by Editor’s Note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. To get it in your inbox, register for free here.
More than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas where nature can be a distant concern.
However, there are thriving ecosystems within our cities — even under our feet — and embracing urban nature can be a powerful force for change.
For example, West London has its first beaver dam in 400 years after a family of five was reintroduced in October to a wetland on the edge of the city. The initiated beavers could help prevent flooding after heavy rains.
Our Shared Home was this week’s theme for CNN’s third annual Call to Earth Day, in which the network highlighted the vital connection between cities and wilderness.
Once upon a planet
Interactions between urban dwellers and wildlife do not always run smoothly.
Cape Town baboons can often be found rummaging through garbage cans and around backyards, putting them at greater risk of conflict with humans.
For the primates, the predatory behavior makes some sense – the suburbs disrupt their feeding grounds. Easy access to food from Cape Town’s rubbish means that baboons spend less time and energy foraging, and more on socializing with potential mates and the rest of their group.
However, there are consequences for the baboons. Their health and welfare can suffer as the primates come into contact with dogs, cars and electrical power lines. Even shot some baboons.
The city has started to take proactive measures to keep them away from the outskirts of Cape Town and in their natural hillside habitat.
Amazing creatures
Much nature photography focuses on the wild wonders of the Earth and its majestic biodiversity.
Two photographers profiled by CNN as part of the Call to Earth initiative took a different approach. They captured intimate views of wildlife in an urban habitat.
Photographer Corey Arnold found a bear denouncing in a crawl space in a house in California, and Lawrence Hylton recorded a scops collared owl, a white-lipped pit viper and an Atlas moth during his night safaris through Shing Mun on the beautiful mountains of Hong Kong’s New Territories. Country Park.
The amazing, and sometimes funny, images show how cleverly some animals are adapting to a human-dominated landscape.
Look up
The sun is entering a period of heightened activity, making it easier to see spectacular natural displays like the northern lights or their counterparts in the Southern Hemisphere.
The rarer night sky phenomenon that accompanies the auroras from time to time was also observed. Known as Steve, it appears closer to the equator than polar auroras and is characterized by a purple-pink arch and vertical green stripes.
The mysterious light show was formally identified less than a decade ago, and explanations of what causes it are still emerging.
The phenomenon’s name also has an unusual origin story related to the 2006 DreamWorks film.
Around the globe
Astronomers have discovered six planets orbiting a nearby sun with orbits that have not changed for more than 1 billion years.
Larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, the exoplanets belong to a little-understood class called sub-Neptune commonly found in the Milky Way.
As the planets revolve around their host star, which is about 100 light-years away from Earth, they exhibit a pattern known as orbital resonance. This is when the planets complete their orbits and exert gravitational forces on each other, creating a harmonic rhythm, with all six planets aligning every few orbits.
Scientists believe the discovery could help solve the mysteries of planet formation.
Trailblazers
Scientists have created tiny living robots from human cells that can move around in a lab dish and could one day help heal wounds or damaged tissue, according to a new study.
A team at Tufts University and Harvard University’s Wyss Institute have found their anthropomorphic creations.
The research builds on the first living robots, or xenobots, made from stem cells obtained from African clawed frog embryos.
However, the human-based robots are different in several ways from their froggy predecessors, and have shown behavior that has surprised scientists.
Explorations
Check out these amazing stories:
— Celebrate the amazing achievements of NASA astronaut Dr. Mary Cleave, who died on the 27th of November. She was the first woman to fly on the space shuttle after the Challenger disaster.
— Oceanographers have mapped an underwater mountain off the coast of Guatemala that is almost twice the height of the world’s tallest building.
— A 19th-century Tasmanian colonist was known as a brilliant scientist, but letters have now revealed the terrible cost.
– Fossilized footprints suggest that mystery animals walked around on bird feet, long before the earliest known bird species, according to paleontologists.
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