he was thrown into a life-or-death emergency that would test his courage and endurance.

Ecosystem (noun, EE-koh-sis-tem)



An ecosystem is a network of living and nonliving things interacting in the same place.



The living things in an ecosystem could include animals, plants and microbes. The nonliving things may include soil, water and air. But an ecosystem is worth more than the sum of its parts. Living things need energy and nutrients to live and ecosystems link organisms to both.



Nutrients are chemicals that living things need to function. They include elements such as carbon and nitrogen. They can also be molecules like proteins that are made from elements. These elements cycle through an ecosystem. For instance, when an animal eats a plant. Or when a microbe decomposes a dead animal. That means the same atoms get reused in different living things. In fact, the same carbon atoms in your body might once have been part of a dinosaur!



Energy doesn’t cycle through living things the way nutrients do. But ecosystems need a constant supply of it. Thats because energy is always being lost. Living things use energy to break down food, grow, recover from injuries and much more.



The sun supplies this energy. Plants and algae use photosynthesis to turn solar energy into chemical energy. This is a key link in ecosystems. Humans and other life-forms cant use the suns energy directly. We need to get it from plants, or from organisms that have eaten plants.





Let’s look at how living and nonliving things interact in one ecosystem: a rainforest.



Giant anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) live in South American rainforests. There, they dig around in the soil for insects. As they hunt, the animals mix up the soil. That allows air to move deeper underground. (Take note air and soil are nonliving parts of the ecosystem.)



This process delivers fresh air to microbes that live in the soil and spurs their growth. The microbes chomp away at dead material in the soil. This breaks down large molecules into smaller ones nutrients that a plant’s roots can absorb. And as a plant converts the suns energy into chemical energy, an insect munching the plants leaves can take some of this energy for itself.



Together, all these living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem form a thriving habitat.



In a sentence



Almendro trees use lightning to gain a competitive advantage in their jungle ecosystems.



Check out the full list of Scientists Say.

Have you ever seen Girl Scouts selling cookies, either at your door or in a movie? Or maybe you have friends in a troop that sells those treats? Well, guess what? Its that special time of year again. Girl Scout cookie season. In 2026, it officially started on Tuesday, January 6. During this season, Girl […]

Graphene is a wonder. This single layer of carbon atoms is stronger than steel and lighter than aluminum. It conducts electricity better than many other materials. And recent studies now show it can even kill germs. A new graphene-based material is being developed to harness that surprising superpower.



Lets learn about graphene



To turn on this germ killer, all you need is a little light. Exposing graphene to light starts a chemical reaction, says Giacomo Reina. That reaction produces molecules that can take down microbes such as bacteria, viruses or fungi.



A materials scientist, Reina works at EMPA, a research institute in St. Gallen, Switzerland. He was part of a team that unveiled the new material last year in EcoMat.



As a liquid, the substance could one day coat surfaces often rife with germs. Those might include doorknobs or handrails in hospitals. Right now, though, Reinas team wants to use it in the human mouth. Its a particularly germy place. Installing new dental implants can put someone at risk of infection. But coating the implant with this germ-fighting coating should greatly lower that risk.





Graphenes greatness



In the 22 years since graphene was discovered, scientists have probed and explored it in many ways. Theyve even developed different types of useful graphene. It can add strength to concrete and tennis rackets. It can also boost the performance of electronic devices.



Nowadays, Reina says, graphene is more a family of materials. His team used a type called graphene oxide. Its a layer of carbon atoms with oxygen-containing molecules attached. This formula mixes easily with water to form an acid.



To that liquid, the EMPA team added a dash of nitrogen. When scientists place some extra stuff in a material, they call it doping. So this new material is called nitrogen-doped graphene acid.



Making it requires high precision at a small scale. As such, graphene can be difficult to work with. Unplanned defects can make it unusable, Reina notes. The added nitrogen, he explains, helps keep it stable.



When I saw this [material], I fell in love, Reina says. I wanted to try to see if it [would] work as a germ-killer coating.



An acid made from graphene is plated onto the dish held up here by Reina. The black circles mark where bacteria cannot grow. EMPA



Graphene vs. germs



When light strikes it, the doped material responds in two ways. First, it warms enough to kill certain microbes. But that light also triggers a chemical reaction between the doped graphene and oxygen in the air. This now creates a class of microbe-fighting molecules called radicals.



Turning the doped material into a liquid that could be used to coat surfaces took more than a year of trial and error. The scientists had to answer many questions about how the light was interacting with it, Reina says. What happened with oxygen? What happened without oxygen? What kind of reaction are we generating? Does it work many times?



To find out, the scientists compared the radicals produced by the doped material under different conditions. They also mixed the acid with a liquid plastic that could be easily spread on a surface.



The resulting material, Reina says, improves on past anti-germ coatings. For instance, unlike others, this one uses no metals (which may need ultraviolet radiation to activate their germ-killing action).



It can become antimicrobial under just ambient light, says Sara Imani. She calls that a plus point for the new material. Imani is a mechanical engineer in Canada at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She, too, works on new antimicrobial coatings (although not this one).



