Photo: Shenna Kate Torres One of the Sustainable Development Goals created by the United Nations is to "end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture." Aquaculture, the practice of farming aquatic animals and plants such as fish and seaweed, plays a critical role in achieving food ...
June 11, 2024 | 3 mins read
Photo: Craig Soroño • At a recent public forum facilitated by the UP Diliman College of Science, professors discussed the geopolitical and ecological situation in the West Philippine Sea, as well as marine conservation strategies. • During the forum, the speakers touched upon climate change-related risks, oil spills and other threats, ...
June 1, 2024 | 6 mins read
Serafettin Ünye/Pexels Humans and cats have had a long-standing connection since time immemorial. Across millennia, cat domestication has turned the furry felines into pest control machines and even beloved companions to humans. However, this mutually beneficial relationship also has its dark side. In the Philippines, for instance, cats are ...
April 1, 2024 | 2 mins read
Dr. Aimee Lynn Barrion-Dupo Inside a small, stuffy cave in Batangas, researchers found a species of spider that has never been recorded in the Philippines before—a discovery with potential impacts on environmental policy and local tourism. A stone’s throw away from the southeastern shoreline of Lobo, Batangas, is ...
March 8, 2024 | 8 mins read
ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity By Dr. Theresa Mundita S. Lim (Press release) On March 3, we join the global annual observance of World Wildlife Day with the theme, "Connecting People and Planet: Exploring Digital Innovation in Wildlife Conservation." The use of digital technology has been pivotal in the growth of economies ...
March 2, 2024 | 3 mins read
ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity By Dr. Theresa Mundita S. Lim Dragons feature prominently in mythology, folklore, and many cultures across the world. These magical creatures are often described as huge, winged, serpent-like, and fire-breathing beasts. Though these mystical beings inhabit the realm of fantasy, there are real-life "dragons" that are ...
February 9, 2024 | 5 mins read
Dr. Aimee Lynn Barrion-Dupo/UP Los Baños By Dr. Aimee Lynn Barrion-Dupo Cave biologists have long believed that life between caves and forest ecosystems are intricately connected, with the former harboring species with specific needs provided only by the complex and minimally understood forest-cave connection. Recently, the Department of ...
January 8, 2024 | 2 mins read
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May 31, 2023 | 18 mins read
Dr. Miguel David de Leon •A newly described flowering plant, Hoya medusa, has a combination of characteristics unlike any other species in its genus. •Though there is still much to learn about H. medusa, it's highly likely that the plant is endemic to Luzon. •The description of this unique and ...
March 23, 2023 | 4 mins read
Terry Gosliner © 2020 California Academy of Sciences •The California Academy of Sciences has released its 2021 list of newly described species. •The new species include 14 beetles, 12 sea slugs, nine ants, seven fish, six scorpions, five sea stars, five flowering plants, four sharks, three spiders, two sea pens, one moss, one pygmy pipehorse, ...
December 24, 2021 | 3 mins read
Genetic Literacy Project •The Golden Rice project, which started in the 1990s, is a long time coming. •Golden Rice aims to help reduce Vitamin A deficiency, particularly in Southeast Asian countries where rice is a main staple. •Despite its humanitarian intentions, golden rice has taken center stage in many debates ...
April 1, 2021 | 4 mins read
•Based on specimens from Cebu, the Conus imperialis cone snail may be using its venom not to incapacitate its prey, but to lure it—a move the researchers nicknamed "the King's Gambit." •Two of the snail's chemicals, conazolium A and genuanine, were incredibly close mimics of the pheromones that initiated ...
March 15, 2021 | 4 mins read
Rafe M. Brown When Dr. Jose Rizal was in political exile in Dapitan, he spent a considerable amount of time studying nature. He collected numerous specimens of reptiles, amphibians, birds, insects, plants, and shells, many of which he sent to the Ethnographic Museum in Dresden, Germany for proper identification. One ...
