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Nearly 200 years after thousands of Africans were rescued from illegal slave ships and taken to the remote island of Saint Helena by the British royal navy, scientists have uncovered new clues about where many of them came from and the journeys they were forced to make before crossing the Atlantic.

Imagine leaving a locked food box in your backyard and returning the next morning to find it open. Now imagine that every raccoon opened it differently.

Every summer, a vast stretch of the Gulf of Mexico transforms into what scientists call a "dead zone," an area where oxygen levels in the water become so low that most marine life cannot survive. Fish flee if they can, while shrimp, crabs and bottom-dwelling organisms are often trapped in what researchers describe as "hell waters." Biologists have mapped one of the largest dead zones recorded in nearly four decades, highlighting a worsening environmental problem that threatens marine biodiversity, commercial fisheries and the livelihoods of thousands of people along the US Gulf Coast.

In 1869, French artist and amateur naturalist Etienne Leopold Trouvelot imported a species of moth to his home in Medford, Massachusetts, hoping to breed a hardier silkworm that could help establish a domestic silk industry in the United States. During his experiments, some of the insects escaped into the surrounding countryside.

The idea of scientists tickling laboratory rats may sound unusual, but it stems from decades of behavioural research rather than novelty. In the late 1990s, neuroscientists studying animal behaviour found that rats emitted rapid ultrasonic vocalisations while being gently tickled, particularly during play-like interactions.

By the 1950s and 1960s, biologists across North America were reporting an unusual pattern in the nests of bald eagles, peregrine falcons and several other birds of prey. Adult birds were surviving, but many nests were failing because the eggs cracked during incubation.

In April 2022, a routine field survey on a quiet Canadian lake turned into one of the most puzzling wildlife investigations in recent years.

More than a century ago, a small group of chimpanzees helped revolutionise the way scientists understood intelligence. Through a series of pioneering experiments on the Spanish island of Tenerife, these apes demonstrated that they could solve problems using insight rather than relying solely on trial and error - a discovery that challenged long-held assumptions about the uniqueness of human reasoning.

At first glance, the equipment looked surprisingly elaborate for a flock of homing pigeons. Tiny backpacks, hand-stitched hoods inspired by falconry gear, miniature cameras and lightweight electronics were all carefully fitted to birds that would simply fly home as they always had.

Beneath the surface of the ocean, coral reefs create intricate underwater landscapes where countless marine creatures find shelter, food and space to thrive. But when these fragile structures are damaged, rebuilding them is far more difficult than replacing a broken wall or fallen tree.