There’s also some bad news…
Appetite of Amazonian cities impact wildlife up to 1,000 km away
Lots of mouths to feed.
What is the longest river in the world? That’s surprisingly debatable
Some scientists think the crown for the ‘largest river’ is like a competition. We explain why this silly.
Book review: ‘The Power of Networks: Six Principles that connect our Lives’
A great introduction to how networks work.
The Amazon Stonehenge: Drones discover hundreds of ancient earthworks in the basin
Large, mysterious earthworks built thousands of years ago were discovered in the Amazon basin.
First images of the Amazonian reef released by Greenpeace
More like Amazingonian reef, am I right?
Scientists find 1,000-km-long coral reef at the mouth of the Amazon
It’s a true “Wow!” moment.
An Amazonian tribe is defending their forests from illegal loggers with bow and arrow
Motivated by the love for their native lands and armed with bows, arrows, GPS trackers and camera traps, an indigenous community in northern Brazil is fighting to achieve what officials couldn’t – stop illegal logging in their part of the Amazon.
Amazon holds contest to see who’s the best robot that can replace a warehouse worker
Over the weekend, Amazon – a company that employs more than 50,000 people in its warehouses alone – organized a contest where engineering teams from all over the world were invited to present a robot that can fulfill simple warehouse duties. Though some of the bots were quite impressive, all of them failed miserably at some point, even at a task so simple as grabbing an item from a shelf and placing it in a tub. It’s not that they couldn’t do this, rather they were so slow and clumsy that any warehouse worker witnessing the display might think he’s a superhero and his job is safer than the pope in the Vatican. Well, that may be true … but who knows for how long. After all, any repetitive task can be automated, eventually.
Dust from the Sahara Desert Fertilizes the Amazon’s Forests
The Sahara Desert and the Amazon area have few things in common – one is a dry, barren wasteland, while the other is the most fertile area on Earth. But according to a new NASA study, there may be more than meets the eye when it comes to the two – dust from the Saharan area makes the trans-Atlantic journey, fertilizing the Amazonian rainforest with phosphorus.
Uncontacted Amazon tribe raids neighboring village; raises fear of retaliation
The past couple of months have been really tense for the people who are often times labeled as coming from ‘uncontacted’ tribes. The truth of is most of these tribes are often times intruded upon by neighboring communities and, worse and most dangerous of all, illegal loggers and drug traffickers. As such, tribesmen have come out in the open, forced upon
Members of a previously uncontacted Amazonian tribe become infected with influenza
A few months ago, I reported how Google is using its drones and Google Earth technology to monitor an uncontacted Amazonian tribe. Now, there’s convincing evidence that the same tribe has come in contact with non-indigenous locals, then with western researchers in the most unfortunate of circumstances. One, the contact was initiated by criminals operating illegal narcotrafficking whose routes apparently pass
Google Earth used to track uncontacted Amazonian tribe
The so-called developing world is riddled with isolated communities that hear little or any news from the outside world. It takes a lot of imagination, however, to understand how the few people, part of the last remaining, truly pure indigenous tribes of the Amazon basin, must live like. Located deep in the Amazon rainforest, members of such communities continue to
New Arapaima species discovered in Amazon: a giant fish that can breath air
Also known as the paiche or the pirarucu, the arapaima is one of the most fascinating species of fish in the world. It’s one of the largest freshwater fish in the world, and certainly the biggest in South America, being a native to the Amazon Basin and nearby lakes and swamps. These arapaima are absolutely huge, most spanning 2.5 meters in length and weighing
Finnish archaeologist digs up ancient civilization in Brazil
Archaeologist and professor Martti Pärssinen from the University of Helsinki has made a sensational find: he found signs of a unknown ancient civilisation in the Amazonian area, unearthing several unique artefacts, including entirely new forms of ceramics. As bad as the clearing of Amazonian rainforests is, Pärssinen took advantage of it and studied some mysterious patterns in the earth. The
Mysterious engineering insect builds white-picket fence to protect egg nest
While browsing reddit the other day, I came across a most peculiar finding. One of the users, Decapod73 or Tony Alexander in real life, posted photos he took while on an expedition in the Peruvian Amazon forest of intricate structures that bear an uncanny resemblance to a white picket circular fence – right in the center, half of a cocoon lays proud
Ecuador plans to move ahead controversial drilling efforts in the Amazon
Yasuni National Park to be one of the world’s richest biological hotspots, home to one of the densest biodiversity in the world. The region has been under threat, however, from oil drilling efforts for many years now, and a recent announcement from behalf of the Ecuador government further tightens the knot on the Amazon basin. President Rafael Correa said that as the
How roads could help protect the environment instead of destroying it
Rapidly expanding road networks are causing massive direct and indirect damage to forests but proper infrastructure planning and implementation could actually turn them into a net positive for the environment, argue researchers writing in the journal Science. William Laurance and Andrew Balmford have studied the severe negative environmental issues caused by expanding road networks in wilderness areas, including fostering illegal
Scientists discover vividly colored lizards in the Peruvian Amazon
There is still unbelievably much we have yet to discover from the Amazon. Now, researchers have uncovered two new species of woodlizards from Peru. Woodlizards are little known species of reptiles, with only 10 species being described so far, all of which are found in Central or South America (9 in Peru). These new found species were found in Cordillera
Apollo 11 rocket engines may have been recovered from Atlantic Ocean floor
Jeff Bezos is an extraordinary individual whom I admire very much, not because of its almost ubiquitous success in every attempt he has endeavored, but rather because Bezos, much like SpaceX‘s Elon Musk, is a man of vision – a man that recognizes value both in man and nature, and strives for progress. The Amazon founder, like all great visionaries, is