Environment

Recent reports suggest that the level of consensus among scientists working in relevant fields on the subject of climate patterns is 97%. This suggests that the body of evidence they are generating or working on indicates an authentic trend in one specific direction.

Some of the biggest cities in the world, such as Cape Town, Bangalore and Beijing, are predicted to run out of drinking water — and soon. With sustainability being key, can conservationists and scientists devise means to preserve and generate clean, potable water?

Many scientists of numerous disciplines generally agree that the Earth is likely to get warmer in the future. The change in climates that may accompany this temperature shift could affect how hospitable many environments will be to the animals that currently live in them. Hostile conditions can induce adaptations in species that need to continue living in them, but can prompt others to migrate away, or simply die out.

The naked mole rat has been a research subject of interest for decades, due to their novel social structure and unusual physiology. These rodents have been observed to be much less susceptible to cancer and other genetic abnormalities compared to other species in their class. Moreover, it appears that the naked mole-rat has a much greater lifespan than other animals of a comparable weight and size.

Scientific studies are designed to test hypotheses, such as that a new treatment will be more effective than a corresponding control. However, researchers should conduct their analyses with an eye to the possibility that there is something behind apparently positive results besides the variables they are to focus on.

Perovskites have attracted a lot of interest as the raw materials for the photovoltaic devices that make up the cells of sun-powered batteries.

Nestled in the corner of a small reef just off the coast of Tasmania, a new population of critically endangered red handfish (Thymichthys politus) have been discovered, giving hope for the conservation of this species into the future. The population of this fish has now been given a big boost, thanks to eagle eyed members of the public involved in a citizen science project known as the Reef Life Survey.

Many of us remember that iconic photograph of a tiny seahorse clutching tightly to a plastic cotton bud as a defining image of 2017. Indeed, this photograph, taken by Justin Hofman, was one of the finalists for The Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

Whilst most of us know that we need to take action and make changes to our livelihoods in order to reduce our impact on the environment, it’s sometimes hard to know where to start. Actions such as reducing our carbon footprint through flying less is a great place to start, but if you only plan on taking an overseas holiday once a year, sometimes you might feel like you need to do more on a daily basis in order to make more of a difference.

For as long as we’ve been studying our environment, polar ice and snow has been thought of as unable to support life. But now, new research suggests that living bacteria can survive in this hostile environment after all. These findings may well have implications for both our knowledge of climate history as well as telling us more about which other planets could potentially sustain life.

In many parts of Europe, consumers are free to use the internet connections they pay for in almost any way they like. They can visit conventional websites, and also stream content, even if it belongs to paid services such as Netflix, using the exact same service at the exact same speeds.

Many of us are now more familiar with plastic pollution and its consequences for marine life. More and more creatures are being poisoned by micro-plastics as you read this; meanwhile, the dumping and migration of this material into marine areas continues unabated. People who want to do something about it are hampered by a lack of effective tools that detect and locate plastic pollution, however.