World

Meet Cathal Sweeney, the 16-year-old Irish student (Image Credit: Student Enterprise Programme) For Cathal Sweeney, a frustrating problem on the hurling pitch became the starting point for an innovative student business. A self-described hurling enthusiast, Sweeney found that training on dark winter evenings could be difficult when there was not enough light to see the…

An area covered in mud and silt washed away by the devastating flash floods in Nepal. (PTI Photo) Months before the devastating floods struck Nepal and Tibet, two landmark reports by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) had warned that rapidly melting glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalaya(HKH) were escalating the risks of…

For Kite, breakfasts were about so much more than food. She said that the people who visit her house are an extension of her family and that she didn’t want to stop providing for them. In a small Missouri town, where mornings can sometimes feel more quiet than the rest of the world, one grandmother…

High above the ice in Antarctica, a group of enormous balloons was quietly tracking a phenomenon that could not be seen from the ground. In January 2013, Nasa’s BARREL mission sent 20 balloons drifting through the polar winds, carrying instruments designed to detect faint X-rays produced when energetic particles entered Earth’s upper atmosphere. The experiment…

On a hot roof in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a small experimental device sat in the sun without a fan, compressor or electrical connection. Its job was simply to get colder than the air around it. Water moved through one part of the device, heat escaped through another, and layers of insulating material helped keep the cooling…

In Canada, wood waste from logging and areas affected by wildfires is finding an unexpected fate. A new pilot in the country has begun converting this material into a lightweight, biodegradable wood foam designed to replace products made with plastic foam, according to information released by the University of British Columbia (UBC). While discarded plastic…

In Washington, a team of igniters are walking across the forest with canisters filled with a mixture of diesel fuel and gasoline. They walk in parallel, lighting grasses and shrubs, moving forward as flames spread in the back, and thousands of pine needles combust into a smoke show. At the same time, more than a…

At first glance, the fields of Belgian farmer Diederik Steyaert look like they are struggling with drought. The top layer of soil appears dry, the weather is hot and there is little sign that the crops have been receiving extra water. But dig just a few centimetres beneath the surface and the picture changes. The…

Capuchin monkeys (Representative Image/ Canva) For most people, monkeys are closely associated with fruit, leaves and insects. But when their preferred plant foods become harder to find, some capuchin monkeys appear willing to switch strategies. They hunt and eat small vertebrates, including mammals and reptiles, turning to animal prey as an important source of energy…

Sheep grazed on San Miguel Island prior to 1850, but the ranching period expanded greatly when California pioneer George Nidever made his home on the island in 1850. Once, on a remote island battered by fierce winds and surrounded by the Pacific, there existed a peculiar ranching empire. San Miguel Island, now part of California’s…