The Porphyromonas gingivalis bacteria (illustrated above) occur naturally in the mouth and other places in the body. They play a role in gum disease and other oral infections. The new graphene-based material can kill those germs on contact.KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images



Taking down tough microbes



Reinas group combined its material with bacteria in lab experiments and found that it could kill germs when bathed in infrared light. Those wavelengths are present in sunlight and some room lighting. They also tested the doped acid on a chemical that mimics living tissue, such as skin. It triggered no harmful reactions.



Those tests suggest that the new material is safe for the human body, including the mouth. Thats critical for how Reina and his colleagues intend to use it.



Their team is now working with dentists and researchers to develop a splint. Its a type of tray filled with a liquid film that can fit over the teeth. Within a few minutes, the tray could coat teeth with the new graphene-based material. Then, light shined into the mouth would kick on its antimicrobial activity.



The researchers have been testing the material against common infectious agents in gum tissue. One day, after having a dental procedure, someone might wear the splint and expose it to light. Its something the patient can do at home, too, Reina says, to kill harmful germs in their mouth.



He sees the new coating as a potent new tool in the ongoing fight against microbial superbugs. Many harmful germs dont just spread easily. Some also have developed resistance to drugs, such as antibiotics. These infections are now very hard to knock out. In fact, resistant infections kill more than 1.25 million people each year, according to the World Health Organization.



Materials like graphene, which deliver germs a one-two punch, could offer new ways to quash such resistant germs.




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Hiya everyone, this is going to be a blast because I’m going to show you the wonders of our animal kingdom!!!! Basically, I’m going to be posting some animal facts. If you’re interested in another animal and want me to share the facts about it, comment on whatever animal you’d like me to share. If […]

Hello and Merry Christmas! Christmas might not be a time of video games, but it’s a thing to entertain you during the wintertime! Here are some games recommended by me that you should play during Christmas time. 1. Santa Tracker Why not add this to the list? Not only does it include games, but it […]

If you want a glimpse of the future of Antarctica, look at King George Island. It sits at the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. This finger of land, which reaches toward South America, is the warmest part of the continent.



Thick ice blankets most of this island. But a rare oasis sits on its western edge. During summer, melting snow reveals rocky ground covered by a mushy green carpet. Its mostly moss and lichens, with a few other plants sprinkled in.



As our climate warms, this islands ice will shrink, expanding the green oasis. This will allow alien species from other parts of the world to take root. Human visitors are already unintentionally bringing in non-native species. These invaders could steamroll native plants and animals, transforming the landscape.



This thick ice sheet on King George island is in danger of melting away.Cyril Gosselin/Moment/Getty Images Plus



Within 200 or 300 years, scientists worry, the northern Antarctic Peninsula will likely look a lot different.



The biggest threat is that well get something that will look like South American [grassland], says Stef Bokhorst. A terrestrial ecologist, he works at Vrije University Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He envisions an open scrubland of miniature trees, like whats found in Patagonia, at the bottom tip of South America.



Since 1850, Earth has warmed by around 1.44 degrees Celsius (2.60 degrees Fahrenheit), on average. But the Antarctic Peninsula is currently warming nearly twice as quickly. Summer snows are slowly turning to rains, says Steven Chown. A biologist, he studies the conservation of polar species at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.



Most of Signy Island, near the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, is covered in thick ice or barren rocks. But vegetation does cover some of the low-lying spots, as seen here.A.P. Taylor & S. Adlard, British Antarctic Survey (CC BY 4.0)



And Antarcticas warmer, wetter climate might not be good for its natives.



Vegetation at the south end of the world is very unique, notes Bokhorst.



Plants and animals found in the extreme north the Arctic resemble those elsewhere. The warmest parts of Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard Island (to their east) bustle with grasses, flowers, butterflies and bees. Rodents and foxes creep about.



Why Antarctica and the Arctic are polar opposites



Antarctica, in contrast, has been far more isolated, for 30 million years. It plunged into a far deeper cold than the Arctic. And its simple ecosystems look very different from those in the Arctic.



Across all of Antarctica and its islands, only two species of insects naturally exist. Both are flies, though one of them a midge lacks wings.



Antarctica hosts greenery only in a few places. Most of it is moss and lichens that creep over rocks. Across the whole Antarctic continent, youll find only two native species of vascular plants (those with roots, stems and leaves). One is a wispy hair grass. The other, a pearlwort, resembles a puffy green pincushion with tiny yellow flowers.



Antarctic hair grass and pearlwort (forming a green cushion above the grass) are the only two vascular plants native to Antarctica. These were found growing on Livingston Island, near the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.Gerald Corsi/iStock/Getty Images Plus



You will not find [this sparse ecosystem] anywhere else on the planet, says Bokhorst. And its now threatened by climate change and invasive species. Within two or three centuries, alien species could replace many of the natives. Parts of the Antarctic Peninsula may look lush and green during summer.



Polar biologists dont welcome this.




