Nature — Page 2
Natural phenomena
204 facts
A new plant that does not photosynthesise was discovered in Malaysia.
Thismia aliasii, nicknamed the fairy lantern, obtains nutrients by parasitising fungi instead of photosynthesising…
Some plants, such as cycads, can heat themselves up to 15 degrees above ambient temperature.
Cycads, ancient plants that coexisted with dinosaurs, produce heat through a metabolic process to attract pollinating…
The rocks that move by themselves in Death Valley are pushed by the wind.
At Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, rocks slide over the clay surface. The mystery was solved in 2014: when it rains…
The Atacama Desert in Chile is covered in flowers after unusual rainfall.
The Atacama is one of the driest deserts in the world. In years with exceptional rainfall, more than 200 species of…
A fungus that turns spiders into zombies has been discovered.
A new species of fungus was discovered in 2025 and infects spiders, controlling their behaviour before killing them…
An unknown green photoprotein has been discovered in a marine organism.
Researchers identified a set of natural green photoproteins in the marine organism Velamen parallelum. These…
A time crystal has been created using common screen materials.
Researchers created a classical time crystal using liquid crystals, the same type of material used in smartphone and…
The extinction rate of plants at the tops of European mountains is increasing.
A study from the University of Vienna analysed 62 European mountain peaks and concluded that while plant diversity…
The Atacama Desert in Chile never has flowers.
The Desierto Florido is a phenomenon in which more than 200 species of annual plants and geophytes germinate after…
The smell of rain on dry ground comes from soil bacteria.
The characteristic smell of rain, called petrichor, is caused by a molecule called geosmin, produced by soil…
Volcanic eruptions can produce lightning, called dirty thunderstorms.
During eruptions, ash and rock fragments collide and generate electrical charges. The result is volcanic lightning…
Giant sequoias can live for more than 3,000 years.
Giant sequoias in California are the oldest trees in the world. Some exceed 3,000 years of age. Their thick bark…
Antarctica is a desert, despite being covered in ice.
A desert is defined by the amount of precipitation, not by temperature. Antarctica receives less than 50 millimetres…
Lotus leaves repel water and always stay clean.
The surface of lotus leaves has a microscopic structure that makes water form droplets and slide off, taking dirt…
An average cumulus cloud weighs about 500 tonnes.
A typical cumulus cloud contains about 500 tonnes of water in the form of droplets. The weight does not fall on us…
All snowflakes have six sides, but no two are alike.
Snowflakes form from ice crystals that grow according to the hexagonal structure of the water molecule. That is why…
The Earth is struck by about 100 lightning bolts per second.
It is estimated that about 100 lightning bolts occur per second across the planet, which adds up to about 8 million…
The largest living organism in the world is a fungus in Oregon, United States.
The fungus Armillaria ostoyae, in Oregon, covers about 9.6 square kilometres and is estimated to be between 2,400 and…
Trees communicate with each other through underground fungal networks.
Tree roots connect to networks of mycorrhizal fungi growing in the soil. Through these networks, trees exchange…
A single lightning bolt has enough energy to toast 100,000 slices of bread.
A typical lightning bolt carries about 1 billion joules of energy. That energy would be enough to toast about 100,000…
There is a giant lake hidden beneath the ice of Antarctica.
Lake Vostok, in Antarctica, is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world and is hidden beneath about 4…
The Petrified Forest in Arizona has tree trunks more than 200 million years old.
The Petrified Forest in Arizona contains tree trunks that lived more than 200 million years ago, in the Triassic…
A rainbow is actually a complete circle, although we usually only see half of it.
Rainbows are complete circles formed by the refraction of light in raindrops. From the ground, we only see the upper…
The fire rainbow is a rare atmospheric phenomenon caused by ice crystals.
The fire rainbow, also called a circumhorizontal arc, has nothing to do with fire. It is an optical phenomenon caused…