The cave bear is one of the dozens of species of large Pleistocene mammals that faced extinction during the last Ice Age. Until today, the reasons for their extinctions remain mysterious, especially since the cave bear Ursus spelaeus populated vast areas of Eurasia for more... click to read more

The industrial burning of fossil fuels is adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, trapping heat near the planet's surface and warming the oceans. A major effect of warming is to reduce the amount of dissolved oxygen (O2) found in the sea. This effect arises for... click to read more

It has been estimated that coffee farming provides livelihoods for around 100 million people worldwide, most of which are smallholder farmers. For many coffee producing countries, coffee exports make up a significant and critically important proportion of their export earnings. Despite the number of producers... click to read more

Future trajectories of global population growth, and the associated demand for vegetable-based oils for biofuels and human consumption make it evident that the expansion of oil palm cultivation will hardly slow down in the next 50 years. It is forecasted that a substantial portion of... click to read more

Why is there variation in the number of species between different groups of animals and plants? Why do some groups seem to be more "evolutionarily successful" with a higher number of species than other? For instance, there are over 10,000 species of birds but just... click to read more