December 30, 2020 | 2 mins read
Kia Krarup Hansen; Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, University of Tromsø Inspired by Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, a team of researchers from the Netherlands and Norway conducted a small but fun study in 2012: They wanted to find out why the famous fictional figure would have a shiny scarlet sniffer ...
December 28, 2020 | 2 mins read
Carmelo López Abad Did you know that the Philippines is among the 17 megadiverse countries in the world? Megadiversity refers to the presence of great biodiversity; for a country to be considered megadiverse, it must have (1) at least 5,000 endemic plants and (2) a marine ecosystem within its borders. The fact that ...
December 26, 2020 | 3 mins read
Terry Gosliner © 2020 California Academy of Sciences •The California Academy of Sciences has released its 2020 list of newly described species. •The new species include 101 ants, 22 crickets, 15 fishes, 11 geckos, 11 sea slugs, 11 flowering plants, eight beetles, eight fossil echinoderms, seven spiders, five snakes, two skinks, two aphids, two eels, one moss, one frog, ...
December 23, 2020 | 4 mins read
Getty Images The mistletoe is an enduring icon of Christmas love, and it's a time-honored tradition for couples to stand under this Yuletide decorative staple and kiss one another. Far from being just an excuse to lock lips, though, the evergreen plant actually has both an interesting etymology and an ...
December 22, 2020 | 2 mins read
Thomas Marent/Minden Pictures/Corbis It's nighttime, and you're exploring a patch of forest in Sulu. Up ahead, you notice a peculiar creature: a big-eyed, round-headed fuzzball that looks like a three-way cross between a tarsier, a sloth, and a teddy bear. You approach the adorable little animal, and against ...
December 21, 2020 | 2 mins read
San Diego Zoo Timeless Yuletide tunes and tales have cemented the mystical, almost mythical place of the reindeer (𝘙𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴) in popular culture. And while these uncanny ungulates can't actually make their noses glow on the same level of brightness as Rudolph's, they do have something else that they could show off ...
December 19, 2020 | 2 mins read
Wikimedia Commons Unlike humans, sea turtles aren't born male or female based on chromosomes. Rather, they follow temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD), a type of environmental sex determination followed by crocodilians as well. Sea turtle sex is determined post-fertilization, at a particularly thermosensitive stage of embryonic development. The temperature of the ...
December 18, 2020 | 2 mins read
Rey Sta. Ana/orientalbirdimages.org On December 16, 1896, Scottish ornithologist William Robert Ogilvie-Grant presented a majestic, newly described bird species at the 39th meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club. Natives from Samar claimed that it "prey[ed] chiefly on the Green Monkeys" (possibly referring to macaques). Both Ogilvie-Grant and British naturalist ...
December 16, 2020 | 2 mins read
pandasinternational.org At first glance, the giant panda (𝘈𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘥𝘢 𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘶𝘤𝘢) might seem like it's living the dream. This iconic Chinese bear spends about 10 to 16 hours looking for food and eating, and the rest of its day resting and not really moving around a lot. There's a lot more to this situation than ...
December 15, 2020 | 2 mins read
Lipton Despite what internet memes featuring green anthropomorphic amphibians would have us believe, here's the real tea: Frogs are generally known to absorb water through their skin instead of drinking it. A frog's skin is permeable, particularly near its belly and thighs, allowing it to absorb water from its environment ...
December 13, 2020 | 1 min read
iStock Aside from being colorful cartoon characters, Perry the Platypus and Knuckles the Echidna have one more thing in common: They're representations of the monotremes, an extremely small and rather strange group of animals. Much like other mammals, monotremes possess a single-boned mandible (lower jaw), three bones in the middle ...
December 8, 2020 | 2 mins read
Gregg Yan/Wikimedia Commons They're scaly, they're small, and they can curl up into a ball: Indeed, pangolins are curious little fellows. In a way, they're what you'd get if you combined an anteater, an armadillo, and a skunk. Pangolins are covered with scales made of keratin—yes, just like ...
December 6, 2020 | 2 mins read
Roaring Earth Have you ever seen an animal that's almost entirely white, even though they're typically much more colorful? What you saw was certainly a beautiful natural oddity--but perhaps not the type you're thinking of. If an animal suffers from leucism, the cells that would produce its natural color are ...
