Nature Hub

  By Helen Briggs Environment correspondent, Edited by Amal Udawatta, Image caption, Dr Jassy Drakulic: 'We don't have names for most of the fungi that exist' "I find them absolutely stunning," says Dr Jassy Drakulic, pointing to a fungus emerging from a log. "There's a whole series of stripes from browns to blacks to a pale edge." Mushrooms aren't known for their ornamental value, but for this scientist they are a thing of beauty. The plant pathologist is on a mission to spread the word that fungi need conservation just as much as plants and animals. "They're abundant in gardens but until you start looking for them you don't appreciate how prevalent and how beautiful they are," she says. Image caption, Turkey tail fungus grows in tiered layers on dead wood This fungus is named for its resemblance to a turkey's tail. It belongs to the class of saprophytic fungi, which feed on dead wood, or other decaying matter, and are vita

  From - Ancientzen By  Admin Edited by -Amal Udawatta , A water reserve the size of 140 trillion oceans lurks in a distant supermassive black hole, the universe’s greatest deposit of water and 4,000 times the quantity contained in the Milky Way. Two teams of astronomers discovered this amount of water 12 billion light-years away, where it appears as vapor spread across hundreds of light-years. The reservoir was discovered in the gaseous area of a quasar, which is a dazzling compact region at the center of a galaxy fueled by a black hole. This discovery shows that water may have been throughout the universe from the beginning. While specialists are not surprised, water has never been spotted this far out. The light from the quasar took 12 billion years to reach Earth (particularly, the APM 08279+5255 quasar in the constellation Lynx), meaning that this mass of water existed when the universe was only 1.6 billion years old. The Z-Spec equipment at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory i

  By Suresh Menon Sports Writer,BBC Edited by Amal Udawatta, IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Virat Kohli has been one of the top performers in international cricket It is a decade now since India won an ICC trophy, and with the 50-over World Cup set to be played in India in October-November, two questions ask themselves. The obvious one is: will this be India's year again after Mahendra Singh Dhoni's final six became the enduring image of India's triumph in 2011? And less often: Is Indian cricket going through a period of transition? In sport, transition seldom happens overnight. Sometimes a string of consistent victories might lead to a few senior players making way for youngsters. But more often, it is defeat that leads to change. India had a middling 2022, winning roughly 58% each of the Tests and one-day internationals they played, and 70% of the T20 matches. They are in the frame to play the final of the World Test championship later this year, and favourites