Burmese pythons in Florida’s Everglades are carrying three previously unknown RNA viruses, raising questions about whether viruses harboured by the invasive snakes could eventually affect native wildlife. A study published in the Journal of Virology examined 40 Burmese pythons captured in and around the site of a 2020 disease outbreak among eastern mudsnakes. Researchers did…

Greater Farallones Association Kelp restoration specialist Julieta Gomez holding up kelp she is tending at the lab to grow spores for outplanting for kelp restoration. Image Credit: Jennifer Stock/NOAA California scientists are growing young bull kelp in laboratory tanks before placing it back into coastal waters where underwater forests have largely disappeared. At Bodega Marine…

In 1985, electrical engineer Bill Freeman imagined a zipper that could do more than join two pieces of material. His three-sided design used a slider to bring three strips together, potentially changing the shape and stiffness of objects. The idea was rejected by an innovation fund, but Freeman patented the mechanism and kept his prototype…

Simon Andriesz, an Epstein whistleblower, died by suicide. Simon Andriesz, a former British banker and whistleblower who had raised questions over US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s alleged links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has died by suicide, according to reports.Andriesz, 57, was previously a managing director at Wall Street firm BGC Group, where Lutnick…

American chestnut trees are returning to the Bronx Zoo more than 120 years after the blight was first documented. (Photo: TACF.org) More than 120 years after the American chestnut blight was first documented at the Bronx Zoo, the iconic tree is making a historic return to the same grounds where its devastating decline was first…