December 4, 2020 | 1 min read
UPLB Museum of Natural History First discovered in 2011 during an expedition in Northern Luzon, Phyllium bonifacioi is the tenth species under the genus Phyllium (said to be the largest and most widespread group in the leaf insect family, Phylliidae) found in the Philippines. The insect was named by University of ...
November 30, 2020 | 1 min read
National Geographic Creative/Alamy Stock Photo In the early 1980s, the Swedish navy was extremely wary of Soviet activity around the Swedish coast and under their waters. Each year, Swedish military reports indicated a "typical sound" from an unidentified source that popped up on their readings. It was a peculiar ...
November 25, 2020 | 2 mins read
Hemera/Thinkstock With a flower that reaches up to 3.3 ft (1 m) in diameter and weighs up to 24 lbs (11 kg), Rafflesia arnoldii produces the world's largest individual blossom. Endemic to the forests of Indonesia, this plant is famous not just for its size, but also for its smell. It emits a ...
November 24, 2020 | 1 min read
Sea Turtle Patrol Hilton Head Island (South Carolina) The discovery of two-headed animals in nature often makes local news headlines. There's just something about the sheer novelty of seeing a turtle or snake with two heads that fascinates us to no end. Throughout the history of the natural world, researchers, ...
November 8, 2020 | 2 mins read
Wikimedia Commons Meet the tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus), a unique creature that looks somewhat like a cross between an iguana and a dinosaur. It's the last extant representative of its order - and it has a third eye, sort of. This little fellow may look like a lizard, but it's not. ...
November 7, 2020 | 1 min read
carrotmuseum.co.uk These days, when we think of carrots, orange is the first color that comes to mind. Interestingly enough, this wasn't always the case. Based on historical records, the first carrots domesticated for consumption in Asia and Europe were purple and yellow; this was from around the 10th ...
November 6, 2020 | 2 mins read
W. J. Pilsak/Wikimedia Commons Based on a technicality, the world's largest living organism is a gigantic honey fungus colony in the United States. The colony's entirety occupies about 2,385 acres of soil; that's roughly equivalent to 22,104 basketball courts! In 1998, scientists looked into the mysterious deaths of a large number of ...
October 23, 2020 | 1 min read
Ted Center/USDA In 1901, a strange aquatic plant was brought into Thailand from Indonesia by Thai royalty, captivated by its peculiar beauty. Locally known as phak tob java, its lavender flowers and rounded leaves made it a decorative fixture in many palaces and mansions. Things likely would have remained that ...
October 5, 2020 | 2 mins read
Getty Images Fact: Hummingbirds are the only birds known to be capable of flying backwards for any length of time or distance without relying on the wind. Hummingbirds (family Trochilidae) are very much like living helicopters. They can fly forward, backward, left, right, diagonally, and even upside down. They can ...
October 3, 2020 | 1 min read
Lisa Fotios/Pexels Ever heard about how a misplaced decimal point made cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar choose spinach (𝘚𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘢 𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘢) as the source of his famous character Popeye's strength? Popularized by Dr. Terence Hamblin in 1981, the story goes like this: In 1870, German chemist Erich von Wolff made a mistake in his notes ...
October 1, 2020 | 2 mins read
BSP/Design Systemat The Philippines is home to a vast assortment of unique and interesting wildlife, from the crescent-horned tamaraw to the peculiar Mindanao flying dragon. Travel all over the country's many islands, and you'll find them nesting atop towering trees or swimming around the many nooks and crannies of ...
September 2, 2020 | 5 mins read
Petr Kratochvil/CC0 Strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries are edible fruits that people all over the world enjoy in a variety of ways. They're also not actually berries, as any botanist would tell you (likely after a heavy sigh and a montage of flashbacks in their head about the delicious disaster ...
September 1, 2020 | 2 mins read
Gregg Yan We all learned about the tamaraw somewhere down the line during elementary school. But unless your teacher had quite the knack for biology (or you were fascinated by all things bovine), you probably don’t remember much about it. In fact, some folks even confuse it with the ...