As this map shows (exploded from globe at lower right), the Antarctic Peninsula and its islands are not far from the southern tip of South America. Many species are poised to hitchhike south on planes and ships as a warming climate melts what had been the Antarctics deep, permanent ice cover. See the full, expandable and navigable map here: South Shetland Islands and the Northern Antarctic Peninsula.Tom Patterson/U.S. Library of Congress (https://lccn.loc.gov/2024586062)




Vanished forests



Today, its hard to imagine parts of Antarctica turning green. After all, ice up to four kilometers (2.5 miles) thick now blankets 98 percent of the continent. Most of the rest is bare gravel and rock a frigid polar desert. Seals, penguins and seabirds (such as skuas and petrels) inhabit only the outer coastal fringes.



But it wasnt always that way.



Forty million years ago, Antarctica was much warmer than today. The Antarctic Peninsula was inhabited by frogs, ponds and forests of southern beech trees. Fossils of extinct frogs, mammals, birds, trees and plants are still found there today.S.P. Barrette & J.G. de Puerto Montt/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0), and Mats Wedin/Swedish Museum of Nat. Hist.



Forty million years ago, forests of southern beech trees covered much of Antarctica perhaps even the South Pole. Furry marsupials, similar to modern-day possums and badgers, prowled the undergrowth.



It was a warmer, more pleasant climate, says Byron Adams. A polar biologist, he works at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. That ancient climate, he says, was more like South Americas modern-day Patagonia.



Until 35 million years ago, Antarctica was linked to South America. Then the two continents started drifting apart.



South America still hosts southern beech trees and marsupials. But Antarctica, isolated at the bottom of the world, plunged into permanent cold. Thousands of its species died off, including trees and mammals.



Antarctic rocks hold fossils of beech trees, water lilies, frogs, mammals and other creatures. Only a few types of land animals all quite small have survived.



Turn over a rock and you may find insect-like critters called springtails. Each is no larger than a comma on a page. Some soils harbor microscopic tardigrades, mites and worms. Mosses and lichens sparsely dot rocky sites that get water and direct sunlight in summer. But oases that are lush with native grass, pearlwort and flies exist only on the northern Antarctic Peninsula.



Some moss clumps have grown there for thousands of years. Scientists have studied their layers, like tree rings and discovered something alarming.



Bumpy moss and lichen covers the rocky ground on Ardley Island (next to King George Island), at the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. This is the warmest area of Antarctica, where vegetation can grow for two to three months each year, once snow and ice cover has melted.Dan Charman/University of Exeter



An ominous growth spurt



For a long while, the mosses had grown at a slow, even rate. But as the Peninsula started warming around 1950, their growth started to spurt. By 2010, they were growing two to four times faster than before.



We were surprised, says Thomas Roland of these findings. This speedup, he notes, is unprecedented in the last 4,000 years. A paleoecologist, Roland works at the University of Exeter in England.



A more recent study found something similar on Signy Island. It lies 650 kilometers (400 miles) northeast of King George Island. Nicoletta Cannone is a botanist at Insubria University in Italy. Shes studied the expansion of Antarcticas native grass and pearlwort. And between 1960 and 2018, the area covered by these two plants roughly tripled. Her team reported the finding in 2022.



Hair grass (panels A and C-G) and pearlwort (panels B and H-M) are the only vascular plants native to Antarctica. They only grow on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula or on islands off its coast. Here, theyre seen on King George Island.L. Cavieres, Univ. de Concepcin, Chile



Most recently, Roland and Oliver Bartlett studied satellite images. They used color to analyze extent of vegetation over a wide swath of the Antarctic Peninsula. Bartlett is a remote sensing scientist at the University of Hertfordshire in England. The pairs analysis suggested that green areas on the Peninsula expanded rapidly from 1986 to 2021.



Such data suggest Antarcticas sparse greenery is already responding to a climate-related fever of just 1 to 2 degrees C (1.8 to 3.6 degrees F). By 2100, total warming on the Antarctic Peninsula will likely reach 2.3 to 6.1 degrees C (4.1 to 11 degrees F). Thats according to new projections published February 20 in Frontiers in Environmental Science. Even if warming happens more slowly, its possible that by 2300, the Peninsula could warm by 4 to 8 degrees C (7.2 to 14.4 degrees F). It will depend on how much more greenhouse gases humans produce.



Warmer seas trigger skyrocketing ice loss in 3 Antarctic glaciers



That much warming could have huge effects. Right now, the average summer temperature on King George Island is around 1.5 C (34.7 F). But by 2300, its average summer temperature could hit 5 to 9 C (41 to 48 F). Thats similar to some cities in northern Siberia, in Russia, where trees line the streets.



Warm summers are already causing hundreds of Antarctic glaciers to melt and retreat. One study estimates that within 75 years, ice-free sections of the northern Peninsula could nearly triple to 19,000 square kilometers (7,300 square miles). Thats an area larger than the state of Connecticut.



Even then, ice will still cover most of the Antarctic Peninsula. But retreating glaciers will leave thousands of ice-free patches along coastlines. Green landscapes could take root in these.



Ecology Glacier on King George Island has already retreated 800 meters (half a mile) since 1985. The newly exposed ground is strewn with rocks and sand. Soil will have to form before most plants and animals can easily take hold.



But that can happen in just decades, says Adams at Brigham Young.




Ice-free future

















Even in the relatively warm Antarctic Peninsula, glaciers (seen here in the vicinity of Barilari Bay) still cover most land. Within 75 years, however, the area of ice-free land could nearly triple to about the size of Connecticut. This would provide new areas where plants and animals can take hold, including invasive species.











