Penny Sarchet

Aug 20, 2024 | newscientist.com | Penny Sarchet

Until recently, many discounted the idea that life could have existed on Earth before 3.8 billion years ago because it was thought that heavy pummelling from asteroids would have made this impossible. But several lines of evidence are pointing to an earlier origin of life, and as we begin to question whether the late heavy bombardment really happened at all, it’s beginning to look like life started surprisingly early in our planet’s history.

Jul 3, 2024 | newscientist.com | Penny Sarchet

A multicolour venomous snake, found in dry tropical forests in central Vietnam, is a newly-recognised species. Trimeresurus cyanolabris has a bright grass-green body, yellow eyes, brick red tail and blue lips, chin and throat, and has been dubbed the blue-lipped green pitviper. The snake, which feeds on small frogs and lizards, is most active at dusk and after nightfall, spending the day perched on branches or in the hollows of trees near streams. T.

Jun 18, 2024 | newscientist.com | Penny Sarchet

The following is an extract from our nature newsletter Wild Wild Life. Sign up to receive it for free in your inbox every month. I’ve completely non-dramatically been referring to this spring and summer as slugmageddon. If you’re a gardener in northern Europe, you probably know what I mean – the mild winter and wet spring has led to staggering numbers of slugs and snails. Every morning I dread looking out the window to discover the night’s damage, and you, like me, may now have a…

May 23, 2024 | newscientist.com | Penny Sarchet

The following is an extract from our nature newsletter Wild Wild Life. Sign up to receive it for free in your inbox every month. The bird breeding season is well underway here in the UK now, including inside my house. A brood of starlings is being raised in our loft, and as the days have gone by, tiny squeals have become cheerfully loud squawks. I’m coming towards the end of my maternity leave, so the wellbeing of our avian lodgers has automatically…

May 2, 2024 | newscientist.com | Penny Sarchet

The following is an extract from our nature newsletter Wild Wild Life. Sign up to receive it for free in your inbox every month. I’ve been thinking a lot about roots lately. In the seven years I spent studying and researching plants at university, there was always something of a bias towards the easier-to-see parts of a plant – the stems, leaves, flowers and fruit. My doctoral work focussed on the genetics of fruit and seed dispersal, but during one of my experiments I remember a…