A power cut in Texas left Arya Gurumukhi and her family without heat for days during the severe winter storm of 2021. She was young, but the experience stayed with her. The problem was no longer an abstract question about climate or energy systems. It was something she had experienced inside her own home. Gurumukhi…
A Dutch plant is turning a huge agricultural waste stream into renewable electricity and fertiliser. BMC Moerdijk in the Netherlands processes around 420,000 tonnes of poultry manure each year, using thermal conversion to generate electricity for the farms supplying the manure and enough additional power for around 45,000 households. The process does not end after…
Ella Lu. Image Credit: Chris Ayers/Society for Science Ella Lu, a 17-year-old student from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has found a way to bring two different interests of ‘art’ and ‘computer science’ together. As a senior at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics(NCSSM), Lu developed a system that can study how objects are…
PC: Guinness World Records In 1986, Ann Bancroft set out across the Arctic as a 29-year-old elementary school teacher with a love of the outdoors and a place on an eight-member expedition. Fifty-five days later, she stood at the North Pole, becoming the first woman to reach it. The journey involved dog sleds, tonnes of…
In the 1990s, a predatory flatworm was released in Samoa to control giant African snails An aggressive predatory flatworm introduced to Pacific islands during the 1990s to control agricultural pests has pushed native land snail species toward extinction, turning a planned biological control program into an ecological disaster. The New Guinea flatworm (Platydemus manokwari) was…
A European rabbit in Tasmania. Image Credit: JJ Harrison/Wikipedia In 1937, Australian scientists took an unusual step in the fight against one of the country’s most destructive pests known as ‘rabbits.’ They released rabbits carrying ‘myxoma virus’ on Wardang Island, off South Australia, to see whether the disease could spread naturally. The experiment was part…
European hedgehog (Image Credit: Canva) What was once seen as a useful garden helper in New Zealand has become an unexpected threat to some of the country’s most vulnerable wildlife. European hedgehogs were deliberately introduced to New Zealand in the 19th century, with acclimatisation societies releasing them in the hope that they would help control…
At first glance, the fire salamander appears much as it always has: black skin broken by irregular yellow markings, a pattern long associated with the species’ chemical defences. But under ultraviolet light, that familiar appearance changes. According to the 2026 study published in the Royal Society, titled ‘Glandular biofluorescence in fire salamanders (Salamandra salamandra): first…
Pythagoras is best known today for the mathematical theorem that bears his name, but the ancient Greek thinker was also associated with a broader philosophical tradition that explored morality, discipline, friendship and the pursuit of a virtuous life. One saying attributed to him offers a timeless reflection on the people we choose to keep close:…
Florence Nightingale, widely remembered as the “Lady with the Lamp”, became one of the most influential figures in the history of nursing and healthcare. Born in 1820, she challenged the expectations placed on women of her time and devoted her life to improving the treatment of sick and injured people. Her work during the Crimean…
