Nature Hub

  From :- BBC World News   By :-  Pauline McLean   -  Scotland arts correspondent  Edited by:-  Amal Udawatta   Mihaela Bodlovic Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai has inspired Scottish Opera's latest work Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai created more than 30,000 artworks during an extraordinary nine-decade career. One image in particular from two centuries ago - the picture The Great Wave off Kanagawa - has inspired countless works ranging from animations to T-shirts. The latest example of this is a new work for Scottish Opera by Japanese composer Dai Fujikura and Scottish librettist Harry Ross. The pair had collaborated on three operas together when Dai and his family were invited to an exhibition of Hokusai's work in London in 2017. "We didn't know anything about Hokusai," says Dai, who was born in Osaka but moved to London when he was 15. "We'd seen that picture, the image of The Great Wave, but that was it. "So we went and we were real...

  From :- Sky & Telescope  By :- J. Kelly Beatty  Editted by :- Amal Udawatta Although the winter Milky Way near Orion is not as bright and distinct as the summer Milky Way, it likewise stretches north to south across the entire sky and is adorned with the most brilliant stars and countless deep-sky objects. Alireza Vafa   February is often the coldest month of the year for northerners, but the Sun is telling a different story. The December solstice came and went several weeks ago, and you can already notice that the days are getting longer, with earlier sunrises and later sunsets. The celestial geometry is changing too, as the Sun races northward among the stars by about 1° every 3 days. But the stars of winter are still firmly in control of the nighttime firmament. Note where the Sun sets and, once twilight envelops you, wheel around to the left until you’re looking in nearly the opposite direction. The night sky’s most dazzling star is Sirius, down near the so...

   From:- BBC World News By :-  Kamala Thiagarajan Editted by :- Amal Udawatta   Hargila Army ( Hargila Army (Credit: Hargila Army) Once known as a bird of ill omen, India's endangered hargila has gained an army of protectors. Now it's beginning to bounce back. On a bright, sweltering January afternoon in 2007, biologist Purnima Devi Barman found herself in Dadara village, on the banks of India's mighty Brahmaputra River in the northeastern state of Assam. Despite being surrounded by tropical evergreen forests and emerald wetlands, all she could think about was the monumental destruction she was witnessing. Local villagers had just hacked away at one of the tallest, most beautiful trees she had ever known – a local species of evergreen known as a kadamba. Now, amidst the tree's fallen branches, scattered leaves, twigs and thatches of nesting material lay large birds with black and white feathers, long limbs and sharp beaks, their dead bodies splayed on the ground. Th...