All: D. Fox






Stinky fish and penguin poo



Adams has studied the return of life in other places where glaciers have retreated.



At first, single-celled microbes chew on rocks. They release nutrients, such as phosphorus, iron and calcium. That allows lichens and moss to move in, followed by Antarctic grass or pearlwort.



Plants accelerate soil-forming, Adams says. Theyre actually physically cracking rocks open with their roots.



Seabirds, penguins or seals may form new summer colonies. This could further speed the arrival of plants, says Juliana Souza-Kasprzyk. She works at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. A biologist, shes spent several summers studying these colonies on King George Island.



The future of Antarctic mainland could one day resemble this grassy meadow full of king penguins on the subantarctic South Georgia Island.Cindy Kassab/The Image Bank/Getty Images Plus



In these areas, Souza-Kasprzyk says, you have more vegetation. And that makes sense. Birds and seals hunt fish and krill in the ocean, then poop on land. Their wastes ferry tons of fertilizing nutrients from ocean to land each year. They are enriching the soils, she explains.



In 200 years, the Antarctic Peninsula will be significantly greener, Peter Convey predicts. A polar ecologist, he works for the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, England.



Invading species may contribute to that greening.



Already, thousands of scientists and tourists visit Antarctica every year. Stray seeds, insects and other critters hitchhike along on their ships and planes.



Lets learn about Antarctica



There are already quite a lot of [species] that could survive [here] year-round, says Convey. At least 18 non-native species now live in Antarctica. Three are spreading quite quickly on the Peninsula.



An invasive grass, Poa annua, is growing on King George Island, Signy Island and a dozen other places. In experiments, it outcompetes the native grass and pearlwort. On King George, it is already taking hold in the bare rocky spaces that emerge as Ecology Glacier retreats.



Poa annua is hardly some special, rugged pioneer. This annual bluegrass is the same turf sometimes used on golf courses, notes Chown. You find it in the cracks of the pavement in cities across Europe and North America.



The winter crane fly, shown here, is native to Europe. Now its spreading on King George Island, off the Antarctic Peninsula.O. Volonterio/Sec. Zoologa de Invertebrados/Univ. de la Repblica, Uruguay



Boom town growth



Two species of fast-growing invasive flies are also spreading on King George Island: the winter crane fly and the moth fly. Both took hold in the sewage systems at research stations on the island. The flies are now spreading, gorging on stinky seal carcasses, penguin poo and rotting plants.



These invaders exhibit a fast-growing, boom town lifestyle. And that makes them a threat to Antarctic natives.



At first glance, Antarcticas native plants and creepy-crawlies seem tough. You can send them to space, you can put them in liquid nitrogen at -196 C (-320 F), and they survive, says Claudia Colesie. Shes a polar plant ecologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. In some cases, retreating glaciers have revealed mosses buried under ice for 600 years that can revive and grow.



But Antarctic species are also surprisingly vulnerable. Many of these mosses, springtails, worms and other critters spend most of their time dried out, in suspended animation. They only wake to grow when conditions are good. But the growth rates of the local species are very, very slow, explains Colesie. That allows them to survive in soils with few nutrients.



Coming warmer, wetter summers might favor the invaders. Species that live and grow faster, says Colesie, can outcompete some of the local species.



Worst of all, those invaders could change the environment in ways that give them an even greater advantage.



Invasive species could enrich the nutrient-poor soils. For instance, an invasive midge has been spreading on Signy Island. Its larval maggots live in soil. They have strong mouthparts and can eat tough, dead plant matter that native critters cannot. As they poop out digested material, the nutrients in it will fertilize plant growth.



Antarctica and its neighboring islands have only two native species of insects but are increasingly hosting invaders. One is a wingless fly, called a midge (left), seen on Signy Island. Its young maggots (right) are fertilizing the soils with nitrogen, which could pave the way for more invasive species to arrive.British Antarctic Survey (CC BY 4.0)



On Signy Island, Convey and Jesamine Bartlett have found that soils with this invasive midge have three to five times more nitrogen (a fertilizer) than normal. Bartlett is a polar biologist at the Equinor Research Center in Trondheim, Norway.



Bokhorst at Vrije University has done experiments showing that one species of wood louse (often called a roly-poly, or pill bug) would have similar effects if it took hold in Antarctica. (So far it has not.) But the invasive moth fly on King George Island might enrich soils there. If it does, these invasive insects could pave the way for fast-growing invasive plants to take over.



Invaders on a sugar high



My biggest concern, says Bokhorst, is that a new insect and plant invade as a team. As the insect enriches the soil, the invading plant will grow taller and faster. These traits would let them start enhancing each other, he says. In short order, he worries, their changes could spiral out of control.



Enriched soils would allow even more invasive plants to take hold. Bokhorst believes this could occur more easily than most people realize.



Several years ago, Bokhorst ran some lab experiments. These looked at how 26 non-native plant species would do if their seeds landed on a typical Antarctic soil.



