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Gallery

Birds from hot, humid climates are the latest to be studied in the Hot Birds Project

Birds such as pygmy kingfishers and collared sunbirds that are found in hot, humid climates can handle larger spikes in body temperature better than bird species flying about in hot deserts or cool mountains.

Talking Point

Four novelists, one ocean: how Indian Ocean literature can remap the world

Novels make worlds. They create an intuitive sense and mental image of a place. And the senses of space produced by fiction shape how readers see the world itself, just like maps do.

Story

Beetles use mimicry to fool bees into feeding them

A breakthrough study from the University of Pretoria has found that small hive beetles trapped inside a honeybee nest sneakily entice the very bees that keep them prisoner into providing them with the best of what there is to feed on in the hive – even some of the queen’s portion.

Photo

A battle between bees and beetles

Small hive beetles (Aethina tumida) sometimes invade nests to feed on pollen and honey stores, and to lay eggs. So African honeybee subspecies herd the tiny insects into inaccessible cracks and corners of the nest where they can cause no harm. The beetles then dupe the bees that keep them prisoner into providing them with the best food in the hive.

Stories

UP part of global research team to present the first image of Sagittarius A*

Astronomers have unveiled the first image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy. The announcement was made at simultaneous press conferences around the world. Professor Roger Deane, an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria and Director for the Centre of Astrophysics at the University of Witwatersrand and Wits Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr Iniyan...

Infographic

The Timeline to Sgr A*

Supermassive black holes were predicted by Einstein in 1915. Despite their huge size, they remain unseeable. In an unprecedented international effort, scientists are making them visible.