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The bizarre vertical flight pattern has long puzzled experts but new research reveals why it may play a crucial role in the insect’s survival
On a spring evening along the banks of the River Thames, thousands of mayflies can be seen engaging in what may be one of the world’s oldest dances. In the fading light, the males make a steep vertical climb, flip over and float back to Earth – wings and tail outstretched in a skydiving posture so as to drop slowly through the sky.
Mayflies are among the world’s oldest winged insects, emerging roughly 300m years ago – long before dinosaurs walked the Earth. Even the Mesopotamian poem the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest pieces of literature, makes reference to the short-lived mayfly. Over the epochs, the insect’s basic design has changed very little compared with the fossils of their ancestors.
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A KCL study has found that exposure during the first trimester of pregnancy delayed speech development
Babies exposed to higher levels of air pollution in the early stages of pregnancy take longer to learn to speak than those exposed to lower levels in the womb, new research suggests.
A study by researchers from King’s College London found exposure to nitrogen dioxide and fine and ultra-fine particulate matter during the first trimester of pregnancy delayed speech development at 18 months.
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Scientists find annual sea surface temperatures across Europe reached highest levels recorded, while deadly wildfires set large parts of continent ablaze
The Nordic heatwave that pushed temperatures above 30C (86F) in the Arctic Circle in July was part of a record-breaking year that saw abnormal heat sear more than 95% of Europe, a report has found.
Parts of Scandinavia were scorched last summer by 21 days of punishingly hot weather that led to “tropical nights” in typically cool countries such as Norway, Sweden and Finland, according to a scientific report campaigners said showed “all the emergency warning lights are flashing red”.
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West Dartmoor, Devon: On the moor, every puddle and pool is quivering with whirligig beetles, carving circles and rotating in pairs
A calm, clear morning on Dartmoor and the shallow pools I pass are smooth as glass – scattered wedges of sky reflected between the grass and gorse. I am wandering the western edge of the moor, close to the village of Lydford, best known for its plunging gorge and waterfall. This is a place shaped by rain, from the peat bogs blanketing high ground to the rocky gullies carved by streams.
There are endless puddles and pools, and on this windless day they appear completely flat and still. Only when I look closely, I see that something is agitating the surfaces of the water. Every one of them quivers with life: whirligig beetles.
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Exclusive: 839,000 homes in urban areas face threat of surface-water flooding, with social housing tenants most vulnerable to costs
Eight in 10 of the homes that are at high risk of flooding in England are now in towns and cities, according to analysis by the National Housing Federation (NHF), which said social housing tenants are disproportionately vulnerable to the financial cost.
Research found that 839,000 homes in urban areas are now classed as being at high risk of surface water flooding, a threefold increase since 2018.
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After her sister died, Victoria Bennett left Cumbria for the remote Scottish archipelago, where she learned to go with the ebb and flow of life
It was during her first winter in Orkney that the nature writer Victoria Bennett experienced the joy of baying into the sea during a storm. “There’s something very physically releasing about howling,” she says. “It’s quite animalistic and powerful.” On a stormy beach, when waves are crashing on the rocks, “you can really let rip”, she says. “The sound just disappears.”
Until that moment, Bennett had been struggling with her decision to move to the remote archipelago off the north coast of Scotland. “I was beginning to feel like I was in a fight against the sea, and against the weather.”
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Heatwaves reach 45C across India as unseasonably cold weather affects parts of central Canada
Widespread heavy rain is sweeping over southern China. By Wednesday, rainfall totals are expected to exceed 100mm across many parts of Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Hunan provinces, and in some areas as much as 150-200mm.
As a result, the Office of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and the Ministry of Emergency Management have been holding meetings with meteorological and hydrological departments to emphasise the importance of reinforced patrols and emergency responses to mitigate against the probable flooding that the intense rainfall is expected to bring. In particular, reservoirs with known safety concerns must remain empty during the period, as well as through the coming rainy season.
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Surface ripples known as cat’s paws, caused by turbulence cascade, show where wind is – and were once seen as lucky
On a windy day, the surface of a lake is not a continuous pattern of ripples but instead marked with patches of disturbance, as though a giant cat were patting the water. These surface patterns, known as cat’s paws, are caused by turbulent airflow in the atmosphere.
Wind is caused by changing pressure at different spots on Earth’s surface but does not simply rush in a single mass from one place to another. The chaotic nature of the airflow, with slight differences between adjacent sections, breaks it up and splits out smaller swirls. This continues with large eddies breaking down into smaller ones, which break down further, a process known as turbulence cascade. At the lowest level, we get cat’s paws – which are usually a few metres across and last a few seconds.
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Politicians, children and Māori groups gathered in the Wellington banquet hall to see in the flesh the success of efforts to protect country’s national bird
When five kiwi were presented to a crowd of 300 people gathered inside the banquet hall of New Zealand’s parliament, there was an awe-struck intake of breath.
As handlers moved through the group, cradling the whiskery birds, people looked on, spellbound. Some grew teary, and one boy, who noticed a soft brown feather drift to the floor, scooped it up, as his mother urged him to keep it safe.
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In the Sierra Tarahumara, gangs ‘disappear’ those who resist their lucrative illegal tree-felling operations
Decades ago, the children of Rochéachi village in the Sierra Tarahumara – pine-covered mountains of north-west Mexico’s Chihuahua state – would run through the forest by night. In the rainy season, they would collect fireflies whose glimmering light would flicker through the hollows of the pine trees.
“We had peace. We used to walk and play and be together,” says one mother of three, who asked to remain anonymous, about the forest she once knew. “Now, children can’t go out to play. We don’t know what might happen.”
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Photo: Vivian Grisogono