After six months of simulated winter at -5 C (23 F), he warmed them to a summer temperature of 2 C (36 F). Eighteen species sprouted and grew. After a second winter and summer, 15 were still growing. Concludes Bokhorst, Antarcticas current climate conditions are already suitable for a lot of plants from other places.





Return of rodents … and trees?



A few islands north of King George Island show how this might play out. These subantarctic islands are cold, rocky, treeless and weather-beaten. They have penguin colonies. Some host glaciers. All are warmer than the Antarctic Peninsula but colder than Patagonia.



People have visited them since the 1800s, initially to hunt seals and whales. Dozens of non-native species now inhabit these islands. On South Georgia and Kerguelen islands, entire hillsides shimmer in summer with dandelions yellow blooms. Its the same weed that pops up in U.S. lawns and playgrounds. Bokhorst found that this flower can already grow and survive winters in Antarctic soils.




Make a wish?



Ashley Cooper/Corbis/Getty Images Plus
Dandelions growing on South Georgia, a subantarctic island. The non-native weed has spread rapidly and begun outcompeting native species. Dandelions arrived when Norwegian whalers insisted on putting soil from Norway atop the grave of a shipmate who had died on the island.





Anything that is already established in the subantarctic, we could plausibly regard as a risk [for invading the Antarctic Peninsula], says the British Antarctic Surveys Convey.



This is why Chown at Monash University worries about mice. A lot.



While working on subantarctic Marion Island, he saw evidence of house mice. After arriving from Europe in the 1800s, these rodents devoured native insects. By the 1980s, when Chown was there, they were preying on local seabirds called wandering albatross. They killed chicks and chewed on the heads of adult birds.



These wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) stand near their nest South Georgia Island. This bird naturally inhabits several of the subantarctic islands. It is threatened on at least one of them (Marion Island) by invasive mice, which kill chicks and injure the adult birds.Paul Souders/Stone/Getty Images Plus



Says Chown, that would just be a nightmare on the Antarctic Peninsula. Rodents could attack local seabirds, including penguins.



At least one dead rat has been found on King George Island. It probably hitchhiked there in a shipment of lumber. The little buck-toothed fellow didnt survive the cold. But by the 2080s, parts of the Peninsula might be warm enough for mice or rats. And thats not far off, Chown notes.



Some invading species on the Peninsula might be returnees. Fossil wood, leaves and pollen from southern beech trees have been found across Antarctica. Beeches may have grown on King George Island as recently as 20 million years ago. Forests of them still live close by, in Patagonia.




The past could be the future













This fossil (above, left) shows the leaf of a southern beech tree that grew on the Antarctic Peninsula 20 million years ago. Closely related trees (right) still live at the tip of South America, which was once connected to Antarctica. These trees grow in cold, mountainous areas of South America (below).



Top left: M. Leppe, H. Mansilla, C. Trevisan/Antarctic and Patagonia Paleobiology Laboratory/Chilean Antarctic Institute-INACH/Punta Arenas, Chile (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0); Top right: Goddard Photography/iStock/Getty Images Plus; Bottom: emicristea/iStock/Getty Images Plus




On the Antarctic Peninsula, there are probably some sweet spots where they will already be able to grow, says Bokhorst. He imagines a rare north-facing cove with summer sunlight and water melting off a nearby glacier. The trees would be small and stunted, like bushes. And at first, they wouldnt easily spread beyond these isolated spots.



But if rapid warming continues for centuries, says Convey, all bets are off.



A return of southern beech forests to the Antarctic Peninsula would not restore the continent to its distant, lush past. These trees would lack the other species that filled those ancient ecosystems. They would mingle instead with many of the weeds and pests inhabiting cities and farms across the globe. Moth flies and mice might flit around penguin colonies. Dandelions and bluegrass could sprout from rocky meadows.



That mishmash of weeds and wildlife would replace current landscapes. And that would be a real shame, says Bokhorst. The unique ecosystem that took 30 million years to evolve could vanish in a few short centuries.

A new air-powered robot can practically walk right off the 3-D printer.



The soft, 3-D printed robot doesnt have any electronic parts. All it needs to move is an air canister. One day, robots like this could work underwater or in hazardous environments, its creators say.



Mechanical engineer Yichen Zhai led the work. He and his colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, gave their robot six flexible legs, like an insect. Each leg can move up and down or side to side. The whole thing is made from the same type of plastic thats used to make hoses and shoe soles. The scientists 3-D printed it in one piece over the course of two and a half days.



Explainer: What is 3-D printing?



Air from a canister flows through tiny tubes and chambers in the robots body to power it. As the pressure in each of these chambers changes, it opens and closes different tubes. That moves air into different sets of chambers, and the process starts again. This cycle of inflating and deflating chambers moves the robots legs to waddle forward.



Researchers published the design in the May issue of the journal Advanced Intelligent Systems.



The robots design is quite interesting, says Perla Maiolino. She wasnt involved in building it, but she does work on other soft robots at the University of Oxford in England. Typically, making a robot involves designing different parts from different substances and assembling them, she says. But this ones body is a single piece made with just one material. Its all together.





This video, told from the perspective of the new robot, shows off its electronics-free capabilities.



