Science

Dozens of speakers voiced their thoughts on the Vancouver Aquarium’s controversial captive whales and dolphins program Monday evening, at what was the second special meeting convened by the Vancouver Park Board. Originally, 133 members of the public signed up to speak on the issue, with around 80 addressing the board for three minutes each over the course of two nights.

Coastal communities in Alaska that depend on fisheries were warned Tuesday to prepare for the impacts of ocean acidification. A study from federal agencies says many of the science questions remain unanswered but changes are already happening.

Two more mysterious craters of unknown origin have been spotted in Russia’s Siberia, just weeks after a similar-looking hole was discovered in the isolated area, according to The Siberian Times.

Astronomers have long known that interstellar molecules containing carbon atoms exist and that by their nature they will absorb light shining on them from stars and other luminous bodies.

Scientists measured giant waves in a region of the Arctic that recently lost its ice cover as a result of climate change. University of Washington scientists detected waves as high as 16 feet during the height of a storm; the waves were linked to high winds. The research was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Dr. Peter Marler, a distinguished UC Davis animal behaviorist whose pioneering research into the trills and whistles of birds influenced modern scientific understanding of learning and communication skills in animals, has died at 86. The cause was pneumonia, said his wife, Judith. He died July 5 while his family was evacuated from his Winters home because of the nearby Monticello …

A new study suggests dinosaurs were at their most vulnerable stage before the fatal asteroid impact struck earth roughly 66 million years ago. An international team of paleontologists led by the University of Edinburgh studied an updated catalogue of dinosaur fossils, mostly from North America, to create a picture of how dinosaurs changed over the few million years before the …

Researchers have developed a new tool that speeds the analysis of data sets that are so large and complex they would take days or weeks to analyse on a single workstation. In an age of “big data,” a single computer cannot always find the solution a user wants. Computational tasks must instead be distributed across a cluster of computers that …

Several videos of colourful, flashing lights hovering over North York popped up on social media overnight, prompting musings about an alien invasion in Toronto. But a local police officer may have the answer to the mystery. A number of people on Twitter reported seeing the strange lights in the sky moving around the area of Yonge and Sheppard in the …

Look at them go – these tiny sea turtles hatched in the Keys this weekend. The turtle cam caught the moment when the sea turtles got out of the nest and ran towards water.

One store offers pastel baby bootees with felt shark teeth for toes. Christmas ornaments have Santa perched on the back of a shark with a wreath around its neck. The local school district has adopted the shark as its mascot.