Science

European beachgrass (Ammophila arenaria) is now well established in the Oregon dunes In 1910, Oregon introduced European beachgrass near Coos Bay to stabilise its shifting dunes. The plant trapped moving sand and helped hold the dunes in place as it was meant to. But as the beachgrass spread, it changed the coastal landscape and reduced…

Einstein famously found quantum mechanics so strange that he once referred to quantum entanglement as “spooky action at a distance”. More than a century later, one of the strangest predictions of quantum theory has now been tested in an environment far removed from the relatively low-energy systems where entanglement is usually studied.Physicists working with the…

Scotland’s wildlife reserves recorded a major conservation milestone in 2025, as a five-year project restored more than 3,500 hectares of habitat across 11 sites. The LIFE 100% for Nature initiative, led by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), combined technology with community-led conservation to improve conditions for threatened wildlife. Robot mowers and…

Isabel Garcia. Image Credit: Davidson Institute Eighteen-year-old Isabel Garcia from Wilmington, North Carolina, has been awarded a $25,000 Davidson Fellows Scholarship for a research exploring whether bacteria taken from corals could help control the bacteria responsible for cholera. Her project examined 4 coral bacteria and found that 3 showed potential for inhibiting Vibrio cholerae, including…

PC: Dronepicr – Klein Bonaire Strand/ Wikipedia Dry tropical forests can take years to recover after logging, land clearing and grazing. A 15-year study on the Caribbean island of Bonaire shows that this recovery can begin when pressure from introduced herbivores is reduced. Researchers compared fenced plots, landscape-scale goat removal, and tree planting to understand…

Rob Riggle. Image Credit: DiscoveryUK Actor, comedian and retired Marine Rob Riggle is travelling to locations connected to some of history’s most persistent mysteries, working with archaeologists, historians and other specialists to examine the evidence behind them. His investigations cover subjects ranging from the Holy Grail and Atlantis to the disappearance of Rome’s 9th Legion…

Carl Sagan, the celebrated astronomer, author and science communicator, helped millions of people understand the universe through his books, lectures and television programmes. His quote, “Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge,” highlights an important idea: science is not simply about memorising facts. It is about asking…

Atlantic Salmon leaping waterfalls (Photo credit: Canva) Maine has removed a 60-year-old river barrier on the Narraguagus River where only about 25 wild adult Atlantic salmon return each year, replacing it with a nature-like fishway designed to reopen migration routes for endangered fish. The old ice-control dam in Cherryfield, built by the US Army Corps…

Hitaishi Chillara. Image Credit: Davidson Institute Hitaishi Chillara, a 17-year-old student from Leander, Texas, has received a $50,000 Davidson Fellows Scholarship for research into how supermassive black holes grow and how their effects might be detected from the light of distant galaxies. His work brings together computer simulations of the universe, telescope data and machine…

OpenAI’s chief economist says unpaid housework, largely done by women, could equal 15% of global GDP, as AI firms increasingly view homes as workplaces. For years, artificial intelligence has helped professionals draft emails, edit reports, crunch spreadsheets, and write code. Now it is moving into the home, taking on the invisible work of remembering, coordinating,…