Jane Goodall, the primatologist who forever changed our understanding of humanity’s closest relatives and became a tireless global advocate for the natural world, has died at the age of 91. She died of natural causes on October 1, 2025 in California, where she was still on a speaking tour, proof that her mission took her…
The early days of Earth were so chaotic that it’s hard to believe life began here. What is now the beautiful blue marble we inhabit was once an apocalyptic wasteland with a molten surface and an atmosphere severely lacking in oxygen. Virtually all evidence of this fiery first era of the planet, known as “proto-Earth,”…
The world’s first commercial deep space astronomical telescope is set to search for stars that may host habitable exoplanets in their orbits. The Mauve telescope, developed by London-based startup Blue Skies Space, is the size of a small suitcase and carries a commercially available ultraviolet spectrometer modified to monitor burning stars. It is one of…
Earth has entered a grim new climate reality. The planet has officially passed its first climate tipping point. Relentlessly rising heat in the oceans has now pushed corals around the world past their limit, causing an unprecedented die-off of global reefs and threatening the livelihoods of nearly a billion people, scientists say in a new…
Imagine cruising through your neighborhood at 30 miles per hour, with the windows down and feeling the breeze. Now imagine a cyclist trying to navigate that same street, heart racing as cars pass just inches away. A new study from RMIT University suggests we can fix this mismatch without your commute becoming a slow process….
October 13, 2025 2 minimum reading Scientists map microbiome hidden deep in tree trunks The inner heartwood of trees harbors methane-producing microbes adapted to oxygen-poor swamps and cow guts. By Saugat Bolakhe edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Darrell Gulin/Getty Images Scientists have mapped populations of microbes in human intestines, deep-sea ecosystems, and even clouds. However,…
Some things in cosmology may simply be unknowable. Why is there something rather than nothing? What lies outside the universe? What is inside a black hole? That last one has been niggling at astrophysicists for more than a century, but they may finally be on the brink of figuring it out. The traditional answer is…
Water droplets maintain their spherical shape and optical properties when placed on a hydrophobic surface made by coating a glass slide with electrospun PVC fibers. The optical properties can be changed simply by adjusting the volume of water in the droplet. (SOURCE: Budlayan et al., 2025) Filipino scientists have discovered a simple and affordable way…
Guest commentary by Kerry Emanuel Executive Summary Chapter 6 of the draft DOE report examines whether global warming exacerbates extreme weather. It rightly notes that because events such as hurricanes are rare, detecting their response to climate change in short and imperfect historical records is extremely difficult—if not impossible. Yet the authors devote most of…
Space weather can be a silent threat, and its effects are often invisible until disaster strikes. However, as humanity becomes more reliant on satellites for everything from communication to navigation, understanding and preparing for extreme space weather events becomes critical. The European Space Agency (ESA) He recently put this preparation to the test with a…