There was a time when stars in the night sky were a simile for infinity — one could see so many spluttered across a black blanket that counting them would take a lifetime! Fast forward to today, the night sky is lit not by the moon or stars but by city lights. Indiscriminate use of artificial light — from light bulbs in buildings to sodium lamps on streets to glaring neon billboards — has killed the joy of stargazing. It is estimated that about 83% of the world’s population lives in areas contaminated by light pollution.

^{Atlantic horseshoe crabs in the US
[Image credits: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]}

Bizarre patterns, vibrant colours, heady scents — flowers present a buffet of choices to draw pollinators. In fact, studies have shown that bees, butterflies, and other pollinating insects have particular preferences in the flowers they visit. What’s more, they also tweak their tastes according to the changing environment.

Astronomers detected a planet outside our Solar System orbiting a star like our Sun, for the first time in 1995. Known as ‘exoplanets’, the theoretical understanding of the formation of stars had long pointed to the existence of such worlds. Before 1995, astronomers had claimed to discover exoplanets, but it was difficult to confirm these discoveries. Later, it turned out that one such claim, made in 1988, was indeed correct. However, the discoverers of the exoplanet in 1995, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2019.

^{Image Credits: KV Gururaja}

In the animal world, finding a mate, protecting territory and fending off competitors who vie for love are defining moments. Only those adept at the needed skills for these ‘do-or-die’ circumstances survive, reproduce and thrive. A few animals go the extra mile—sing a romantic song, flash their colours to scare competitors and also woo their mate, some chirp high loud to stand out in the crowd and some, like the dancing frogs, shake a leg!

^{[Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0]}

^{Himalayan forest thrush (Zoothera salimalii), a songbird discovered in 2016 and named after Salim Ali, the renowned Indian ornithologist. [Image Credits: Craig Brelsford, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons]}

^{Gold nanoparticles dispersed in water [Image Credits: Nikonianman / CC BY-SA 4.0]}

Fireflies, also called jugnoo in Hindi are fascinating creatures that glow in the dark with unique patterns. Even though they are called ‘fireflies’, scientifically they are considered beetles from the Lampyridae family. The light that we see coming out of these insects is the result of bioluminescence, a phenomenon where an organism emits light through a chemical process.

Carnivorous plants may not be the first thing that comes to one’s mind when thinking about plants. But, these mysterious plants are a fantastic example of nature’s way to adapt to different environmental conditions.