Science

Image Credit: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Japan sent rice and koji to the International Space Station in 2025 to test whether sake could be brewed beyond Earth. As part of the DASSAI MOON Project, the ingredients were placed inside Japan’s Kibo module under conditions designed to reproduce the Moon’s gravity. After fermentation, the material was frozen…

Jackie Chan supported Save China’s Tigers, a conservation project attempting to restore the South China tiger after the subspecies disappeared from confirmed wild sightings decades ago. Once widespread across southern and central China, the tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) suffered a dramatic decline because of hunting, habitat loss and falling prey numbers. Founded by conservationist Li…

Recent evaluation excavations confirmed that ancient worked timber and other organic evidence are already deteriorating. The danger is particularly urgent because around 40% of the site’s buried archaeology could be lost within just a few months if the deterioration continues. For thousands of years, the mud beneath the fields near Peterborough quietly held onto a…

Image: Left/Ninia guytudori/By:Alejandro Arteaga/Right/Alejandro Arteaga/By:Kate Berry / Australia Zoo Alejandro Arteaga went into the cloud forests of Ecuador with a very specific mission, he was searching for reptiles to document for a book on the country’s extraordinary herpetological diversity. Instead, one of his field trips produced something far more significant, a snake that science had…

Image Credit: AI generated Scientists found that abandoned mine pools could potentially be reused to cool data centres. They developed a model to estimate how much heat these pools could absorb while maintaining suitable cooling conditions. Their detailed analysis of the Morea mine in eastern Pennsylvania found that its pool could support at least 9.5…

Mexico has brought American bison back to parts of the Chihuahuan Desert after the animals disappeared from much of their historical range in northern Mexico during the 19th century. In 2009, 23 bison from Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota were moved to Rancho El Uno in Chihuahua as part of a binational conservation…

Image: AI-generated representation of a wood-based sponge that pulls water from air as dry as 15% humidity Water vapour is present almost everywhere, even in places where rivers, lakes and groundwater are scarce. The challenge has always been turning that invisible moisture into usable freshwater efficiently enough to make atmospheric water harvesting practical. Now, researchers…

PossumsRepresentative image In 1837, New Zealand introduced Australian brushtail possums in the hope of building a profitable fur industry. The animals were expected to provide valuable pelts and help create a new rural economy, but the experiment had consequences that stretched far beyond anyone’s expectations. Nearly two centuries later, possums have become one of the…

Wetland in South Australia. Image Credit: Department for Environment and Water (South Australian Government) Australia’s Green Triangle became a major plantation forestry region after large areas of land were converted to commercial forests. Decades later, the Lower South East of South Australia is facing growing pressure on its groundwater system. Assessments show that plantations can…

Acropora muricata, Heron Island, Australia. (Photo Credit: Claire Lager, Smithsonian) A rare coral species found nowhere else on Earth except Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii has been successfully returned to its natural habitat after completely disappearing from the wild. The recovery project was led by the Hawaii Coral Restoration Nursery, a facility run by the state…