Nature, Environment, Climate Change, Ecology

Mathematicians solve 125-year-old problem to unite key laws of physics

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 12:00:23 -0400

Can one single mathematical framework describe the motion of a fluid and the individual particles within it? This question, first asked in 1900, now has a solution that could help us understand the complex behaviour of the atmosphere and ocean.

Starlink satellite part hit a Canadian farm when it fell from orbit

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 11:07:24 -0400

A failed launch left a batch of Starlink satellites in the wrong orbit last year, and it appears that a fragment of one fell to Earth and hit a farm in Canada. Thankfully, no one was injured

Why I quit my homestead dream just as farmer tradwives became mainstream

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 10:00:22 -0400

Our homesteading journey began with self-sufficiency and a dream, but it evolved through loss and social media fame

Our homesteading experiment began before tradwives, before Donald Trump, before Covid-19. It was the summer of 2015 when we were all sure no one would vote for a former reality TV star. I was 25 years old and desperate for a security blanket, working a sales job and looking for excuses not to return to college.

My husband, Patrick, and I had talked about farming since our first date. We wanted goats. At his 2-acre property in a quiet suburb of Portland, Maine, we kept a few chickens and a scrawny vegetable garden.

Should governments really be using AI to remake the state?

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 09:15:31 -0400

New Scientist's revelation that a UK minister is asking ChatGPT for advice raises the question of what role these new AI tools should play in government – and whether we should really think of them as intelligent

Memory illusion makes you think events occurred earlier than they did

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 09:00:32 -0400

It can be difficult to recall exactly when a specific event happened, and now it seems our memory can be tricked into pushing occurrences back in time, making us think they happened earlier than in reality

UK hoping to work with China to counteract Trump’s climate-hostile policies

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 07:16:15 -0400

Ed Miliband visits Beijing as part of plan to create global axis working in favour of climate action

Ed Miliband: ‘The global battle against the climate crisis needs China’

The UK is hoping to shape a new global axis in favour of climate action along with China and a host of developing countries, to offset the impact of Donald Trump’s abandonment of green policies and his sharp veer towards climate-hostile countries such as Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Ed Miliband, the UK’s energy and net zero secretary, arrived in Beijing on Friday for three days of talks with top Chinese officials, including discussions on green technology supply chains, coal and the critical minerals needed for clean energy. The UK’s green economy is growing three times faster than the rest of the economy, but access to components and materials will be crucial for that to continue.

AI scientists are sceptical that modern models will lead to AGI

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 07:00:31 -0400

In a survey of AI researchers, most say current AI models are unlikely to lead to artificial general intelligence with human-level capabilities, even as companies invest billions of dollars in this goal

There’s nothing like digging up the year’s first crop of spuds

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 07:00:20 -0400

While potatoes are cheap to buy, growing unusual varieties is a joy – and delicious too

As a rule, I discourage small-space gardeners from growing potatoes as they need a fair amount of room and are cheap to buy. Nonetheless, they’re a classic grow-your-own crop: satisfying to cultivate, a pleasure to harvest and delicious – especially if you choose a variety you might not see in a supermarket, such as the heirloom variety Sharpe’s Express (pictured above).

Potatoes are divided into different groups based on how long it takes them to produce crops. The most coveted – and expensive – are the “first earlies”, or new potatoes, which can be planted now and into April, to be ready in June and into July. Those that follow are called “second earlies” and go into the ground a couple of weeks later, to be dug up in August. The earlies are delectable when freshly harvested; they can’t be stored for long and have the added bonus of (hopefully!) hitting your plate before blight threatens.

How cloud-seeding could help us predict when it will snow

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 06:00:11 -0400

These brilliant images show how researchers in Switzerland are using weather-modification techniques to understand how ice crystals form in clouds, an important and poorly understood factor in climate and weather models

More than half of life on Earth experiencing unprecedented conditions

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 06:00:08 -0400

An analysis of changes to global ecosystems has revealed that almost nowhere is untouched by the influence of humanity, with more than 50 per cent of the planet's land mass experiencing "novel" conditions

Why the long history of calculating pi will never be completed

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 05:00:26 -0400

Building the full value of pi has been a project thousands of years in the making, but just how much of this infinite number do we actually need, asks our maths columnist Jacob Aron

Week in wildlife: leapfrogging monkeys, a strolling tortoise and Lincolnshire seals

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 04:00:20 -0400

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

The global battle against the climate crisis needs China. I’m visiting Beijing, and that’s what I’ll tell them | Ed Miliband

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 03:00:20 -0400

I will be the first UK energy secretary since 2017 to visit. It is negligence towards today’s and future generations not to engage China on this critical topic

The climate crisis is an existential threat to our way of life in Britain. Extreme weather is already changing the lives of people and communities across the country, from thousands of acres of farmland being submerged due to storms such as Bert and Darragh to record numbers of heat-related deaths in recent summers.

The only way to respond to this challenge is with decisive action at home and abroad. Domestically, this government’s clean-energy superpower mission is about investing in homegrown clean energy so we can free the UK from dependence on fossil fuel markets while seizing the immense opportunities for jobs and growth.

