Biodiversity

The natural world is a huge source of life-saving drugs and that extends to the organisms that inhabit the seas, with new research describing how a molecule from a sea sponge proved capable of preventing cervical cancer cell growth in the lab.

The XPrize foundation has today launched a new US$10 million competition geared towards preserving the world's rainforests, a process that begins with building new technologies to help us better appreciate what they have to offer.

Earth stands to lose a massive 25 percent of its biodiversity, warned UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay as she launched a Global Assessment study to more than 130 government delegations in Paris. “No one will be able to claim that they did not know,” she said.

​​In the face of climate change, reindeer are resorting to eating kelp seaweed, according to new research. The creatures in question are Svalbard reindeer, a sub-species of wild reindeer.

Drawing on nature to cure ailments stretches back thousands of years, but with our destruction of the environment continuing apace, some are concerned how much of it we’ll have to depend on in the future.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has released its latest Living Planet Report, an assessment of the health of our planet, and paints a rather grim picture of the damage caused by humanity’s growing footprint on Earth.

​Two new complimentary studies have utilized CRISPR gene editing technology to explore how specific genes affect wing pattern variation in butterflies. By selectively knocking out single genes and observing the effects, scientists have uncovered a key insight into how broad biodiversity can evolve.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is home to the world's largest seed collection, safeguarding important crops for future generations. But record global temperatures have seen meltwater make its way inside, prompting new measures to fortify the facility in the face of climate change.​

Hydrogen sulfide is not a gas that is usually described as life sustaining. However while its toxic fumes might knock most of us out, there is a creature that thrives on this toxic gas – the giant shipworm, a mysterious mud-dwelling creature that has eluded scientists till now.

Small fish want to be them. Predators fear them. At first glance, you'd be forgiven for dismissing the tiny fang blenny as an easy meal ticket. However while these plankton feeders might not look like they could hurt a fly, their venom can easily make a predator's blood pressure drop like one. ​​

Scientists in Canada have carried out a study looking at how marine reserves can increase the numbers of less mobile fish, finding that fishing pressures in the surrounding areas also seemed to influence how quickly that evolution occurred. ​

Whereas the Milky Way contains anywhere from 100 to 400 billion stars, our home planet may host as many as one trillion species – the vast majority of which are microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. What's more amazing is that we've discovered only a thousandth of a percent of them all.