Science News

Iowa, 1850: Farmers planted European barberry as livestock hedges; the thorny shrub later helped wheat stem rust produce new races

Illinois, mid-1800s: Settlers planted buckthorn as a tough living fence; it later spread into dense thickets that shaded out native plants

In the early 1800s, Americans planted princess trees for timber and ornament; the fast-growing import later spread into burned forests

Meet ‘MOXIE’, a small Nasa device that for the first time made oxygen from the Martian atmosphere

Why has Britain's grass turned yellow? Scientists warn about the future of the island after 'driest month ever'

In 2001, scientists tested 4 beluga whales at a New York aquarium; 98 sessions later, it was found the Arctic whales may recognise themselves

In 2025, coral cover in the Great Barrier Reef’s northern region fell to 30% after its largest annual decline on record; a year later, surveys of 192 reefs found it had risen to 35.1% despite another bleaching event

Quote of the day by Richard Feynman: "What I cannot create, I do not understand."

SSLV booster upgrade clears test, could boost payload capacity by 100kg

Thousands of tiny earthquakes went unnoticed beneath Alaska for years, but scientists have now used them to trace the hidden edge of a tectonic plate

LVM-3 upper stage re-enters atmosphere in nine months

German startup Voodin replaced fibreglass with laminated veneer lumber in 19.3-metre turbine blades; its new EU-backed factory targets fully recyclable blades at commercial scale

How the first clockmaker knew the correct time and how time was measured before mechanical clocks

In 1877, trout began entering Yosemite’s fish-free mountain lakes. More than a century later, a native frog is finally showing signs of recovery

Scientists find rats make laughter-like sounds when tickled, but their ultrasonic chirps are too high-pitched for humans to hear

China scientists turned bamboo cellulose into a strong plastic alternative that withstands high heat, can be recycled and biodegrades in soil

Japan's Hiroshima produces about 60% of its farmed oysters, but up to 90% have died amid unusually warm seas

MIT engineers create a recyclable elastic yarn that can be melted and respun into new fibre 10 times and can tackle the growing problem of textile waste

Most dreaming happens during REM sleep, which makes up 20–25% of the night; if vivid dreams keep leaving you exhausted, scientists say the real culprit may be something else, keeping you from restorative sleep

North American bison fell from millions to hundreds, but ancient DNA shows they kept much of their genetic diversity as isolated herds became different

In 2020, engineers pumped 225,000 cubic yards of dredged sediment into the Columbia River; it became four new islands now being studied as salmon habitat

In 1998, Nasa sent a rose into space and discovered that microgravity could change its scent

One-third of global farmland accounts for about two-thirds of agriculture-linked biodiversity and natural carbon-storage loss, a new study finds

Scientists in Austria found that a glyphosate-based herbicide reduced earthworm reproduction by 56% in a greenhouse study

Colorado’s 150-million-year-old dinosaur footprints show how a giant sauropod walked in a full loop

Tarantula Nebula is full of young stars, but Nasa found much of its hot gas may be escaping