Hacker News with Generative AI: Nature

Getting hit by lightning is good for some tropical trees (caryinstitute.org)
Getting zapped with millions of volts of electricity may not sound like a healthy activity, but for some trees, it is. A new study, published in New Phytologist, reports that some tropical tree species are not only able to tolerate lightning strikes, but benefit from them. The trees may have even evolved to act as lightning rods.

Science, Nature, Tropical Trees, Lightning

141 points by sohkamyung 6 days ago | 64 comments

300-year-old Polish beech voted Tree of the Year (bbc.co.uk)
The Heart of the Dalkowskie Hills, a breathtaking 300-year-old beech, has won Poland the European Tree of the Year award for the fourth consecutive time.

Poland, Trees, Awards, Nature, Europe

222 points by n1b0m 14 days ago | 61 comments

Watching nature scenes can reduce pain, new study shows (exeter.ac.uk)
A new neuroimaging study has revealed that viewing nature can help ease how people experience pain, by reducing the brain activity linked to pain perception.

Science, Pain Management, Nature, Neuroscience

37 points by jjp 17 days ago | 11 comments

The Wasp That Lays Eggs Inside Caterpillars and Turns Them into Slaves (2014) (wired.com)
Few parasitoids are more bizarre or disturbing than the wasps of the genus Glyptapanteles, whose females inject their eggs into living caterpillars.

Entomology, Science, Biology, Parasitism, Nature

14 points by simonebrunozzi 18 days ago | 3 comments

Hyperion (Tree) (wikipedia.org)
Hyperion is a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) in California that is the world's tallest known living tree, measured at 116.07 metres (380.8 ft) tall in 2019.[1][3]

Trees, Nature, California, Environmental Science, World Records

28 points by carabiner 20 days ago | 17 comments

The long flight to teach an endangered ibis species to migrate (newyorker.com)
Our devastation of nature is so deep and vast that to reverse its effects, on any front, often entails efforts that are so painstaking and quixotic as to border on the ridiculous.

Conservation, Endangered Species, Climate Change, Environmentalism, Nature

74 points by FinnLobsien 20 days ago | 19 comments

Hours in a Hurricane, on a Race with No Course (nytimes.com)
Why would hundreds of people trek overnight through the wilderness with nothing but a compass? Because it’s the best feeling in the world.

Adventure, Hiking, Nature, Endurance

19 points by elemeno 21 days ago | 5 comments

Backyard Cyanide (suziepetryk.com)
There’s a bushy tree in my backyard with these dark red fruit — the kind that makes some primal instinct scream at you across millennia, but you can’t tell if it wants you to eat them or not.

Nature, Plants, Personal Experiences

138 points by tancik 22 days ago | 56 comments

Magpies and crows are using “anti-bird spikes” to make nests (2023) (audubon.org)
Humans have made the world less hospitable for birds in many ways. One obvious and intentional example of this can be found in towns and cities worldwide: anti-bird spikes. The pointy wires you might see attached to roofs, ledges, and light poles are meant to deter urban species like pigeons from landing, pooping, and even nesting where people don’t want them to. But in an avian act of poetic justice, a handful of European birds have struck back.

Nature, Animals, Urban Planning, Environmentalism

234 points by perihelions 23 days ago | 84 comments

How to Build a Thousand-Year-Old Tree (noemamag.com)
As the world faces an accelerating crisis of biodiversity loss and spiking rates of extinction, Britain’s protected natural areas are getting an explicit new assignment.

Environmentalism, Conservation, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Nature

95 points by matthewjpo 26 days ago | 13 comments

Farallon Islands live (and controllable) webcam (calacademy.org)
Explore the fabled Farallones via the islands' only webcam.

Webcams, Wildlife, California, Nature, Technology

19 points by kaycebasques 29 days ago | 16 comments

A Few of the Birds I Love (wordpress.com)
Whenever you feel that there is no joy in the world, you must go to a place with swallows. Few things are more euphoric than a swallow in flight.

Nature, Birds, Joy, Poetry

101 points by moultano 33 days ago | 46 comments

Drone captures narwhals using their tusks to explore, forage and play (phys.org)
The Arctic's iconic narwhal, renowned for its long, spiral tusk, is one of nature's most fascinating creatures. Yet, few have witnessed how these elusive animals use their tusks in the wild.

Animals, Arctic, Nature, Wildlife, Science

86 points by dnetesn 34 days ago | 17 comments

Flashy exotic birds can glow in the dark (arstechnica.com)
Found in the forests of Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Eastern Australia, birds of paradise are famous for flashy feathers and unusually shaped ornaments, which set the standard for haute couture among birds.

Animals, Biology, Nature, Birds

11 points by cratermoon 38 days ago | 3 comments

The teeming life of dead trees (knowablemagazine.org)
Though no one may be around to hear when a tree falls in the forest, countless critters take note. Dormant fungi within the tree awaken to feast on it, joined by others that creep up from the soil. Bacteria pitch in, some sliding along strands of fungi to get deeper into the log. Termites alert their colony mates, which gather en masse to gobble up wood. Bit by bit, deadwood is decomposed, feeding new life along the way.

