life
World Migratory Bird Day provides an opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of conservation of migratory birds and their habitats. The anniversary, initiated by the United Nations, is celebrated twice a year (on the second Saturday in May and…
life
Can you be intelligent without a brain? The answer is "in a certain sense, yes" and this is demonstrated by a strange organism that looks like yellowish gelatinous mould but that has nothing to do either with moulds or fungi...…
life
How important trees are to life is well known: they provide oxygen through chlorophyll photosynthesis, they provide the habitat for half of the world's known terrestrial animal and plant species, and they are essential for carbon storage in many ecosystems…
life
Throughout history, humans have used lichens for a variety of purposes. The oldest evidence of lichen use dates back to the ancient Egyptians, who used some species to make bread flour and others for cosmetic and medicinal purposes. They also…
life
Distributed at all latitudes, lichens are able to conquer extreme biotopes, adapting to living in places where plants would find it difficult to survive: they overcome critical periods by rapidly going into dormant phases during which respiration and photosynthesis are…
life
Today, August 12, we celebrate World Elephant Day as a reminder that there are currently less than 450,000 elephants surviving in Africa. In 2021, both forest elephants (Loxodonta africana) and savannah elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) were included in the highest risk categories…
life
There is a beetle that has been invading the Italian countryside and cities for some time now, a small insect with iridescent green and brown colouring and a row of black and white tufts along each side of its body.…
life
World Sea Turtle Day is held on 16 June. First established in 2008, the day is now supported by Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC), which campaigns for the survival of these animals. The day also commemorates Dr. Archie Carr, founder of…
life
Journey to the Centre of the Earth is a famous science fiction novel written by the great Jules Verne in 1864, as well as a series of films based on it, the first of them in 1959, with the same…