The robot may be soft, but its shape actually makes it quite sturdy. Having six legs helps it stay upright on rough and uneven ground. Whenever it takes a step, three of its legs move at once while the other three stay on the ground. This way, it doesnt tip over easily. And because the design doesnt contain any electronics, its waterproof. In experiments on the beach, the robot toddled right down into a deep puddle and resurfaced to continue along its way.



Electronics-free robots could one day work in areas that would thwart regular ones. We are really pushing toward having untethered robots that can be deployed in very harsh environments, Maiolino says. An untethered robot is one that doesnt need to be connected to a power cord or controller.



A robot like the new six-legged walker could work in areas where electronics might be a fire risk, such as in mines. Or it might be used in space, where radiation could harm delicate electronic components.



But the new soft robot isnt quite ready for these harsh conditions yet. The robot has to be able to move faster first, says Zhai. That will let it move farther on a single air canister. As of now, the insect-like robot creeps along at a leisurely pace of 4 centimeters (1.6 inches) per second. Thats a little faster than a snail, but slower than a turtle. A single canister of air can power it for about 80 seconds.





Zhai and his colleagues are currently building a faster version of their machine. The team also hopes to add a steering system or a way for the robot to dodge obstacles. Right now, it can only shuffle forward in a straight line. Controlling air flow through the robot could allow it to change direction in response to obstacles sort of like a self-driving Roomba vacuum.



Until the robot gets these upgrades, it wont be doing heavy-duty work. But in its current form, people can still enjoy interacting with it. The robot is like a toy, Zhai says. And it can be cheaply and easily 3-D printed. If people love it, people can make it, he says. Thats enough.




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For many years, astronomers and scientists have been searching for and studying objects in space.  They’ve been using powerful telescopes and advanced technology to look for hidden stars, distant galaxies, and even asteroids that could come close to Earth.  Experts have also been searching through millions of pieces of data to find new discoveries that […]

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We must have an astronomy group because many people look up into the night sky, wondering, What is that flashing light? or What is that thing flying through the night sky? Many people are interested in finding out things like: There are so many things about the night sky that we dont know. This group […]

Mosasaurs a fearsome group of ancient predators once ruled the seas. Now researchers have turned up a 66-million-year fossil tooth from one. And the big surprise: It came from a site that wasnt part of the ocean. As such, this tooth is rewriting the aquatic reptiles history. Some mosasaurs ruled the rivers, it suggests.





The tooth came from a genus known as Prognathodontini (Prog-NAH-thow-don-TEE-nee). These enormous animals could span up to 11 meters (36 feet) or about the length of a telephone pole. The lizard-like creatures showed up during the Late Cretaceous, some 100 million years ago. Then, like nearly all of their dinosaur cousins, mosasaurs went extinct when a massive asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago.



Explainer: The age of dinosaurs



Ancient dinos roamed the land. Mosasaurs prowled the water. More closely related to lizards and snakes than dinos, these giants had shark-like tails and paddle-shaped fins. These helped them glide through water to surprise their prey.



With powerful jaws, this lurking predator could bite through big turtles, fishes and reptiles [including dinosaurs]. It was terrifying, says Melanie During. She works at Uppsala University in Sweden. A paleontologist, she uses fossils to learn about ancient life.



In 2022, a team from the North Dakota Geological Society was digging for fossils in a former river floodplain. The North Dakota site is known as the Hell Creek Formation.



In one football-shaped piece of rock, the team found three fossils: a Tyrannosaurus rex tooth, an ancient crocodile jawbone and a mosasaur tooth.



That last one was unexpected. What was a sea reptile doing with a croc and a dinosaur? We were already surprised when a mosasaur tooth was in Hell Creek. We tried everything to prove that the tooth was from a marine reptile, says During. But thats not what the evidence showed.



This fossil tooth from a mosasaur was found in North Dakota.Trissa Shaw



Before giving up, the team compared the new fossils to ones at Vrije University Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. Here, they turned to a chemical technique called isotope analysis. Isotopes are atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons. Isotope patterns can reveal parts of an animals life history, such as where it lived and what it ate.



Because all fossils at Hell Creek were 66 million years old, the researchers could compare them. They focused on isotopes of three elements: oxygen, strontium and carbon.



Oxygen isotopes pointed to what type of water the mosasaur lived in. Living in salt water, a mosasaur would have built up more of a heavier oxygen isotope. Yet the oxygen in the Hell Creek mosasaur tooth had more lighter isotopes than expected. Strontium and carbon isotopes showed a similar pattern.



The results point to the tooths owner having lived and died in freshwater. It was not merely a sea denizen that washed into a river.



Such data suggest scientists will have to reconsider what they know about mosasaur lifestyles, the researchers say. They shared their new findings in BMC Zoology on December 12, 2025.



Members of the North Dakota Geological Survey during a dig where they discovered the mosasaur tooth.Trissa Shaw



Adapting to change



Its a remarkable example of a species apparently adapting to a habitat, says Barry Albright. Hes a paleontologist at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville who didnt work on the study. It was entirely unexpected, he says. The reptiles were long considered to be exclusively marine.



Nicholas Longrich works at the University of Bath in England. In the sea, [mosasaurs] evolve a range of jaw shapes and tooth shapes, body forms and sizes, this paleontologist says. But now, were seeing them occupy other habitats, he says. It indicates they were diverse and thriving before the asteroid struck, killing off much of Earth’s life 66 million years ago.



