In a year of contrasting extremes, Europe witnessed scorching heat waves but also catastrophic flooding, withering droughts, violent storms and its largest wildfire. Europe endured a record number of “extreme heat stress” days in 2023, two leading climate monitors said Monday, underscoring the threat of increasingly deadly summers across the continent. In a year of … Read more
1st page of the final letter from George Mallory from Camp I, Everest, to Ruth Mallory, 27 May 1924. Credit: The Master and Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge Letters written by the famous mountaineer George Mallory have been made available to a global audience for the first time, in the centenary year of his fatal … Read more
Galaxy NGC 4383 evolving strangely. Gas is flowing from its core at a rate of over 200 km/s. This mysterious gas eruption has a unique cause: star formation. Credit: ESO/A. Watts et al A team of international researchers studied galaxy NGC 4383, in the nearby Virgo cluster, revealing a gas outflow so large that it … Read more
Credit: Yves Almecija/CNRS The origin of life on Earth is still enigmatic, but we are slowly unraveling the steps involved and the necessary ingredients. Scientists believe life arose in a primordial soup of organic chemicals and biomolecules on the early Earth, eventually leading to actual organisms. It’s long been suspected that some of these ingredients … Read more
The Arabica coffee plant. Credit: NTU Singapore Arabica coffee is the most economically important coffee globally and accounts for 60% of coffee products worldwide. But the plants it hails from are vulnerable to a disease that, in the 1800s, devastated Sri Lanka’s coffee empire. Now, an international team of researchers co-led by Nanyang Technological University, … Read more
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain In Mali’s capital Bamako, Aboubacar Pamateck runs a scarf under a trickle of water and wraps it around his head to cope with the West African nation’s soaring heat. Africa’s Sahel region experienced a deadly heat wave in early April, exceptional both in terms of duration and intensity. “I drink a … Read more
Credit: Markus Spiske from Pexels Californians have had weekend after weekend of cool, stormy weather and the Sierra Nevada has been blessed with a healthy snowpack. But the reality is that even the last few months have been more than 2 degrees hotter than average. The planet is experiencing a horrifying streak of record-breaking heat, … Read more
A prescribed, revitalizing “good fire” gets under way at West Vaseux Lake in the Okanagan to restore ecosystems and biodiversity. Photo shows Dr. Lori Daniels and former Ph.D. student Greg Greene. Credit: Dr. Suzie Lavallee/UBC Forestry Last year’s wildfire season marked B.C.’s most destructive on record: 2.8 million hectares burned, more than double any previous … Read more
This photo provided by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) shows a view of an eruption of Mount Ruang in the Sulawesi island, Indonesia, Friday, April 19, 2024. More people living near the erupting volcano on Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island were evacuated on Friday due to the dangers of spreading ash, falling rocks, hot … Read more
Aerial view of a soybean plantation in the municipality of Montividiu, Goias State, Brazil, taken on January 22, 2024. For centuries, farmers used almanacs to try to understand and predict weather patterns. Now, a new crop of Latin American startups is helping do that with artificial intelligence, promising a farming revolution in agricultural giants like … Read more
