Scientists Found A Hilariously Simple Way To Stop Seagulls Stealing Your Chips
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Scientists Found A Hilariously Simple Way To Stop Seagulls Stealing Your Chips


Technically, seagulls are not a bird of prey. But try telling that to the snacking tourists on my nearest beach; they start scanning the skies for chip predators, ducking for cover like voles facing the claws of a kestrel.

Some research has found that no matter what lifestyle they lead, seagulls seem programmed to dive-bomb at boxes of fish and chips.

But a new study might have found a surprising answer: painting eyes on chop boxes.

Why does that help?

According to a paper published in Ecology and Evolution, “gulls were slower to approach and less likely to peck a takeaway food box with eye-like stimuli compared to a box without eyes”.

The researchers measured how often herring gulls approached boxes with eyes painted on them with their approach to plain boxes. They were slower to approach the more watchful-seeming containers and pecked them less often.

Overall, the step reduced thefts by as much as 50%. And that reduction remained even after the seagulls had been exposed to takeaway eye boxes multiple times.

Lots of animals are put off by the presence of eye-like markings, the study added.

Previously, the researchers wrote, a similar approach has proven successful in keeping predators from assaulting cattle, preventing birds from gathering in airports, and ensuring seabirds stop foraging near fishing nets.

However, the paper cautioned that responses to the eyes were “highly individual”; not all species of gull may react the same way, and even among herring gulls, about half didn’t seem to care about the change at all.

What else could help?

The University of Exeter has previously found that shouting at seagulls could keep them away from your chips.

And staring at them might work, too (they really don’t seem to like eyes).

Depending on how seriously you take your beachside fish and chips, you could try a painted box, yelling, and intense eye contact trio…




Why Canadian seeds are on their way to the moon with Artemis II – New Brunswick | Globalnews.ca
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Why Canadian seeds are on their way to the moon with Artemis II – New Brunswick | Globalnews.ca


Thousands of kilometres from Earth, in an aluminum foil envelope, 2,600 Canadian seeds are on a voyage through outer space — along with the Artemis II crew.

Why Canadian seeds are on their way to the moon with Artemis II – New Brunswick | Globalnews.ca

“Looks a little bit like five aluminum ravioli stuck together, is what I’ve been telling people,” National Tree Seed Centre coordinator Darren Derbowka said.

The seeds include lodgepole pine, eastern white cedar, red maple, white birch and eastern white pine.

But they won’t be used to start a moon forest, or even for research. Instead, their purpose is much closer to home.

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“Right now, 25 per cent of Canada’s native trees are imperiled or threatened in some way. So this project is really to sort of build that awareness around the importance of seed,” Derbowka said.

The National Tree Seed Centre, located in Fredericton, has over 13,000 seed collections of more than 250 species of trees and shrubs.

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Derbowka said that conservation work is becoming more important as a result of climate change — and he hopes Artemis II will bring light to the important work happening on Earth.


“There’s already one planet in this solar system that needs terraforming and we are standing on it,” he said.

The seeds aren’t the only Canadian representation on board. Astronaut and London, Ont., resident Jeremy Hansen is on his way to making history as the first Canadian to fly around the moon. And University of New Brunswick faculty and students are tracking the spacecraft, Orion, as part of a volunteer program with NASA.

“It’s contributing a little piece of Canada onto a really important space exploration mission, and so the opportunity to do that is a once-in-a-lifetime chance,” Derbowka said.

 

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.


I’m A Beginner Gardener – Here’s Exactly What I’m Planting This Spring
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I’m A Beginner Gardener – Here’s Exactly What I’m Planting This Spring


This summer will be my fifth summer in this house and that means it’s also my fifth summer of enjoying my garden, reading on the grass outside with my cat on lunch breaks and trying to be something of a successful gardener.

Like all creative pursuits, gardening comes with the acceptance that failure is essential to growth but nevertheless, I’ll be planting salad leaves, potatoes, cornflowers and dahlias just to name a few this spring.