Diverse predators at the top of the food web imply diverse prey, Longrich points out. So what drew mosasaurs into rivers?





Mosasaurs evolved into a number of species of many sizes. But all were serious predators, as this brief overview shows.



Heres one idea. During the Late Cretaceous, shallow tropical seas covered Earth. One of them the Western Interior Seaway split in half what is now North America. The rich ecosystems of this sea were full of fish and other prey for mosasaurs to eat. Later, as the continent uplifted, the sea underwent major changes.



One change was that its salt levels fell. Seaway mosasaurs might have adapted enough to be able to venture into freshwater. That could have included the river channels at Hell Creek.



Its possible that mosasaurs were following prey upriver, says Femke Holwerda. Shes a mosasaur expert at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.



Mosasaurs had been hardly the only ocean predators. They had rivals for food. Adapting to life in a river may have helped the Hell Creek mosasaurs occupy a new ecological role. Here, they might have competed less for food, Albright thinks.




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It wouldnt be the first time aquatic life left the ocean. Amazon river dolphins adapted to live in murky rivers. Other ancient marine reptiles have been found in riverbeds, too.



There is no reason why mosasaurs would have been constrained to only marine environments, says Kiersten Formoso. A vertebrate paleobiologist, she works at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.



It would be interesting to see more mosasaur fossils, says Formoso. Was this just a curious mosasaur? she asks. Perhaps a pioneer for its species?



To gather more data, Durings team hopes to return to Hell Creek. Finding the skeleton of this mosasaur would be like winning the jackpot. By finding the entire body, we could see how it adapted, says During.



Indeed, Longrich says, mosasaur bones in the area might have been misidentified before or even ignored. After all, researchers werent looking for them in riverbeds. I cant help but wonder if there are [somewhere, unidentified freshwater mosasaur] teeth and bones sitting in museum drawers.

Okay, Okay. I see some of you would like a part 2. And that’s what you’re reading! But today, I want to change the script a little. I want to take a look of the most popular LEGO SETS. So let’s get started! Type: T. rex Fossils Franchise: LEGO Released: 3/25 Customers: 76968 Total Comment: Yeah, […]

Have you ever heard of Morse code? Its a special way to send messages using short sounds or lights (the dots) and longer sounds or lights (the dashes). For example, if you wanted to say “HELLO” in Morse code, it would look like this: (H), (E), […]

Toddlers are the daredevils of the chimp world.



Those 2 to 5 years old are more likely than older chimps to free-fall from treetops or leap wildly from branch to branch. Past age 5, such dangerous behaviors decrease by about 3 percent each year.



Researchers shared these new observations in January in iScience. 



Among humans, teens are the real daredevils. Compared to younger children, for instance, theyre more likely to break bones or die from injuries. Kids might want to behave as recklessly as chimp toddlers but rarely get the chance. Parents and caregivers are likely to put a stop to such fun and the risk of broken bones among human toddlers.



If humans scaled back their oversight, our kids would be way more daredevilish, says biologist Lauren Sarringhaus. An author of the new study, she works at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va.





No monkeying around



Human and chimp caregivers show different patterns. Chimp moms largely parent alone. Dads dont help. Nor, typically, do grandmothers, older siblings or other group members. Youngsters cling to their moms for the first five years of life. But by age 2 or so, young chimps begin to explore some on their own. Moms cant readily help kids swinging high up in the air.



Lets learn about chimpanzees and bonobos



Human children, by comparison, have caregivers beyond their parents. Called alloparents, these include teachers and coaches at supervised after-school activities. As such, todays kids spend less time unsupervised and playing outside than those in generations past. Some human-development experts criticize the rise of this type of intensive, or helicopter, parenting.



The new data point to really exciting research on how caregiving influences risk-taking behavior. Theres not a lot of research out there addressing this point, says Lou Haux. Shes a psychologist who studies primate behavior. Haux, who did not take part in the new study, works at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. Thats in Berlin, Germany.



Risky moves



Sarringhaus and her team studied more than 100 chimps. Part of the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project in Ugandas Kibale National Park, they ranged in age from 2 to 65. The researchers observed the apes swinging through the tree canopy. Along the way, they measured how often each member lost contact with tree branches. That included falling to a lower branch or leaping across a gap to another branch.



Chimps 2 to 5 years old were three times more likely than adults (15 and older) to take risks. Teens aged 10 to 14 were no chumps either. These chimps still engaged in such behaviors twice as often as adults.




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Risky maneuvers in tall trees come with a tradeoff, though. Roughly a third of chimpanzees show signs of past bone breaks, other research shows. But toddlerhood may be an ideal time for dangerous exploration.



Smaller chimps and humans have flexible bones and are relatively lighter weight than bigger ones. Thats why they are less likely than adults to suffer grave injuries from falls.



But, Sarringhaus says, my goal is not for this to lead to parenting advice.



Instead, Haux adds, this sort of research helps put human parenting in broader perspective, such as: How did all this evolve?

