Phys.org

The only lizard in the world that can live and forage at sea may now be in a fight for survival. International scientists warn black-market trafficking of Galapagos marine iguanas is peaking just as the super El Niño decimates their natural food source.

By 2025, 143 of 154 developing countries had a National Adaptation Plan process in place, yet implementation has not kept pace. Many countries still lack the institutional capacity, project preparation and finance needed to turn their priorities into strategies, bankable projects and results on the ground.

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used by social service agencies to handle cases involving child abuse, intimate partner violence and elder abuse. But a University of Iowa researcher and former social worker says the agencies need to establish safeguards to ensure that AI technology does not lead to bias against vulnerable or disadvantaged populations.

Tourists who care deeply about sustainability are not necessarily willing to pay extra to reduce the environmental impact of their vacations, according to new research from the University of Portsmouth.

Nepal's disaster authority said Wednesday that an avalanche of rock and ice triggered a recent flash flood, echoing the mountain collapse that unleashed a tsunami-like wall of water in August.

What should you cook for dinner on a budget of 20 euros when you have a guest with a gluten intolerance? A shopper might ask a shop assistant for advice or consult, for example, Hopla, the AI-powered shopping assistant launched by French supermarket chain Carrefour. Behind this everyday choice lies a broader question: when faced with a recommendation, who do we trust more? A human being or an AI?

The transition to a low-carbon economy will not affect all people and places equally. Although its overall benefits may outweigh its costs, workers may lose jobs, households may face higher prices and communities dependent on carbon-intensive industries may experience lasting economic and social disruption.

University of Warwick astronomers have shown that white dwarf stars can glow in a range of colors, including the first star ever found that would appear green to the human eye.

Publishing scientific articles requires more than knowledge of academic writing conventions; it also depends on access to networks that support the research and publication process. Academic networks provide opportunities to exchange knowledge, receive feedback and develop collaborations that can strengthen both research and careers. For researchers in vulnerable situations, such connections can be crucial.

Agriculture in the Global South remains under pressure to produce more food while responding to climate change and resource constraints. Policy responses have focused on increasing production. But what about postharvest losses? Globally, about one-third of food produced for human consumption is estimated to be lost or wasted.

If you've ever had your car start sluggishly, or not at all, on a particularly frigid winter morning, you know standard batteries do not like extreme cold. That's why NASA researchers are working to develop a battery that could function in the brutal cold of the moon's south pole, where nighttime temperatures plunge to minus 328 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 200 degrees Celsius).

Busoga, in eastern Uganda, is a low, fertile plateau surrounded on three sides by Lake Victoria, the Nile River and Lake Kyoga. Most of its 4.3 million people farm small, rain-fed plots. Yet hunger is common: in the 2024 census, about a third of Busoga households reported going whole days without food.

Fine particulate matter consists of tiny particles with diameters in the nanometer range. They are produced, for example, by fuel combustion, remain suspended in the air and can penetrate deep into the respiratory tract. There, they can trigger oxidative stress, a process that promotes inflammation and, over the long term, can lead to serious health problems such as respiratory or cardiovascular diseases. Scientists call this harmful property the particles' oxidative potential.

Researchers have developed a chip-scale optical ring-laser gyroscope that can measure rotation as slow as 37 degrees per hour. This record sensitivity, approaching Earth's rotation rate of 15 degrees per hour, could eventually be useful for precision navigation and orientation systems, particularly where GPS is unavailable.

When astronauts first travel to Mars or anywhere else in deep space, they will have to contend with two problems that our planet protects us from on its surface—radiation and weightlessness. Scientists already know both can have a profound impact on the human body, but the extent of that impact and how long it can last remain a mystery.

Researchers at McGill University have found that urbanization is weakening one of Earth's most enduring ecological patterns: the tendency for biodiversity to increase toward the tropics, a pattern known as the latitudinal diversity gradient.

Sometimes it can be hard for parents to agree on how to raise children. One parent might insist their child's homework has to be finished before they're allowed to use devices. The other may think a bit of screen time before studying is perfectly reasonable. Rules and consequences might be the preferred strategy of one parent, while the other favors a more flexible approach.

Discarded plastic packaging materials, old CDs and even LEGO bricks can be transformed into materials that capture significant amounts of moisture from the air. Materials chemists Anastasiia Naryshkina, Paul Schweng and Robert Woodward at the University of Vienna have converted several types of plastic waste into water-attracting polymer networks that take up water even in dry climates and release it again under moderate heating, for example, using sunlight. The study, published in Chem Circularity, offers a route to give plastic waste a second life as an adsorbent for atmospheric water harvesting.

Most kinds of coral spawn once a year. In an enormous multiday event synchronized to specific phases of the moon, they release vast slicks of eggs and sperm into the ocean to be mixed together by the drifting currents.

The Wellcome Sanger Institute's Tree of Life program plans to accelerate publication of genome notes from approximately 30 per month to 200, expanding access to research that is supporting advances in agriculture, conservation and medicine. This increase will be facilitated by a new specialized workflow developed by F1000 and the Wellcome Sanger Institute for Wellcome Open Research.