August 26, 2020 | 3 mins read
Yathin S. Krishnappa/CC BY-SA 4.0 Popular myth would have you believe that ostriches (genus Struthio) bury their heads in the sand to camouflage themselves from predators. This isn't true, of course; if they did that, they wouldn't be able to breathe. Experts say that this misconception stemmed from either their ...
August 4, 2020 | 2 mins read
Concord Monitor/Associated Press You've probably seen this in the form of a meme or a furious political status update from a friend: Supposedly, a group of baboons is called a "congress." However, as amusing as it may sound, it's actually not true. In a 2012 article, fact-checking site PolitiFact investigated ...
July 11, 2020 | 2 mins read
Boursnell/Country Life Magazine As weird as it may sound, this article only exists because of a low-quality photo of someone’s dog on Facebook. To be more precise, the seeds of this story were planted when a random post on my news feed caught my attention. A friend had ...
May 15, 2020 | 8 mins read
Taon-taong ipinagdiriwang ng mga bird-watcher at dalub-ibon ang World Migratory Bird Day upang mas mabigyang-pansin ang mga ibong migratory (o mga ibong lumilipad papunta sa ibang dako ng mundo sa tuwing taglamig) at ang kahalagan ng pag-protekta sa kanila. Sa totoo lang, lingid sa kaalaman ng maraming mga Pinoy na ...
May 9, 2020 | 3 mins read
Droves of marine researchers and travel-ready thalassophiles are drawn to the Philippines every year, and with good reason. The vast waters of the archipelago contain countless natural riches, rife for exploration and sightseeing. Unsurprisingly, they also serve as a haven for many species that, quite frankly, just want to be ...
April 15, 2020 | 3 mins read
On January 6, 2000, forest rangers in Spain's Ordesa National Park found the corpse of Celia, the last Pyrenean ibex (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica), under a fallen tree. However, biologists were eventually able to bring her species back from extinction three years later. For a few minutes, anyway. A subspecies of Iberian wild ...
January 6, 2020 | 2 mins read
Shutterstock (Updated on January 3, 2021) Despite what its name and appearance may suggest, the binturong or Palawan bearcat (Arctictis binturong) is neither a bear nor a cat. It's a member of the family Viverridae—the same family civets belong to—and is the sole member of its genus. Oh, and it ...
January 3, 2020 | 2 mins read
The recently released report of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUNC) on the worldwide state of pangolins is, in a word, bleak. The Philippine pangolin (Manis culionensis) in particular was reclassified from “endangered” to “critically endangered,” with its population expected to fall by a staggering 80% in the very ...
December 27, 2019 | 2 mins read
•The California Academy of Sciences has released its 2019 list of newly described species. •The species include 17 fish, 15 geckos, eight flowering plants, six sea slugs, five arachnids, four eels, three ants, three skinks, two skates, two wasps, two mosses, two corals, and two lizards. •Five of the 71 species—three fish and ...
December 10, 2019 | 3 mins read
•Next to habitat destruction, invasive species are the biggest causes of worldwide biodiversity loss. •The Philippines is the 36th most invaded country in the world, and has the most invasive species in Southeast Asia. •International cooperation and intensive information campaigns are critical in addressing this silent but serious issue. As ...
December 6, 2019 | 7 mins read
•The Center for Conservation Innovation PH Inc. (CCIPH) developed a mobile app for engaging citizens in biodiversity monitoring efforts. •Designed for non-scientists, the Biodiversity and Threats Monitoring App (BioMon) allows users to report animal sightings, making data collection more efficient. •The organization aims to develop the crowdsourcing app further to ...
November 5, 2019 | 3 mins read
With more than 4,000 species worldwide, cockroaches, which first popped up on the planet over 280 million years ago, are capable of some pretty incredible feats. They can run up to 5.5 kilometers per hour, can hold their breath for 40 minutes, and even survive without a head for a week! All of these ...
