Nature Hub

 From -National Geographic, Edited by  Vinuri Randhula Silva, As legend has it, the axolotl is the Aztec god of fire and lightning, Xolotl, which disguised himself as a salamander to avoid being sacrificed. But these Mexican amphibians are impressive enough on their own, with the ability to regenerate lost limbs and stay “young” throughout their lives. Unlike other salamanders that undergo metamorphosis, axolotls (pronounced ACK-suh-LAH-tuhl) never outgrow their larval, juvenile stage, a phenomenon called neoteny. Their youthful traits include feathery gills sprouting from their heads like a mane, webbed feet, a dorsal fin that runs down the length of their body, and a tail. Though they keep their gills, adult axolotls also have functional lungs and can breathe through their skin. And as if being forever-babies didn’t make them cute enough, their mouths are upturned in a permanent Mona Lisa smile. Those sweet little smiles can quickly turn into vacuum cleaners when it’s time t...

 From -Sky & Telescope  By - Rouzastro,  Edited by -  Amal Udawatta, The Butterfly Nebula - IC1318 A bright gas cloud with complex and intricate details. The dark central dust lane resembles a butterfly with the bright ionized gases on either side acting its wings. Seeing was exceptionally good with sub-2.0" frames. This allowed some high resolution data to be captured and processed here at 0.7"/pixel. At full resolution we can see many areas of interest with globules that are probably the early stages of star formation. Technical: Imaging Telescopes: Planewave CDK 14inch – F/4.7 Camera: QHYCCD 600M (62 megapixel) Filters: Chroma 3nm OIII · Chroma 3nm Sii · Chroma 3nm H⍺ Dates: Jul. 26, 2022 Integration: 19 hrs Location: West Vancouver, Canada, (Bortle 6).

  By Malcolm Prior   -   BBC News Rural affairs producer, Edited by - Amal Udawatta, IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Image caption, All poultry and captive birds in England will have to be kept indoors All poultry and captive birds in England must be kept indoors from 7 November under new restrictions to fight avian flu, the government has announced. The housing order comes after turkey farmers warned of a shortage this Christmas caused by the country's largest ever bird flu outbreak. The British Poultry Council has said shoppers could be hit by price rises. About 5.5m birds have now died or been culled since October 2021. That includes 2.3m birds this October alone. In total, more than 210 cases of bird flu have been confirmed since October 2021, including 80 confirmed cases in England this month. "We are now facing this year, the largest ever outbreak of bird flu and are seeing rapid escalation in the number of cases on commercial farms and in backyard birds across...

From BBC News, Edited by - Vinuri Randhula Silva,  IMAGE SOURCE Image captio IMAGE SOURCE, SARAH YEBOAH/PA Image caption, Simone Ibbett-Brown is directing a concert which brings together Mozart with the work of an 18th Century black composer Two women working to diversify opera in the UK said they wanted to "demystify" the art and create opportunities for people of any race or background. Alison Buchanan and Simone Ibbett-Brown have had their talent celebrated around the world during Black History Month. Ms Buchanan, who started singing as a young girl in Bedford, is the UK's only black British female artistic director. "You wait for a seat at the table and you realise you have to create your own table," she said. She is based at Pegasus Opera Company in London, which works to "advocate, agitate and educate" the industry, to create opportunities for artists of African and Asian heritage. IMAGE SOURCE, AARON MELVILLE/PA Image caption, Alison Buchanan be...

 From Sci Div Net By - Sanjeet Bagcchi Edited by Vinuri Randhula Silva, A Bangladeshi farmer transplants rice. Underground reservoirs are being tapped to supply smallholder farms in Bangladesh. Copyright:  International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)   (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) . This image has been cropped. , . . [NEW DELHI] The pumping up of groundwater by Bangladesh’s 16 million smallholder farmers has led to a massive storage capture of underground reservoirs rivalling the storage capacity of the world’s large dams, according to a study . Published in   Science,   the   study   said that groundwater-fed irrigation had transformed much of Bangladesh’s single-crop, rain-watered floodplains into highly productive double-cropping and, in places, triple-cropping lands to make the country the world’s fourth highest producer of rice. The researchers say the  sustainable  irrigation process could be replicated in other areas affected by the impacts of...