Richest farmers in England may lose sustainability funding in Defra review

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 03:00:19 -0400

Exclusive: Officials explore restricting incentive to allocate greater funds to farms with less money and more nature

The richest farmers will not be able to apply for post-Brexit nature funding under plans for England being considered by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Farming groups and climate experts have warned that such a plan would “leave farmers in the cold” and make it more difficult for the UK to reach net zero by 2050.

Attacking a young tourist over her treatment of a wombat is hypocritical – and misses the point | Georgie Purcell

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 02:33:47 -0400

What’s happening to our native wildlife across the country is just as horrific as what we witnessed in that video – it’s just occurring behind closed doors

We’ve all seen the distressing footage of an American influencer taking a wombat joey away from its mother. The joey hisses and stirs, while the distraught mother circles the woman until she eventually drops it back to the side of the road.

The tourist calls herself both a conservationist and an ecologist. But most of us can recognise that this is not the behaviour of someone who values our native wildlife.

‘All the birds returned’: How a Chinese project led the way in water and soil conservation

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 02:00:18 -0400

The Loess plateau was the most eroded place on Earth until China took action and reversed decades of damage from grazing and farming

It was one of China’s most ambitious environmental endeavours ever.

The Loess plateau, an area spanning more than 245,000 sq miles (640,000 sq km) across three provinces and parts of four others, supports about 100 million people. By the end of the 20th century, however, this land, once fertile and productive, was considered the most eroded place on Earth, according to a documentary by the ecologist John D Liu.

National Trust creates living gene bank of endangered native black poplar

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 01:00:19 -0400

Cuttings of tree captured by John Constable being planted on restored Devon floodplain

Captured by John Constable in one of his most celebrated paintings, the black poplar tree was once as common as oak and beech in Britain.

Now the rarest and most threatened native species in the country, the National Trust is creating a living gene bank of the black poplar to ensure Constable’s The Hay Wain does not become a tribute to an extinct breed.

You could train your brain to be less fooled by optical illusions

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 20:01:20 -0400

Shifting your focus could help you overcome the trickery of optical illusions

Adding extra protein to ultra-processed foods helps reduce overeating

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:33:42 -0400

The health problems associated with ultra-processed foods may be explained by the way the products encourage overeating. Adding more protein to the foods might help people limit their intake – but it isn’t a complete solution

NOAA cancels monthly climate and weather update calls

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:30:43 -0400

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it is discontinuing its regular update calls due to staffing problems, but its researchers may also fear political retaliation for discussing climate change

Antarctica breakthrough as map shows huge undiscovered mountains under ice

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:19:00 -0400

The British Antarctic Survey have released the most detailed map yet of the landscape beneath Antarctica's ice sheet

For one former logging company, nature’s green is gold

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 14:11:04 -0400

The Amazon rainforest faced another difficult year. Despite bright spots, humanity is still asking too much of the forest. One company says it has an answer.

Fossils reveal what the fur of early mammals looked like

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 14:00:46 -0400

A study of the fossilised fur of six mammals from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods has found they were all greyish-brown in colour, which would have helped them hide from dinosaurs

Destruction of Ukraine’s Kakhovka dam left behind a toxic legacy

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 14:00:04 -0400

The 2023 breach of the Kakhovka dam drained a huge reservoir and exposed a vast area of toxic sediment, creating a debate about how best to rebuild after the Russia-Ukraine war

Destruction of Ukraine dam caused ‘toxic timebomb’ of heavy metals, study finds

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 14:00:03 -0400

Researchers say environmental impact from Kakhovka dam explosion comparable to Chornobyl nuclear disaster

The destruction of a large Ukrainian dam in 2023 triggered a “toxic timebomb” of environmental harm, a study has found.

Lakebed sediments holding 83,000 tonnes of heavy metals were exposed when the Kakhovka dam was blown up one year into Russia’s invasion, researchers found.

NASA may have to cancel major space missions due to budget cuts

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 13:57:55 -0400

Potential cuts of up to 50 per cent of NASA's science budget could mean cancelling missions including the Hubble Space Telescope and the Voyager probes

The Rhino Whisperer | In Her Nature

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 12:35:20 -0400

The tragic loss of her mother to a rhino attack hasn’t stopped Doma Paudel from her fearless conservation efforts. Instead, it inspired her to become Nepal’s first female nature guide and to fight to save Nepalese rhinos from near extinction, double Nepal’s tiger population, and teach Nepalese communities how to compassionately coexist with wildlife.

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The post The Rhino Whisperer | In Her Nature appeared first on Nature.

Ancient humans lived in an 'uninhabitable' climate 25,000 years ago

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 11:00:29 -0400

Bones dating back 25,000 years suggest that humans lived in extremely icy conditions in Tibet, which were previously thought to be uninhabitable

US weather forecasts save lives and money. Trump’s cuts put us all at risk

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 09:00:04 -0400

Noaa, my former employer, is an integral part of our daily lives, tracking hurricanes, supporting safe flights and helping farmers

Across the United States, from rural communities to coastal cities, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) is an integral part of our daily lives, safeguarding communities and fostering economic vitality.

