Fossils from Wyoming are revealing how forests responded when Earth experienced one of its most intense episodes of global warming around 56 million years ago. A new study, published in the journal Science on August 13, 2026, reconstructs the structure of forests during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM, and finds that their canopies became…
A variety of corals form an outcrop on Flynn Reef, part of the Great Barrier Reef near Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Credits – WIkimedia Commons The last two years have been a tale of two extremes for the Great Barrier Reef.” In 2025, the northern region of the reef experienced its biggest annual decline in coral…
Representative image of the linear cluster of earthquakes tracing the edge of the Yakutat microplate in south-central Alaska (AI generated). Beneath the towering peaks of the Alaska Range, home to Denali, North America’s tallest mountain, scientists have uncovered a hidden geological feature that had gone completely unnoticed until now. Using a machine learning system to…
Morocco is testing a ‘sponge’ pavement that drains water and cools itself through evaporation. For decades, black asphalt has rolled on the roads but parts of Marrakech and Agadir are reportedly becoming testing grounds for this new surface that is deemed to be environmentally better.The idea will not only make roads feel less hot during…
A robotic submersible descended beneath 5 giant floating wind turbines off Scotland, moving around steel structures, cables and anchors that sit as much as 80 metres below the surface. Its high-definition camera recorded a surprisingly busy underwater community at the Hywind Scotland Pilot Park, about 25 kilometres east of Peterhead. Across 41 structures and associated…
Inside Alaska’s tundra (Image: Alaska Organisation) From above, Alaska’s tundra can look like an ordinary expanse of soil, moss and low vegetation. Beneath that surface, however, lies permafrost, ground that has remained frozen for long periods and contains vast quantities of ancient organic material. As temperatures rise, that frozen material can thaw and begin decomposing,…
According to Suparco, Jinnah-1 will study plasma, radiation and the geology of the lunar surface (representative image) Pakistan has named its first lunar rover “Jinnah-1”, marking a new step in the country’s space programme as it prepares to send the rover to the Moon in 2029.The Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) announced…
Alan Turing (Image: AI Generated) Many years before the existence of artificial intelligence was discussed among people, Turing questioned the possibility of machines having the ability to think in the future. In an age where computing devices were huge, experimental gadgets mostly used for computations, he envisioned a world in which people would talk of…
When you look at wind turbines the blades look larger than life. Like permanent, monumental objects that will turn forever above the same field, long after you are gone and someone else is looking up at them similarly. In reality, most wind turbine blades last only 20 to 25 years and when they stop spinning,…
A spider web can look like a single delicate sheet of thread, but its construction is far more complicated. Different strands are made for different jobs, with some providing the strength needed to hold the web together and others stretching to trap prey. Orb-weaver spiders are particularly good examples of this division of labour. Their…