Hello everyone! I know a big storm is almost here. So I ask myself, what’s the coldest it can reach? Have no fear, FunNews is here! The Russian R Stands For Rigid Weather Back in the 80’s, (Which probably none of us were even born in), Russia faced some freezing temps, I didn’t even know […]

India is home to a host of vibrant festivals. But Holi the Festival of Colors is one of the most eagerly awaited. This Hindu holiday marks the arrival of spring and the triumph of good over evil. In 2026, Holi will be celebrated on March 4.

Chaco Canyon was once the heart of a lost civilization. People began building grand structures there around A.D. 850, in what is now northwest New Mexico. Within 300 years or so, however, the site was abandoned. Today, many Native Americans hold the canyon grounds sacred. And more than two dozen Pueblo tribes consider the Chaco people their ancestors. Now, DNA has helped confirm ancestral ties to one Pueblo group.



An analysis genetically linked ancient people at Chaco Canyon to the modern Picuris Pueblo Tribal Nation. Picuris Pueblo today live some 275 kilometers (170 miles) east of the canyon. People in the tribe have long told stories about descending from ancient North Americans. Those oral histories described ties to Chaco Canyon.



The new findingsback up what Picuris people though not archaeologists knew all along. The results also flesh out lost pieces of the tribes past. Picuris Pueblo tribe members and scientists teamed up for the new research. They shared their results in the June 5 Nature.



Our elders knew we had always been here. But it was very moving and powerful to see it validated, said Craig Quanchello. He is Picuris Pueblos lieutenant governor. He is also a member of the research team. He spoke at a press briefing on April 29.



This photo shows the ruins of Pueblo Bonito, once the largest great house in Chaco Canyon. The DNA of ancient Chaco Canyon residents analyzed in this study came from people buried in this house. Sumiko Scott/Moment/Getty Images



Filling in the family tree



Picuris people were driven to do the new study in part because of threats to Chaco Canyon. In recent years, oil and gas companies have pushed to drill there. The Picuris Pueblo Tribal Nation has objected to that use of its ancestral land. But those protests were ignored. So Picuris officials sought to strengthen their case. They looked for science to confirm their tribes link to this land.



Tribal officials asked Eske Willerslev for help. A genetics expert, he works at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. He had used DNA before to probe the histories of other Native American tribes.



With the tribe’s permission, Willerslevs team looked at DNA from 16 people. All had been buried between about 1300 and 1500 at Picuris Pueblo. The scientists compared that DNA to blood samples from 13 current tribe members. Other DNA came from ancient and modern people in Siberia and the Americas. The remains included people from Chaco Canyon.



Ancient and modern Picuris people showed close genetic ties. And both at least partly descended from Chaco Canyon residents, DNA data now show.





Clearing up Picuris history



In the past, some researchers had argued that after the Chaco Canyon society collapsed, its people all fled the region. If true, the ancestors of Picuris and other Pueblo tribes would have arrived at the site later. The new study suggests thats not what happened.



The data instead fit a scenario where Pueblo groups such as Picuris left Chaco Canyon by around 1200. They might have done this to escape strict social classes there.



Picuris downsized and moved to where they could make their own, smaller social networks, says David Hurst Thomas. Hes an archaeologist who did not take part in the new study. He works at the American Museum of Natural History. Thats in New York City.



The genes of ancient Picuris people suggest their population stayed at roughly 3,000 after leaving Chaco Canyon. If so, then enough of them likely stayed in the region to maintain a line of descent to the present-day tribe. But the DNA also suggest Picuris numbers dropped by about 85 percent after the Spanish invaded in the 1500s. Today, only 306 Picuris Pueblo people remain.




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Helping, not hurting Indigenous people



Other Pueblo tribes links to Chaco Canyon have not yet been tested with DNA. But there have been more and more partnerships between scientists and Indigenous communities. Such teams have found other signs of ancient North American ancestry among todays Native American tribes.



Many of those projects were prompted by Indigenous groups pushing to rebury the remains of their ancestors. Archaeologists had found or acquired many of those remains without first asking permission from any tribe to keep and study those bones.



Scientists at first resisted returning such remains. But a 1990 U.S. law now requires that Native American artifacts and remains be given back to tribal descendants. That has raised pressure on scientists to link ancient remains to the correct modern tribes.



Advances in DNA tech have aided these projects.



Many Indigenous communities are still angry at archaeologists. Scientists have demanded DNA samples from them for study. Some have intruded on sacred burials. Scientists have often dismissed tribes accounts of their own histories, too. The new study shows how wrong some archaeologists had been about Native American cultures.



Such research has a troubled history. But the Picuris study is a landmark, Thomas says. Many past studies have excluded the Native people they sought to understand. Here, though, Picuris people recruited scientists and kept full control of the project.

Last time, I shared a post about famous logos with hidden meanings. If you havent read it, you can check it out here. Now, lets talk about brand names. Its all around us, too. Think about it: when you ride in your parents’ car, you probably see signs for fast food places like KFC or […]

For years, 3D printing has become popular, and adults and even kids are excited about it.  It’s no surprise that many children are adding 3D printers to their wish lists. With 3D printing, you can create all sorts of stuff like toys, jewelry, action figures, and even tools.  But did you know that you can […]