I know that I should have done some planting in the winter so that I’d see my garden blooming in the coming spring days but I’ll be honest, the chill of Scottish winters don’t exactly motivate me to kneel on frosty grass.

What I’ll be planting to make my small garden bloom

Another thing worth noting is that my garden is tiny. I live in a cottage flat, which is a popular type of housing in the west of Scotland. Basically, it’s a two-storey block containing four separate flats. It’s like a house split into four and our back garden is split with the upstairs neighbours.

So when it comes to gardening, I’m working with limited space and can’t risk taking over their space.

Vegetables I’ll be planting in March

Ideal for beginners, salad leaves can be planted in spring for summer harvesting and make for delicious, fresh summer lunches. For me, I’ll be going for just standard loose-leaf lettuce but other options include spinach, chard and rocket, according to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).

Have you ever tasted homegrown tomatoes? Honestly, once you have, you’ll struggle to tolerate supermarket ones ever again. I’ll be growing some Cordon tomatoes and BBC Gardener’s World advises: “Cordon tomatoes grow to a height of 1.5-2m and need some form of support, such as stout string secured under the plants’ roots and tied to an overhead frame or wire, and proprietary grow frame supports.

“You can also train cordon tomatoes on sturdy bamboo canes, trellis or to wires on a fence.”

I’ve grown potatoes before and it is an incredibly rewarding process but you are kept in the dark (pun intended) on their process for a long time so you kind of have to hope for the best until it’s time to harvest.

Potatoes can be grown directly in soil (which isn’t possible with my garden, unfortunately), in grow bags or in containers. I’ll be growing some main-crop potatoes which can be harvested after around 15-20 weeks.

Flowers I’ll be planting in March

Cornflowers are bold, blue flowers that perfectly punctuate gardens but more than that, they’re SO easy to grow. The RHS even recommends them as beginner flowers for kids to grow. Sowing them in March will bring some colour to your garden from around July-September. Lovely.

As I’m in Scotland, I’ll have to wait until frost has definitely gone before planting Zinnia as they’re very sensitive to chilly temperatures but once the warm days are definitely here, I’ll be planting them in a container, stored in a sunny part of my garden.

Dahlias are hardy flowers which is essential for our climate According to the National Dahlia Society: “Dahlias can be grown in an herbaceous border, in mixed beds, or as a dedicated dahlia display.”

I will be opting for a dedicated display in some pots with great drainage.

Are you going to be tackling the garden this spring?




WHOI’s Alan Seltzer earns prestigious F.G. Houtermans Award | Newswise
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WHOI’s Alan Seltzer earns prestigious F.G. Houtermans Award | Newswise


Newswise — Woods Hole, Mass. (February 4, 2026) – Alan Seltzer, an affiliated scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), assistant professor at University College Dublin, and former WHOI postdoctoral scholar, has been named the 2026 recipient of the F.G. Houtermans Award by the European Association of Geochemistry (EAG). The award is among the highest international honors recognizing early-career scientists in geochemistry.

Seltzer is being recognized for pioneering the use of dissolved gas isotopes to quantify physical and biogeochemical processes across the Earth system, including exploring the sensitivity of groundwater systems to climate and the dynamics of atmosphere-ocean gas exchange. Much of the work cited by the award committee was conducted at WHOI, where Seltzer was a postdoctoral scholar from 2019 to 2021 and later a member of the scientific staff in the Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department, where he established a gas isotope tracer laboratory and developed several new analytical techniques.

His research helped open new pathways for using noble gas and nitrogen isotopes to investigate groundwater, seawater, air, and volcanic gases. Seltzer also helped extend high-precision noble gas isotope techniques to volcanic systems in collaboration with WHOI associate scientist Peter Barry to better understand the origins and transport pathways of volatiles from Earth’s deep interior. He also expanded oceanic applications of noble gas tracers for air-sea interaction and glacial meltwater circulation with WHOI scientists Bill Jenkins and Roo Nicholson, and more recently advanced high-precision tools for quantifying nitrogen cycling in aquatic environments in collaboration with MIT-WHOI Joint Program student Katelyn McPaul and WHOI associate scientist Scott Wankel.

