Fred Naggs News Today

With the disappearance of European empires, many associated internationally important natural history museums (NHMs) are struggling to continue. They are being underfunded, short-staffed; collections split up and hived off. Many are, in short, dying, despite much window dressing with specimens being digitally archived away with even less access for naturalists who may need them. Fred […]

KATHMANDU — Dashain, in Nepali Hinduism, commemorates the victory of the goddess Durga over the demon Mahishasura. It’s a multiday holiday in the Himalayan country, the biggest one of the year, and this year fell in early October. For Prem Bahadur Budha, Dashain this year also brought with it a special gift to honor his […]

Article criticises institution for institution for ‘aspirational virtue signalling’ and claims it is no longer led by scientists

Those who voted for the President and the government too are somewhat responsible for the current political and economic crisis, former MP Basil Rajapaksa said yesterday at a press conference to announce his resignation from Parliament. Responding to a question posed by a journalist, Rajapajsa said that he was not interested in blaming people for […]

By Ifham Nizam Sri Lankan engineer turned naturalist Dr. Rohan Pethiyagoda, who recently became the first Sri Lankan to be awarded the Linnean Medal for his outstanding contribution to science and the second Asian to be a recipient of the Medal, says he now wants to help address some of the problems caused by the […]

Looking at the roll call of Linnean Medal winners is to witness the history of natural history, taxonomy, and nature conservation since Darwin. The medal is tangential to the orbit of the Nobel Prize – more international and human-centric with few famous naturalists (excluding those in the Peace Prize category) and those mostly from 1973, […]

SHARE One of the world’s most invasive species has been found in the UAE for the first time. The Giant African Land Snail, which grows up to 20cm long, was discovered in Al Wathba on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi city. The creature may have arrived on imported plant material, and although there is no record yet of it elsewhere in the country, experts said eliminating invasive species can be difficult. In a new study, scientists analysed nine snails collected last year. They lay a lot of eggs and...