Ecology, Decomposition, Fungi, Insects, Nature

8 points by rntn 46 days ago | 1 comments

Nature loves patterns (fayziev.com)
As I drift through my winter vacation, detoxing from work, tech and world matters, I notice my little brother crawling toward a heat stove. With a week of rest behind me, my mind wanders into philosophical territory, and I can't help but map this moment to machine learning.

Machine Learning, Philosophy, Nature

12 points by Nurbek-F 47 days ago | 1 comments

A decade later, a decade lost (2024) (meyerweb.com)
I woke up this morning about an hour ahead of my alarm, the sky already light, birds calling. After a few minutes, a brief patter of rain swept across the roof and moved on.

Time, Reflection, Nature, Writing

548 points by ZeWaka 47 days ago | 170 comments

Signs Of Life In A Desert (noemamag.com)
In the dry and fiery deserts of Central Asia, among the mythical sites of both the first human and the end of all days, I found evidence that life restores itself even on the bleakest edge of ecological apocalypse.

Science, Nature, Environmentalism, Ecology

69 points by mindingnever 62 days ago | 12 comments

Snakeskin: It's Fashionable, and It Scares Predators Away from Bird Nests (nytimes.com)
A museum curator with a ladder showed that birds that build cavity-style nests are able to protect their eggs with the skin shed by snakes.

Nature, Animals, Fashion, Science

19 points by Petiver 66 days ago | 4 comments

Rafael Araujo's 20 Mesmerizing Geometrical Masterpieces (2024) (abakcus.com)
Artist Rafael Araujo expresses his love of nature through geometry, intertwining mathematical precision with the organic beauty found within the natural world.

Art, Geometry, Nature

126 points by NoRagrets 71 days ago | 18 comments

LA tree enthusiast shares her love for the city's canopy (theguardian.com)
On a recent Sunday morning, 25 Angelenos gathered under a large rusty leaf fig tree for a walking tree tour in a local Culver City park that was also playing host to an outdoor tai chi class as well as a group of yogis.

Trees, Los Angeles, Community, Nature

3 points by PaulHoule 79 days ago | 0 comments

In search of Europe's rarest wild mushrooms (bbc.com)
In Lithuania’s Dzūkija National Park, losing yourself amongst the pine trees while hunting for mushrooms is an occurrence so common it has its own word: "nugrybauti".

Europe, Mushrooms, Nature, Travel

9 points by andsoitis 82 days ago | 0 comments

Hermit guardian of Budelli dies after three decades on paradise island (theguardian.com)
Mauro Morandi, an Italian man nicknamed “Robinson Crusoe” by the media after living alone on a paradise island for more than three decades, has died at the age of 85.

Italy, Environment, Nature, Obituary, Human Interest

20 points by akbarnama 85 days ago | 3 comments

Hermit guardian of Budelli dies after three decades on paradise island (theguardian.com)
Mauro Morandi, an Italian man nicknamed “Robinson Crusoe” by the media after living alone on a paradise island for more than three decades, has died at the age of 85.

Nature, Italy, Human Interest, Obituaries

12 points by n1b0m 86 days ago | 0 comments

Orca that carried dead calf for weeks appears to be in mourning again (nytimes.com)
Researchers say that the killer whale’s newborn calf in Puget Sound has also died and she’s unable to let go.

Animals, Marine Biology, Grief, Whales, Nature

139 points by pepys 88 days ago | 241 comments

Art Forms in Nature / Ernst Haeckel 100 Plates 300 Dpi Scans (archive.org)
Ask the publishers to restore access to 500,000+ books.

Art, Nature, History, Books, Archives

4 points by MaysonL 93 days ago | 0 comments

Brazilian velvet ant is ultrablack (nytimes.com)
Scientists found that the dark markings on a species of fluffy wasp reflected less than 1 percent of light.

Science, Biology, Animals, Color, Nature

41 points by bookofjoe 99 days ago | 26 comments

Humpback Whale Swims Up to Photographer for Close-Up Picture (petapixel.com)
A photographer had a powerful experience with a whale who swam up close allowing her to capture a close-up photo of the humpback’s eye.

Wildlife Photography, Whales, Photography, Nature

21 points by philip1209 111 days ago | 3 comments

Oldest known wild bird lays egg at 74 (bbc.co.uk)
The world's oldest known wild bird has laid an egg at the approximate age of 74, US biologists say.

Animals, Biology, Nature, Birds

238 points by GeoAtreides 117 days ago | 110 comments

The great abandonment: what happens to the natural world when people disappear? (theguardian.com)
Across the globe, vast swathes of land are being left to be reclaimed by nature. To see what could be coming, look to Bulgaria

Nature, Environmentalism, Climate Change, Population Decline, Bulgaria

145 points by zeristor 126 days ago | 195 comments