Whether it is tracking the path of hurricanes, managing our nation’s fisheries, providing critical information to air traffic controllers and airlines, or helping farmers plan for weather extremes, Noaa’s science, services and products have a significant impact on every American.

An elephant buffet, a Lowry and Kenya’s melting glacier: photos of the day – Thursday

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 08:38:18 -0400

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

Revealed: How the UK tech secretary uses ChatGPT for policy advice

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 08:04:17 -0400

New Scientist has used freedom of information laws to obtain the ChatGPT records of Peter Kyle, the UK's technology secretary, in what is believed to be a world-first use of such legislation

Hera asteroid mission takes stunning images of Mars’s moon Deimos

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 07:28:04 -0400

A mission to survey the results of a deliberate crash between an asteroid and a NASA spacecraft has taken stunning images of Mars and its moon Deimos

California isn't clearing forests fast enough to tame wildfires

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 07:00:33 -0400

To reduce the growing risk of intense wildfires, California is cutting and burning the areas that fuel them – but these efforts may be moving too slowly

Enough with unicorns and dinosaurs – show children the magic of real, living animals instead | Isabel Losada

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 06:00:03 -0400

Put up pictures of lemurs, penguins and wolves, and introduce tomorrow’s environmentalists to the amazing nature in our world

Has it ever struck you as interesting the amount of dinosaur products that are marketed to boys and unicorn products to girls?

I recently visited the wonderful Horniman Museum in south London, only to discover that it had been taken over by something called Dinosaur rEvolution. Hertfordshire zoo offers a World of Dinosaurs, there is the “roarsome” theatre show Dinosaur World: Live, a dinosaur-themed park in Norfolk called ROARR!, Dinosaur World in Torquay, Dinosaur Park near Swansea, Dino Park in Dumfries – the list is as long as the neck of a brontosaurus.

Keep your head above water: art show looks at the rising seas

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 06:00:01 -0400

From a high chair to the ocean floor, Can the Seas Survive Us? in Norfolk’s Sainsbury Centre explores our watery world and the climate crisis

One of the most striking things that will be on display at an exhibition in Norfolk this weekend is an oak chair. Ordinary enough, except that it is elevated high in the air. Why? Because this is where it will need to be in 2100, given rising sea levels in the Netherlands, where it was made by the artist Boris Maas.

Entitled The Urge to Sit Dry (2018), there is another like it in the office of the Dutch environment minister in The Hague, a constant reminder of the real and immediate threat posed to the country by rising sea levels.

The Dutch artist Boris Maas with his 2018 work The Urge to Sit Dry, which uses wooden blocks to lift the chair to the height it needs to be to sit above predicted sea levels

Quartz crystals on Mars could preserve signs of ancient life

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 04:00:15 -0400

NASA’s Perseverance rover found large crystals of quartz with a high purity on Mars, which probably had to have formed in the presence of hot water

About

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 15:41:46 -0400

In the heart of Africa’s Great Rift Valley lies Katavi, a little-known National Park spanning more than three thousand square miles of western Tanzania. Here, Nature’s filmmakers capture a once-in-a-lifetime event – a severe drought followed by heavy rains that tests the survival skills of all those that call Katavi home in Katavi: Africa’s Fallen Paradise, premiering Wednesdays, April 2-16, 2025.

In Katavi National Park, lions, hippos and crocodiles live more or less in harmony, until an unusual climatic cycle transforms the natural dry season into the toughest drought in almost a century. Desperation pushes all these animals to the edge of their endurance. Lion cubs face mortal danger from a rogue male lion intent on a takeover. Hippos fight viciously for territory rights in a dwindling river. Even crocodiles, usually capable of surviving prolonged periods without food or fresh water, fall victim to the intense conditions. And when the drought finally breaks, Katavi veers from one extreme to another. For some, the return of the rains brings not salvation, but further peril.

The post About appeared first on Nature.

Plastic pollution leaves seabirds with brain damage similar to Alzheimer’s, study shows

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 14:00:48 -0400

Blood tests on migratory chicks fed plastics by their parents show neurodegeneration, as well as cell rupture and stomach lining decay

Ingesting plastic is leaving seabird chicks with brain damage “akin to Alzheimer’s disease”, according to a new study – adding to growing evidence of the devastating impact of plastic pollution on marine wildlife.

Analysis of young sable shearwaters, a migratory bird that travels between Australia’s Lord Howe Island and Japan, has found that plastic waste is causing damage to seabird chicks not apparent to the naked eye, including decay of the stomach lining, cell rupture and neurodegeneration.

The 13 drugs and supplements that could slow brain ageing

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 14:00:42 -0400

Hydrocortisone and testosterone are just two of 13 drugs and supplements that could lessen the impact of genes that accelerate brain ageing

Understanding conscious experience isn’t beyond the realm of science