Nature

The Hollywood actor has decided to join the Scottish Rewilding Alliance, an alliance of 20 nature organisations calling on the government to recognise Scotland as the 1st ‘Rewilding Nation’ on the planet to develop ways to protect the environment. This commits the country to restoring 30 per cent of its marine and land areas.

The actor wrote that approximately 6 millennia ago Scotland looked very different. The current landscape is dramatically different from the past. If before it was an abundance of greenery, heathlands, marshes, today they are replaced by scarce hills with degraded sheep pastures and fragments of spruce plantations.

Pages: 1 2

As it turned out, this variety appeared 350-600 millennia ago as a result of natural crossing of Coffea eugenioides and Coffea canephora. This happened without (and even before) human intervention.

Although wild coffee plants grow in Ethiopia, it is believed that their first roasting and preparation began in Yemen in the 15th century. According to legend, an Indian monk named Budan secretly smuggled 7 raw coffee beans back to his homeland in the 17th century, helping to spread coffee around the world.

Nowadays, approximately 60-70 per cent of global coffee turnover is Arabica.

Pages: 1 2

The body’s statement says that the council wants to keep the metropolis in a decent condition for both those who live in it and for visitors. And supermass tourism will clearly hinder this. It is decided to limit the number of so-called tourist nights to 20 million annually.

It is also emphasised that a new hotel can only be built in the city if one of the previous ones closes. And the new building must clearly meet the most modern quality requirements, including environmental ones.

Pages: 1 2

Botanists in Birmingham have shared some welcome news: the alpine puya, a unique plant from Chile’s Andes Mountains, has bloomed. This stunning natural creation is a distant relative of the pineapple and typically grows at altitudes of up to 2.2 kilometres. It is pollinated by hummingbirds. And in Birmingham, scientists are playing the role of caring birds using paintbrushes.

Pages: 1 2

As it turned out, when educators looked at the papers in alphabetical order, students whose last names begin with the letters A-E were rated 0.3 points above average. And students with surnames beginning with the letters F-Z received 0.3 points lower. The researchers said the difference they found affected students’ overall academic performance and career prospects.

Pages: 1 2