Science
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Revealed: sunflowers are social creatures
Should plants have rights? Scientists increasingly think of plants as intelligent creatures. New studies show they can tell each other apart, and use 20 senses to understand their environment.
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It has rain, water, clouds: so, maybe life too!
What a wonderful find — but does it have any point? Astronomers are thrilled by yesterday’s announcement about a habitable planet. The bad news: it would take two million years to get there.
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Seals, dolphins, porpoises thriving in Thames
Does nature always bounce back? The Thames, declared dead, devoid of oxygen in the 1950s, has been brought back to life by its new marine life — including sharks and the odd, visiting whale.
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The day the dinosaurs died
A young scientist has found a record of the most significant event in the history of life on Earth. Stunning fossils show what happened when a huge asteroid slammed into the Gulf of Mexico.
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Emergency plan to deflect giant asteroid
Are asteroids our biggest threat? Scientists are now working on a plan to protect Earth from Didymos, a giant rock the size of Egypt’s great pyramid — one of 20,000 known near-Earth objects.
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Tests show Loch Ness monster may be giant eel
Why are we so entranced by monsters? Yesterday, a team from the University of Otago in New Zealand revealed its conclusion that Britain’s most famous Leviathan must be a gigantic eel.
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Scientists create first human-monkey hybrid
Should animals ever be part-human? Faced by a deadly shortage in human organs for life-saving operations, our only hope may be animals with human DNA. But there are serious ethical concerns.
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Massive study reveals there is no gay gene
Are experiments like this harmful? Human sexuality is far more complex than previously thought, say scientists. But some in the LGBT community say the research should never have taken place.
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Scientists declare gene-editing war on pests
Should all pests be wiped out? New Zealand’s government plans to kill all rats and invasive predators by 2050. Some want to use genetic modification, but others warn of ecological disaster.
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Zero: the idea that changed the world
Has the number “zero” done more to advance humanity than any other idea? Many mathematicians think so — for, without zero, we could not ponder either the concepts of the void or the infinite.
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‘Woolly mammoths could walk the Earth again’
Scientists in Japan have made a “significant step” towards bringing the ancient species back from the dead using the DNA of a frozen mammoth. But is it the right thing to do?
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The doctor: ‘People get better before your eyes’
What does it take to be a doctor? Dr Abhishek Shetye is training in a hospital. It’s hard work, but there’s nothing more rewarding than getting very sick patients back on their feet.
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The Polish village where only girls are born
If Earth was populated entirely by women, would it be a better place? After no boys are born for nearly 10 years, the Polish village of Miejsce Odrzanskie is providing a unique case study.
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Humpback whale ‘swallows’ sea lion whole
Is nature competitive or co-operative? A rare image of a sea lion flailing in the jaws of a humpback whale is not what it appears to be — challenging our ideas about survival of the fittest.
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Earth’s 2019 resources ‘budget’ already used
Will it take a disaster to teach us to live within our means? As of today, humans have consumed more resources than Planet Earth can regenerate in a year — a worse record than last year.