Animal and Environmental Biology students newsletter

By Patience Asanga Image Source:  Deborah Carannante,  CC-BY-NC-ND To some people, watching insects dance around a light source at night is always a fascinating sight to behold. Unbeknownst to most admirers, this fluky concert is more or less a dance of doom for most insect species. A number of insect species like mosquitoes, bugs, moths, and many others have an inseparable connection with bright lights like lamps. This uncanny love for bright lights could be attributed to an insect's perception of light. Some insects view light at a certain wavelength as a safe haven away from their precarious environment, while others like the moths who use the moonlight as a navigational tool are often confused and distracted from their journey at the sight of a brighter light source. Whichever way it goes, this attraction always spells doom for the nocturnal creatures because they are quite often exposed to their predators or roasted to death by the heat that is being emitted from the ligh...

By Patience Asanga Image source: Pexel After almost 2 decades of the campaign for clean fuels and vehicles, which was led by the United Nations environment programme, the use of leaded petrol was officially brought to an end, globally, on the 30th of August, 2021. This feat was achieved after Algeria, which was the last country to use leaded petrol, stopped selling in July. According to Inger Andersen, the executive director of UNEP, the ban is a huge leap for global health and the environment. Lead, which is added to automobile engines to prevent knocking, is a rather severe environmental contaminant with a notoriety for causing drastic health problems, especially in children. The effect of this toxic chemical spans from mental impairment to reproductive issues.