October 22, 2019 | 2 mins read
FlipFact of the Day: Invertebrates such as spiders have an open circulatory system, which means that the oxygen-carrying fluid running through it is in contact with its muscles and its other internal fluids. This blood analogue is called hemolymph, and instead of the iron-carrying hemogoblin that we find in our ...
July 5, 2019 | 1 min read
Rich Lindie FlipFact of the Day: As the kids these days would say, the Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi) has a romantic life that can be described as #relationshipgoals. The stories are true: It is, in fact, a monogamous, loyal partner by nature. Upon reaching sexual maturity (which takes about 5 to 7 ...
July 4, 2019 | 1 min read
FlipFact of the Day: The Philippine tarsier's Latin name was changed from Tarsius syrichta to Carlito syrichta in honor of "Tarsier Man" Carlito Pizarras. Formerly a local hunter, Pizarras became a strong advocate for the species' conservation, and now works as the field supervisor of the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary. Today's ...
July 1, 2019 | 1 min read
•Scientists from the Philippines and the U.S.A. discovered two new rodent species in the mountains of Camarines Sur and Aurora. •The new species, Rhynchomys labo and Rhynchomys mingan, belong to a group of mammals called tweezer-beaked hopping rats. •The researchers hope that this discovery will emphasize the need ...
June 6, 2019 | 3 mins read
(Updated on January 14, 2020) One would only need to take a single glance at the Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi) to understand why it is the Philippines' national bird. Strong, swift, and strikingly beautiful, it is quite a sight to behold, especially when it takes flight. The Philippine eagle became the country's ...
June 4, 2019 | 4 mins read
•A newly published study suggests that conservation efforts for the Asian elephant should consider indicators other than population count. •Population size and distribution statistics may fail to show a species' impending collapse in time for it to be prevented. •Thus, monitoring fertility and mortality rates across sexes and ages could ...
May 18, 2019 | 3 mins read
•A species goes extinct when all its living members perish, and becomes functionally extinct when its members can no longer reproduce. •A number of "extinct" species recently reappeared, such as the Fernandina giant tortoise, Lord Howe tree lobsters, crest-tailed mulgara, and Wallace's giant bee. •This emphasizes the need for stronger ...
May 2, 2019 | 3 mins read
•Researchers from foreign countries recently discovered four new species of fish in Philippine waters. •A pair of Japanese scientists found a new sardine species, possibly endemic, in Manila Bay. •Meanwhile, a team of researchers from the United States discovered three new Chromis species in Batangas and Mindoro. It is no ...
April 5, 2019 | 3 mins read
•An audit of Australia's animal havens revealed that they have already saved 13 mammals from extinction due to predators such as feral cats and foxes. •Scientists and conservationists worked together to conduct the country-wide audit. •Experts recommend establishing more conservation havens and stronger collaboration efforts to prevent more extinctions in the ...
March 6, 2019 | 2 mins read
•For the first time in 127 years, researchers described a new masteriine spider species from the Philippines. •The researchers named the spider Masteria urdujae, in honor of the legendary warrior princess Urduja. •Despite its small size, the cave-dwelling, possibly vulnerable M. urdujae may play a significant role in its ecosystem. A ...
February 17, 2019 | 4 mins read
•The plesiosaur-like Loch Ness monster has fascinated the world ever since an alleged photo of it surfaced in 1934. •A group of scientists are in the middle of conducting a thorough analysis of the freshwater lake to verify the existence of "Nessie." •The Philippines has had its fair share of "sea ...
February 4, 2019 | 3 mins read
•Each year, concerned organizations conduct the Asian Waterbird Census in Cagayan province, in line with a global monitoring program. •The 2019 count saw 27 species of birds in the Buguey wetlands and 15 species in Palaui Island, including a few rare species. •While the sightings increased in variety, they decreased in number. The ...
January 29, 2019 | 2 mins read
•The axolotl (or Mexican salamander) can perfectly regrow virtually any lost body part. •A pair of scientists from the University of Kentucky have reportedly succeeded in reconstructing the axolotl genome. •According to experts, this could significantly advance medical science and produce enhanced recovery and treatment options for the critically ill. (...
