Paleontologists reconstruct forests of 56 million years ago with chilling parallels for our warming planet

If you want to know how rapidly pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere will affect future forest ecosystems, you have to look into the distant past. Researchers have reconstructed the forest canopy of 56 million years ago, during a massive and abrupt emission of carbon into the atmosphere during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM).

Could geothermal roads help prevent potholes before they form? New trial aims to find out

The project will test whether a ground-source heating and cooling system can regulate road temperatures throughout the year—helping roads better withstand increasingly extreme weather while reducing the carbon footprint of highway maintenance, improving safety and reducing the inconvenience of roadwork.

== expect this happens in BC as well
A new category of heat waves is melting western US snowpack faster

Heat waves are not all created equal. While some bring dry heat that rapidly dries out crops, others carry a lot of moisture that can prevent sweat from evaporating off the skin. In new research, scientists have identified another type of heat wave that they call a “snow-eater.”

Nature’s original bioplastic may have fed animals for hundreds of millions of years

Long before humans discovered biodegradable plastics, microorganisms had already invented their own. Many bacteria and archaea produce natural bioplastics called polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), storing them inside their cells as reserves of carbon and energy.

A 236-million-year-old fossil challenges the story of mammalian live birth

Cynodonts thrived in the Triassic, a period of recovery and restructuring of ecosystems after one of the most devastating mass extinctions in life history. This meant high competition for resources and strong predatory pressures.

== repeat?
Scientists Turn Starlink Into a Giant Scanner For Earth’s Upper Atmosphere

The region surrounding Earth is getting more crowded as thousands of satellites and pieces of space debris move through low Earth orbit. Farther above, at altitudes of several hundred kilometers, traces of Earth’s upper atmosphere can still exert enough drag to slow satellites. Accurately measuring atmospheric density at these heights is therefore important for forecasting satellite motion and reducing the risk of collisions.

== yjc
What if there’s a star inside a black hole?

There is a question that often comes up at every public talk I do, and I have never had a good answer to it—well, not an entirely confident one. What’s inside a black hole? The textbook reply is a singularity. It isn’t so much an answer as an admission that we’ve run out of physics.

Mirage or miracle? JWST finds earliest known ‘black hole star’ at cosmic dawn

Little red dots have puzzled astronomers since their discovery in James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) data from the universe’s deep past. Their “powering engines” might resemble a newly discovered phenomenon dubbed a “black hole star”—an early, rapidly growing black hole wrapped in dense gas.

Three supermassive black holes discovered in a single galaxy for the first time

The researchers identified the black holes through their spectral fingerprints: the signatures of hydrogen atoms moving at high velocity in the gravitational potential of the black holes. In the central region, the spectrum exhibits a complex structure best explained by two black holes in close proximity.

== a lot of today’s wild waters are a little too warm for this glue
Recyclable glue bonds underwater in seconds and holds for years

Most glues need a dry surface to stick properly. Bonding materials underwater is challenging because water forms a thin film on any surface, so instead of an adhesive touching a material directly, it touches a layer of water, which weakens the bond.

Why eye contact may help babies learn: A hidden link between two brains

Have you ever noticed how babies get hooked the moment someone makes eye contact with them? That eye contact is not only cute; it may also send a powerful message to a baby. For years, scientists have been investigating whether social messages like eye contact and baby talk do more than engage babies.

The largest battery-electric plane ever made has flown for the first time

The world’s largest battery-electric aircraft ever flown, which boasts an impressive 106-foot wingspan, has just completed its maiden flight in the US, at just USD five worth of electricity.

Scientists create largest 2D map of the universe

The new map contains a staggering 5.6 trillion pixels and combines more than 263,000 telescope exposures collected over more than a decade.

== yjc
This pizza delivery study may change the way sellers view delivery services well beyond the foodservice industry

What can a pizza shop teach us about the dramatic shifts taking place in consumer marketing? Quite a lot, actually. New research focused on pizza delivery has found that consumer impatience is driving so much consumer decision-making that even location, price and quality can take a back seat.

== expect it applies to most of the world
Testing finds 85% of everyday personal care products contain unlabeled chemicals with suspected health hazards

A new study of sunscreens, baby lotions, shampoos, soaps and other everyday products found that nearly all contained chemicals not disclosed on their labels. Most contained at least one unlabeled chemical with known or suspected health hazards, and one in four contained a chemical that contradicted claims on the package.

Dolphins learn how to use tools to hunt for fish from their mothers

From spears and the invention of the wheel to smartphones and robots, human societies have been building and using tools from the beginning. Human tool use has helped conquer new environments, increase communication and ultimately alter the course of human evolution.

Mathematical model shows how birds create a synchronized dawn chorus

very morning, groups of birds start singing and chirping around the same time, typically when the sun starts rising. While zoologists have been studying this collective bird behavior, called the dawn chorus, for decades, the factors driving it remain poorly understood.

Biosolar roof sets new standard for climate-resilient cities

A study of Bradfield City’s First Building green roof confirms that combining native rooftop gardens with solar panels reduces urban heat, increases renewable energy generation and supports local biodiversity.

