Goldfish Learn To Drive

A new way to make plastics could 
keep them from littering the seas
Read more: 
www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/sea-plastics
On February 16, 1861, a massive earthquake struck the Indonesian island of 
Sumatra, causing damage (aftermath of a 2005 Indonesian quake shown).
It also triggered a tsunami that claimed thousands of lives. A quake that 
preceded it started in 1829 — and didn’t stop for 32 years! Yet no one felt a 
single shake. Such “slow-slip events” weren’t even confirmed to exist until 
about 20 years ago. But we now “love” them, says geoscientist Rishav Mallick 
of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. “They give you all of the 
excitement of earthquakes, just in slow motion.” By investigating them, 
scientists hope to better understand regular quakes — and possibly how to 
predict them. — JoAnna Wendel
Read more:
 
www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/silent-earthquakes
What can ‘silent earthquakes’ teach 
us about the next Big One?
In March 2020, a group of conservationists in Australia fenced an area of hilly 
eucalyptus forest, removing nonnative foxes and feral cats. Then the team 
released some Tasmanian devils (one shown), the world’s largest carnivorous 
marsupials. These became the first devils in the wilds of mainland Australia 
in 3,000 years. Such reintroductions are known as rewilding, and it can help 
restore ecosystems in which native species have disappeared due to hunting or 
the presence of invasive species. Rewilding can “give space for nature to do its 
job,” explains Henrique Pereira, a biodiversity conservation researcher at the 
German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research in Leipzig. The idea is to 
step back, he says, and “let nature do some work for us.” — Alison Pearce Stevens
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