It's not often you see people really excited about seaweed (unless it's wrapped around all-you-can-eat sushi), but a tiny seaweed growing off the coast of Cornwall — a rugged coastal region in southwest England — has got scientists buzzing.
Divers found a new type of seaweed growing on a larger, coral-like seaweed called maerl. Well, it's not really "new" in the sense of just appearing — Professor Christine Maggs had been using it to try to solve a scientific puzzle for about 40 years. Four decades! It took so long because the seaweed was so small that it was difficult to collect a large enough sample to gather molecular data and sequence its DNA, which was necessary to confirm exactly what it was.
Once the DNA work was finally complete, the seaweed was accepted into the collection at London's Natural History Museum — one of the world's leading scientific institutions, similar in scale to the Smithsonian in the U.S. — and officially recognized in scientific literature as an entirely new species. Professor Maggs probably took a long overdue celebratory nap.
But the discovery is about more than naming one tiny organism. Researchers say maerl beds support a lot of biodiversity, and seaweeds can provide nursery habitats for economically important fish. That means protecting these underwater ecosystems could also help protect the other species that depend on them. The best kind of two-for-one deal.
In the mid-19th Century, Siam, now known as Thailand, faced growing pressure from Western powers to open its economy to international trade. When King Mongkut took the throne in 1851, he drew on his years as a Buddhist monk and his studies of Western languages and science to guide the kingdom through a period of change. He established diplomatic relationships with foreign nations, including Great Britain through the 1855 Bowring Treaty, while working to protect Siam’s independence and manage the influence of foreign commerce.
Mongkut also promoted education, introduced new approaches to royal government, and encouraged the study of science. British governess Anna Leonowens arrived in 1862 to teach members of the royal household, and her experiences later inspired the highly fictionalized musical and film The King and I. Mongkut died of malaria in 1868 after traveling to observe a solar eclipse he had predicted. His son, King Chulalongkorn, continued modernizing the country and abolished slavery. Mongkut’s legacy remains closely associated with scientific learning, diplomacy, and Siam’s efforts to preserve its independence during an era of Western imperial expansion.
In The Role of One Rudimentary Battery in Transforming the World, narrator Michael Mosley uncovers the story of the first battery. It begins with a letter in 1800 with simple instructions from Italian scientist Alessandro Volta on how to make an artificial torpedo fish, and ends in a classroom where Hans Christian Oersted took it one step further, noticing how the battery current created magnetic fields. The electric telegraph and using steam power weren’t far behind, transforming the world as we knew it. This video is excerpted from BBC's The Story of Science, in which Michael Mosley takes an informative and ambitious journey exploring how the evolution of scientific understanding is intimately interwoven with society's historical path.
Most of our sub-par pictures just take up space on our phones and show off the insides of our pockets, but one blurry photo launched an almost two decades-long scientific endeavor.
A search that began with a picture of a tail in the trees eventually took researchers deep into Lomami National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo on a quest to find out exactly what kind of monkey they were dealing with. Using microphones, cameras and genetic testing, they gathered enough evidence to confirm that the animal is a distinct species, now named Colobus congoensis — the first time a monkey is being named after the Congo!
It belongs to a group of plant-eating primates that live high in trees and do not have thumbs, but the Colobus congoensis has some unique characteristics. It uses a roaring call that announces its presence through dense tropical forest and has distinctive pinkish-orange lips that researchers think could act as a visual signal, perhaps helping it attract a mate. It also gives you someone to blame if your sibling asks, “Who ate the last orange creamsicle?!”
Scientists still have a lot to learn about this monkey, but it seems rare and limited to a particular habitat in the central-eastern part of the country. Researchers hope that officially recognizing it as a separate species will help protect both the monkey and the environment it depends on.
It's not often you see people really excited about seaweed (unless it's wrapped around all-you-can-eat sushi), but a tiny seaweed growing off the coast of Cornwall — a rugged coastal region in southwest England — has got scientists buzzing.
Divers found a new type of seaweed growing on a larger, coral-like seaweed called maerl. Well, it's not really "new" in the sense of just appearing — Professor Christine Maggs had been using it to try to solve a scientific puzzle for about 40 years. Four decades! It took so long because the seaweed was so small that it was difficult to collect a large enough sample to gather molecular data and sequence its DNA, which was necessary to confirm exactly what it was.
Once the DNA work was finally complete, the seaweed was accepted into the collection at London's Natural History Museum — one of the world's leading scientific institutions, similar in scale to the Smithsonian in the U.S. — and officially recognized in scientific literature as an entirely new species. Professor Maggs probably took a long overdue celebratory nap.
But the discovery is about more than naming one tiny organism. Researchers say maerl beds support a lot of biodiversity, and seaweeds can provide nursery habitats for economically important fish. That means protecting these underwater ecosystems could also help protect the other species that depend on them. The best kind of two-for-one deal.
In the mid-19th Century, Siam, now known as Thailand, faced growing pressure from Western powers to open its economy to international trade. When King Mongkut took the throne in 1851, he drew on his years as a Buddhist monk and his studies of Western languages and science to guide the kingdom through a period of change. He established diplomatic relationships with foreign nations, including Great Britain through the 1855 Bowring Treaty, while working to protect Siam’s independence and manage the influence of foreign commerce.
Mongkut also promoted education, introduced new approaches to royal government, and encouraged the study of science. British governess Anna Leonowens arrived in 1862 to teach members of the royal household, and her experiences later inspired the highly fictionalized musical and film The King and I. Mongkut died of malaria in 1868 after traveling to observe a solar eclipse he had predicted. His son, King Chulalongkorn, continued modernizing the country and abolished slavery. Mongkut’s legacy remains closely associated with scientific learning, diplomacy, and Siam’s efforts to preserve its independence during an era of Western imperial expansion.
In The Role of One Rudimentary Battery in Transforming the World, narrator Michael Mosley uncovers the story of the first battery. It begins with a letter in 1800 with simple instructions from Italian scientist Alessandro Volta on how to make an artificial torpedo fish, and ends in a classroom where Hans Christian Oersted took it one step further, noticing how the battery current created magnetic fields. The electric telegraph and using steam power weren’t far behind, transforming the world as we knew it. This video is excerpted from BBC's The Story of Science, in which Michael Mosley takes an informative and ambitious journey exploring how the evolution of scientific understanding is intimately interwoven with society's historical path.
Most of our sub-par pictures just take up space on our phones and show off the insides of our pockets, but one blurry photo launched an almost two decades-long scientific endeavor.
A search that began with a picture of a tail in the trees eventually took researchers deep into Lomami National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo on a quest to find out exactly what kind of monkey they were dealing with. Using microphones, cameras and genetic testing, they gathered enough evidence to confirm that the animal is a distinct species, now named Colobus congoensis — the first time a monkey is being named after the Congo!
It belongs to a group of plant-eating primates that live high in trees and do not have thumbs, but the Colobus congoensis has some unique characteristics. It uses a roaring call that announces its presence through dense tropical forest and has distinctive pinkish-orange lips that researchers think could act as a visual signal, perhaps helping it attract a mate. It also gives you someone to blame if your sibling asks, “Who ate the last orange creamsicle?!”
Scientists still have a lot to learn about this monkey, but it seems rare and limited to a particular habitat in the central-eastern part of the country. Researchers hope that officially recognizing it as a separate species will help protect both the monkey and the environment it depends on.