Science

Jason Momoa launched Mananalu in 2019 with a clear goal: challenge the bottled-water industry to move away from single-use plastic. The Hawaiian water brand began with aluminium bottles and a “buy one, remove one” programme that funded the removal of plastic bottles from the ocean. According to PR Newswire, that effort has resulted in more…

A former wheat-growing farm in West Sussex, England, has recorded a remarkable increase in butterfly numbers just two years after a large-scale habitat restoration project began, with 5,290 butterflies belonging to 28 species documented during surveys in 2026. The findings, reported by The Guardian and detailed by Halnaker Hill Farm, include the first recorded sightings…

Representative Image of the Galápagos Islands from above, featuring marine iguanas along dark rocky coastlines (AI-generated image) Marine iguanas can be difficult to spot against the dark rocks of the Galápagos Islands, making them challenging to count during conservation surveys. Yet reliable population estimates are important for protecting the species, for which complete population-size data…

Australia’s critically endangered regent honeyeater has lost its traditional song in the wild as its population has declined. A study found that researchers taught captive-bred young males to sing the traditional wild song using live adult tutors. By the end of the study, the experiment helped 42% of the male zoo population learn songs that…

Researchers use light to trigger living algae’s metabolism, enabling the tiny robotic arm to bend without electrical signals. Think of a robot without battery, without traditional motor and without complicated mechanical joints and only living microalgae, soft gels and source of light. That’s the unusual premise of a new experiment by researchers at Delft University…

Representative Image (AI-generated) A Pacific island has recorded a significant recovery in several seabird populations following the removal of invasive rats in 2005. A study published in Conservation Biology examined how seven seabird species responded after rodents were eradicated from Surprise Island in New Caledonia. According to the researchers, three species experienced substantial population increases,…

For wildlife, a busy highway can be more than an obstacle. It can separate feeding grounds, disrupt seasonal migrations and turn an ordinary journey into a deadly gamble. In Colorado, a new network of wildlife crossings is helping change that equation, with officials reporting a sharp decline in collisions along a heavily travelled stretch of…

Imagine Texas and California pushed together into one patch of land. Now picture all of it cut down, burned or otherwise gone. That is roughly the amount of original primary forest the Amazon has lost, according to a new report from Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andes Amazon Program (MAAP). The latest analysis found that…

In 2018, Delaware turned nearly one million tons of rock excavated from a shipping channel into underwater habitats for marine life, rather than disposing of the material elsewhere. The US Army Corps of Engineers partnered with Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) to transport the rock to two artificial reef sites in…

A 31-ton propane tank and steel tower once used for firefighter training in Mississippi have been sunk about 13 miles offshore to create an artificial reef for marine life. Supported by Chevron and local organisations, the project aims to provide shelter for fish and improve fishing opportunities. A similar reef created in 2023 now supports…

Ryan Chan, Fausto Kang, lecturer Sathappan Ramesh and Jason Konadu pose with the 2026 Dean’s Design Award for Electrical and Computer Engineering. Three students at Johns Hopkins University have developed SweatSense, a non-invasive device designed to help people monitor kidney-health indicators using sweat instead of relying solely on conventional blood and urine tests. The project,…

Isabel enjoys working through equations and mathematical proofs in her spare time (Photo: Society for science) A 14-year-old student from Williamsburg, Virginia, has earned her a place among 30 finalists in the 2026 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge for finding a new way to position earthquake sensors.Earthquake sensors can help detect seismic activity and…