A recent study from researchers in Canada and Germany has revealed that an unlikely event, occurring over 12 million years ago, played an important role in shaping one of Canada's most damaging invasive species.
Monday 3 May 2021
Paris - Insidiously, the coronavirus is attacking journalism’s vital functions. Since the beginning of 2020, journalists’ daily work has been transformed as countless events have been cancelled or access to them has been limited or curtailed and press conferences have turned virtual. Though understandable on health grounds, the restrictions have turned the practising of our profession upside-down.
A feeling has crept in among journalists that these restrictions are sometimes being applied excessively and used as a pretext to keep the media at a distance. Today, as we mark
World Press Freedom Day, we face this worrying question: Will we ever regain the full level of access to cover events that we had before the pandemic? Will freedom and plurality of information also fall victim to Covid-19 - and at a time when, amid a wave of coronavirus-related misinformation, there has never been such a vital need for quality journalism?
Photo: Kilian Fichou/AFP (Getty Images)
Balls of moss commonly found in aquariums are threatening to push the zebra mussel invasion further across the U.S., wildlife officials are warning. Contaminated moss balls have been found in pet stores in 21 states in recent weeks, and both officials and the pet supply industry are scrambling to contain the problem before it’s too late.
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Judging by their name alone, the fingernail-sized zebra mussel might not seem like the most fearsome creature to be worried about. What makes them so dangerous, though, is their ability to adapt. Once introduced to a new lake or other body of freshwater, they can quickly crowd out and devastate local populations of other mussel species. Their rapid growth isn’t great for us either, since they can clog up the intake pipes in our water treatment and power plants, while also damaging boats and fishing equipment. That puts pressure on already-strained infrastructure dealing with more deluges a