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We\u2019re not comfortable being bored, according to a study published in the journal Science. The paper suggestedpeople would rather give themselves electric shocks than be left alone with their thoughts.

Where humans detect colours via three receptors in our eyes, the mantis shrimp have twelve. And a new study indicates six of those detect five different wavelengths of ultraviolet light.\xa0The mantis shrimp has adapted \u201cnature\u2019s sunscreens\u2019\xa0\u2013 mycosporine-like amino acids \u2013 and turned them into ultraviolet detectors.

Despite not having ears,\xa0plants can \u2018hear\u2019 the chomp of nearby caterpillars. Two researchers from University of Missouri noticed plants produced a pesticide chemical when they heard the sound of hungry, hungry caterpillars.

A common lichen in South America\xa0turns out to actually be 126 distinct species\xa0\u2013 and maybe more than 400. This highlights the difficulties involved in classifying and categorizing life, and the advances that modern gene technologies are bringing to taxonomy.

After a comprehensive study of the world\u2019s oceans, oceanographers \u201ccan\u2019t account for 99 percent of the plastic that we have in the ocean\u201c. There are a few hypotheses to explain the missing plastic, but none are very conclusive. Also Illinois has now banned\xa0the sale of cosmetics containing plastic microbeads, which\xa0are too small to be filtered from waste-water and end up released into oceans and other large bodies of water.

Plucky Ukrainian astronomers\xa0have \u2018adopted\u2019 a star and given it a name\xa0that\u2019s, well, somewhat\xa0insulting to Vladimir Putin.