Report confirms record-high greenhouse gases, global sea level and ocean heat in 2025

The international annual review of the world’s climate is based on contributions from 625 scientists in 60 countries. It provides the most comprehensive update on Earth’s climate indicators, notable weather events and other data collected by environmental monitoring stations and instruments located on land, water and ice, as well as in space.

Contiguous US breaks its record for hottest month ever, NOAA says

Although it was unusually cool in Alaska, hotter-than-normal conditions blanketed the Lower 48, with the most excessive heat in the Mountain West, Southwest, Northern Plains and Southeast. The heat was so widespread that every one of the Lower 48 states was at least 1 degree Fahrenheit (nearly 0.6 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 20th century average.

Behold the “glueball,” a strange new form of matter

For more than half a century, physicists have searched for one of the strangest particles predicted by modern theory. It would be made almost entirely of gluons, the elusive subatomic particles that carry the strong nuclear force.

== yjc
Who are the secret gardeners of a parasitic plant?

In the coastal forests of a tropical Japanese island near Okinawa grows an inconspicuous plant that is easy to mistake for a mushroom. It is a non-green parasite that feeds on the roots of other plants and produces up to 1 million tiny seeds, each covered in a minuscule, dry fruit. The seeds, in particular, present a mystery to scientists: How do they get dispersed?

== rather short article, but…
Climate change could mean four extra hours of extreme heat on hot days

Extreme heat events are typically assessed using daily mean, maximum or minimum temperatures. However, these measures can neglect shorter but potentially important periods of extreme heat.

Illegal fishing captures up to 15% of global marine wild catch, analysis finds

Industrial-scale illegal fishing continues to undermine ocean sustainability, coastal livelihoods and global seafood markets—despite decades of regulation and recent advances in surveillance technology.

Greenland glacier break creates new ice island

The newly formed tabular iceberg detached from the glacier’s floating ice tongue and is estimated to be up to 150 meters (492 feet) thick. With a surface area roughly comparable to Manhattan Island, the ice island offers scientists a rare opportunity to study how large Arctic ice masses form, drift and break apart over time.

New AI model reveals the volume of the world’s glaciers

How much ice is stored in the world’s glaciers? And where exactly is it located?

Cosmic filaments help set first limits on dark matter’s decay into gravitons

By measuring its gravitational influence on observable matter, astronomers have determined that dark matter is responsible for the motions and arrangements of galaxies. Although its true nature has eluded physicists for decades, some researchers suggest that it could be slightly unstable—with its constituent particles gradually decaying over cosmic timescales.

== bit of a European perspective, understandably
World’s oceans hit record-high July temperatures

The world’s oceans hit their hottest ever recorded temperatures for July, partly fuelled by developing El Niño conditions in the Pacific, according to the EU’s climate monitoring service.

America’s First Grid-Scale Sodium-Ion Battery Plant Is Coming to Sacramento

The 183,000-square-foot plant, representing a $71 million investment, will produce up to 4 gigawatt-hours of storage annually when production begins in early 2027. That is enough output each year to serve nearly four million homes, and it signals that sodium-ion technology has moved from laboratory promise to commercial reality.

One snail, five slimes: Collagen and calcium reshape mucus for different jobs

For the research team, snail mucus became the subject of a materials science analysis: How does the snail produce completely different material properties using the same basic building blocks?

How ‘smart’ hydrogel packaging tells you if your food is still fresh

The cuts of meat in a supermarket case can look perfectly fresh even as bacteria are already multiplying inside the package. Is there a way to know before you open it?

Hydraulic traits reveal why some mountain trees move uphill while others shift downhill

As global temperatures rise, scientists have largely assumed that mountain tree species will move uphill in search of cooler conditions. A new study reveals a more complex reality: Some tree species are moving uphill, while others are shifting downhill.

How early-life stress leaves a ‘scar’ inside brain cells

Scientists already knew that stress early in life changes the activity of genes in the brain. In a new study, the research team discovered that this is due to alterations in how brain cells package DNA, leaving the brain’s genetic stress response vulnerable to being easily turned on and reducing tolerance to stress.

Birdsong and whale song show patterns similar to human language

Bengalese finches—famous for their complex, learned songs—organize their songs using the same mathematical formula found in human speech, a trait that has developed over time and makes complex communication easier to learn and pass from one generation to the next.

Galactic spins carry fingerprints of the primordial universe

The origin of spin in spiral and elliptical galaxies has posed a long-standing puzzle for astronomers. One idea, known as tidal torque theory, proposes that galaxies’ spins are an imprinted record of the early universe, imparted by gravity long before galaxies first formed and still detectable in galaxies today.

Mushroom behind ’tiny people’ hallucinations identified

People in communities thousands of miles apart have described the same strange experience after eating a mysterious mushroom: vivid visions of tiny humans moving through and interacting with the physical world around them. Known as Lilliputian hallucinations—a reference to the 6-inch-tall inhabitants of “Gulliver’s Travels”—the phenomenon has long been thought to stem from cultural influences rather than biology.