Environment

Evaporation is one of the most enduring methods of purifying water to make it drinkable. Now researchers in China have developed a novel device made of wood that can do just that, by employing bacteria to help build key nanostructures.

Researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) College of Agricultural Sciences have found that a bird deterrent called a "flapper" could significantly reduce the number of our feathered friends being killed by colliding with power lines.

A new paper has revealed that Greenland and the Antarctic have lost a staggering amount of mass from their ice sheets over the last 16 years thanks to climate change, and that the melting has contributed to sea level rise.

A new study has calculated that the Greenland ice sheet lost hundreds of billions of tons of ice last year, marking the biggest drop in its ice mass since records began in 1948. The team found that unusual pressure patterns had a devastating impact.

Although a hole in the ozone layer might sound like a retro environmental issue, it’s still a problem today. While it's usually over Antarctica, scientists have now spotted the biggest ozone layer hole in at least 25 years forming over the Arctic.

Antarctica wasn't always a cold lifeless landscape. An international team has recovered a 90-million-year old soil sample that paints the most detailed picture of ancient Antarctica ever found, revealing a swampy rainforest and balmy temperatures.

People living in the hottest places on Earth may be up to three times as likely to die from a heart-related cause, according to a newly published study. Heat-related stress could be made worse in the coming decades by the effects of global warming.

The Arctic permafrost is thawing, which could release huge amounts of greenhouse gases stored there. But now researchers have found that methane-munching microbes might counter some of that, resulting in far lower emissions than previously thought.

One argued silver lining of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels is that plants will be better off. But a new study has found that the more extreme heat and drought brought on by climate change would cancel out most of the benefits for trees.

A powerful shot of an osprey snatching its prey from a lake has won the 2020 National Parks Photography Competition, a contest designed to celebrate the natural beauty of the United Kingdom’s 15 National Parks.

The Statement on the State of the Global Climate in 2019 report confirms that last year was another record-breaker, continuing a worrying trend that indicates we’re drifting further off-track from meeting the targets of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Earth’s rotation is changing how many hours are in a day and days in a year. Now palaeontologists have managed to precisely measure how long days and years were back in the age of the dinosaurs – and it’s all thanks to a humble mollusk fossil.