January 28, 2019 | 3 mins read
• After 10 years of searching, scientists may have finally found a suitable mate for Romeo, a rare Sehuencas water frog (Telmatobius yuracare). • A recent expedition to the Bolivian mountain cloud forests yielded five more individuals: three males and two females. • One of the females, aptly named Juliet, is being prepped for ...
January 18, 2019 | 2 mins read
• Carcharhinus obsolerus is 2019's first new shark species. • However, there have been no reported sightings of the creature for the past 80 years. • While it's highly likely that the "lost shark" is now extinct, there's still a chance that it may show up again. Meat, er, meet Carcharhinus obsolerus, the first ...
January 7, 2019 | 2 mins read
• A new study predicts that by 2100, around 93% of green sea turtle hatchlings will be female due to climate change. • Sea turtle hatchlings follow temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD), becoming male or female depending on the coolness or warmth of their nests. • While TSD species have historically survived global temperature shifts, they ...
January 3, 2019 | 3 mins read
•Countless species of flora and fauna were discovered and/or named in 2018. •Some of the species got their names from noteworthy Filipinos. •Among these species are four plants and two animals. If it seems like the list of plant and animal species on Earth keeps growing each year, that's because ...
December 18, 2018 | 3 mins read
•The California Academy of Sciences officially described 229 new plant and animal species for 2018. •Collected across five continents and three oceans, the new species include 220 animals and 9 plants. •Among these species, 14 can be found in the Philippines: 11 sea slugs, a shark, a frog, and a snake. In 2018, Earth's incredibly diverse flora ...
December 16, 2018 | 4 mins read
•Pound for pound, spider silk has as much tensile strength as steel, but is also especially tough and stretchy. •There are seven different types of the material, with different purposes and chemical compositions. •At this time, it is both incredibly complex to replicate and prohibitively expensive to mass-produce. (Updated on ...
December 12, 2018 | 4 mins read
• Despite recent successes in bird conservation, quite a few species remain critically at risk. • A number of these birds are in Southeast Asia and North America. • These species have been uplisted on the list of endangered species due in large part to human activity and climate change. Humanity's destructive practices ...
December 3, 2018 | 3 mins read
• Active conservation efforts have helped save two rare and iconic bird species, the northern bald ibis and the pink pigeon, from looming extinction. • Meanwhile, population numbers of the red-headed woodpecker and Henslow's sparrow are slowly recovering as well. • Nevertheless, experts warn that there is still much to do in terms ...
November 28, 2018 | 2 mins read
Meet the bunny harvestman, a fascinating arachnid found in the Amazon rainforest of eastern Ecuador. At first glance, this strange creature looks like a cross between a spider and a fluffy mammal. To some, the two prongs sticking out of its abdomen are reminiscent of rabbit ears. From some angles, ...
November 6, 2018 | 2 mins read
In 2010, archaeologist Michael Blake spotted some remarkably ornate pottery at the Santa Ana-La Florida (SALF) site in Ecuador. Interestingly, the first thing that came to his mind was hot chocolate. “I noticed they had found some very elaborate pottery, and I suggested that the vessels kind of reminded me of ...
October 30, 2018 | 2 mins read
(Updated on May 9, 2020) Each year, bird-watchers and ornitholgists celebrate World Migratory Bird Day to raise awareness about migratory birds and the need to protect them. Admittedly, many Filipinos may not even be aware of the existence of such a holiday. Nevertheless, it is a significant one, especially since the Philippines ...
October 18, 2018 | 3 mins read
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently issued a report emphasizing the grave state of the world's climate. Authored by over 90 scientists, the report stated that we are heading towards global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2040 at the earliest. The consequences will be disastrous: rising water levels, a ...
October 12, 2018 | 2 mins read
For most people, the first thing that comes to mind upon hearing the word "mistletoe" is Christmas. Popular culture has cemented the image of the mistletoe in our minds as the red-and-green Yuletide decoration used (often jestingly) as an excuse for two people to kiss. For biodiversity conservationist Lisa Paguntalan, ...