“It is an honor to be recognized with the F.G. Houtermans Award,” Seltzer said. “WHOI has a special culture in which collaboration and high-risk science are celebrated, and without the encouragement and freedom at WHOI to take risks, push analytical limits, and fail a lot along the way, much of my work would not have been possible. I’m deeply grateful for all the support I’ve received from the WHOI community over my career so far.”

Seltzer’s selection continues a notable streak for WHOI’s Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department. Former WHOI postdoctoral scholar David Bekaert received the Houtermans Award in 2025, marking back-to-back years in which the honor has gone to WHOI-trained scientists—a rare distinction that highlights the strength and impact of the Institution’s postdoctoral program.

The 2026 F.G. Houtermans Award will be formally presented at the Goldschmidt Conference in July.

About Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930, its primary mission is to understand the ocean and its interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate an understanding of the ocean’s role in the changing global environment. Top scientists, engineers, and students collaborate on more than 800 concurrent projects worldwide—both above and below the waves—pushing the boundaries of knowledge and possibility. 




Accurately Predicting Arctic Sea Ice in Real Time | Newswise
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Accurately Predicting Arctic Sea Ice in Real Time | Newswise


Newswise — WASHINGTON, Feb. 3, 2026 — Arctic sea ice has large effects on the global climate. By cooling the planet, Arctic ice impacts ocean circulation, atmospheric patterns, and extreme weather conditions, even outside the Arctic region. However, climate change has led to its rapid decline, and being able to make real-time predictions of sea ice extent (SIE) — the area of water with a minimum concentration of sea ice — has become crucial for monitoring sea ice health.

In Chaos, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the United States and the United Kingdom reported accurate, real-time predictions of SIE in Arctic regions. Sea ice coverage is at its minimum in September, making the month a critical indicator of sea ice health and the primary target of the work.

“Indigenous Arctic communities depend on the hunting of species like polar bears, seals, and walruses, for which sea ice provides essential habitat,” said author Dimitri Kondrashov. “There are other economic activities, such as gas and oil drilling, fishing, and tourism, where advance knowledge of accurate ice conditions reduces risks and costs.”

The researchers’ approach treats sea ice evolution as a set of atmospheric and oceanic factors that oscillate at different rates — for example, climate memory at long timescales, annual seasonal cycles, and quickly changing weather — while still interacting with one another. They used the National Snow and Ice Data Center’s average daily SIE measurements from 1978 onward to find the relationships between these factors that affect sea ice.

Testing their prediction method live in September 2024, and retroactively for Septembers of past years, the group confirmed their technique is generally accurate and can capture effects from subseasonal to seasonal timescales. They predicted SIE ranging from one to four months out and found their predictions outperformed other models.

In general, long-term climate forecasts tend to be easier and more reliable than short-term predictions. However, by incorporating regional data into their model, the researchers were able to improve short-term ice and weather estimates.

“The model includes several large Arctic regions composing [the] pan-Arctic,” said Kondrashov. “Despite large differences in sea ice conditions from year to year in different regions, the model can pick it up reasonably accurately.”

The group plans to improve their model by including additional oceanic and atmospheric variables, such as air temperature and sea level pressure. These variables can cause fast changes and short-term fluctuations that are not currently reflected in the model, and the researchers hope these additions will further enhance the predictability of summertime Arctic sea ice.

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The article “Accurate and robust real-time prediction of September Arctic sea ice” is authored by Dimitri Kondrashov, Ivan Sudakow, Valerie N. Livina, and QingPing Yang. It will appear in Chaos on Feb. 3, 2026 (DOI: 10.1063/5.0295634). After that date, it can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0295634.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Chaos is devoted to increasing the understanding of nonlinear phenomena in all areas of science and engineering and describing their manifestations in a manner comprehensible to researchers from a broad spectrum of disciplines. See https://pubs.aip.org/aip/cha.

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