Meet ‘MOXIE’, a small Nasa device that for the first time made oxygen from the Martian atmosphere (Image: AI Generated) For the first time, a machine made by humans produced oxygen on the surface of another planet. It did not happen inside a futuristic Mars base or through the work of astronauts in bulky spacesuits….
In 1957, parts of London’s famous River Thames were in such bad shape that scientists declared them ‘biologically dead’. The water had been starved of oxygen and decades of sewage and industrial pollution had made it extremely difficult for aquatic life to survive. About 70 years later, the waters are now brimming with sharks, seals,…
For someone sleeping on the street, a backpack may be little more than a way to carry the few belongings they have left. But the Backpack Bed turns that familiar object into something far more meaningful: a portable place to sleep. Designed for people experiencing homelessness, the emergency shelter combines mobility with protection, allowing users…
Britain’s fields, parks and lawns were thriving areas of fresh greenery, just before summer arrived. Then, everything was burnt to a crisp, with a yellow and golden hue and now landscapes as old as thousands of years have been revealed as green outlines against yellow backgrounds.July was the driest month ever recorded in England and…
Representative image of the linear cluster of earthquakes tracing the edge of the Yakutat microplate in south-central Alaska (AI generated). Beneath the towering peaks of the Alaska Range, home to Denali, North America’s tallest mountain, scientists have uncovered a hidden geological feature that had gone completely unnoticed until now. Using a machine learning system to…
In the quiet pools of the New York Aquarium, a groundbreaking experiment was unfolding. It was 2001, and a team of scientists was about to test a question that had long fascinated researchers: could beluga whales, the white Arctic cetaceans known for their expressive faces and complex social lives, recognise themselves in a mirror?Over the…
Fossils from Wyoming are revealing how forests responded when Earth experienced one of its most intense episodes of global warming around 56 million years ago. A new study, published in the journal Science on August 13, 2026, reconstructs the structure of forests during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM, and finds that their canopies became…
A variety of corals form an outcrop on Flynn Reef, part of the Great Barrier Reef near Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Credits – WIkimedia Commons The last two years have been a tale of two extremes for the Great Barrier Reef.” In 2025, the northern region of the reef experienced its biggest annual decline in coral…
A robotic submersible descended beneath 5 giant floating wind turbines off Scotland, moving around steel structures, cables and anchors that sit as much as 80 metres below the surface. Its high-definition camera recorded a surprisingly busy underwater community at the Hywind Scotland Pilot Park, about 25 kilometres east of Peterhead. Across 41 structures and associated…
Inside Alaska’s tundra (Image: Alaska Organisation) From above, Alaska’s tundra can look like an ordinary expanse of soil, moss and low vegetation. Beneath that surface, however, lies permafrost, ground that has remained frozen for long periods and contains vast quantities of ancient organic material. As temperatures rise, that frozen material can thaw and begin decomposing,…