October 8, 2018 | 4 mins read
Day in and day out, we keep hearing about the call to save our forests. We are also aware of how rich the Philippines' biodiversity is, as well as how our various endemic species deserve to be protected. In spite of this, our forests remain at risk. Even with increased ...
October 4, 2018 | 2 mins read
When Australian geologist Reg Sprigg first stumbled upon a strange imprint in the mountains of Flinders Range in 1947, he wasn't quite sure what he'd found. He eventually settled on "early Cambrian (?) jellyfish" and named it Dickinsonia. Little did he know that it would birth a 70-year-old mystery surrounding a 558-million-year-old ...
September 21, 2018 | 3 mins read
As you scroll through your Facebook news feed on a lazy afternoon, your notifications icon lights up. Someone tagged you on a video: a short clip of a little dog, looking like a four-legged ball of cotton, walking on top of a pool table. The precious pup somehow manages to ...
August 27, 2018 | 4 mins read
Here's a quick exercise: Pick up the nearest globe or map that's within your reach right now (or Google one). Take a look at the countries above the equator. Up north, most of the countries are landlocked, their citizens barely able to bask in the mist of the sea or ...
August 13, 2018 | 7 mins read
(Updated on December 30, 2019) Filipinos know Dr. Jose Rizal as a patriot, physician and eye surgeon, novelist, poet, educator, swordsman, painter, sculptor, farmer, master of 22 languages, and nationalist. His life and works inspired the Philippine revolution against Spanish colonization. Unsurprisingly -- and unfortunately -- his numerous accomplishments in various fields tend ...
June 19, 2018 | 3 mins read
Rapidly curbing illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing can help countries recover their fisheries while avoiding the short-term costs of reducing fishing efforts and catches, a new study reports. Conducted by researchers from the United States and Indonesia, the study was published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. Overfishing, ...
May 8, 2018 | 3 mins read
With a coastline stretching over 36,000 km, the Philippines is home to almost 50% of all known coral species, and about a fifth of all marine species across the globe. As the world’s 7th top fish-producing country in 2012, the archipelago, comprised of over 7,100 islands, is literally swimming in riches. Recent data, ...
December 19, 2017 | 5 mins read
While flowers are generally pleasing to human eyes, research shows that they may be on an entirely different level of attractiveness for bees. Am I blue? Recent findings show that certain species of flowering plants contain special ridges on their petals. These ridges scatter bluish light over the blossoms--a feat ...
November 14, 2017 | 3 mins read
Findings from a recently published study in the Philippine Journal of Science revealed 12 new species of lichen living in Philippine mountains. Paulina Bawingan and her team of researchers reported a total of 30 identified Parmotrema species in their study. There is currently no confirmation that the newly discovered species are endemic ...
October 4, 2017 | 2 mins read
Based on findings from a study recently published in Current Biology, pigeons are effective at switching from task to task, similar to how human beings multitask. In fact, they could be even better than us at it. Study authors Dr Sara Letzner, Prof Dr Dr h. c. Onur Güntü...
October 2, 2017 | 2 mins read
agelesspaws.com (Updated on June 8, 2020) Believed by scientists to be a 33,000-year-old bond, the friendship between man and dogs has definitely withstood the test of time. Many dog owners consider their furry friends to be part of their family; they are happy to splurge on food, toys, and accessories for ...
September 18, 2017 | 3 mins read
With its land and seas teeming with various endemic species of animals, the Philippines is a field biologist’s wonderland. Hailed by researchers as home to the highest concentration of unique species per unit area in the world, roughly 33 percent of the country’s plants, 75 percent of its amphibians, 70 percent ...
September 11, 2017 | 3 mins read
If you're terrified of the fact that it's possible for bird flu to be transmitted to humans, wait until you hear how, in an utterly nightmarish scenario, it could decimate an entire species endemic to the Philippines. Our national bird, to be more specific. During a forum in Manila on ...
August 29, 2017 | 2 mins read
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