China achieves incredible feat by transforming barren desert into entirely new landscape
15 December 2025 - It takes a lot of time and effort, but ecosystems can be transformed significantly. You have to think outside the box and be patient. This has been the case in Awati County in northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region over the last five years. It was formerly a largely arid region that suffered from desertification. However, local officials and scientists have turned it into a thriving wetland teeming with life and color. (more)

US: Agrivoltaic systems boost crop yields by combining solar panels with farming
15 December 2025 - At Jack's Solar Garden in Longmont, Colorado, more than 3,000 solar panels glint in the sun, powering some 300 homes in the community and providing shade to the fruits, vegetables, and herbs growing below. The practice is known as ''agrivoltaics,'' combining agriculture and solar power generation on the same land. (more)

India: Deepavali inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
12 December 2025 - Deepavali has been officially inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, at the twentieth session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. It has been inscribed under the ''Social practices, rituals and festive events'' domain and marks the sixteenth element on UNESCO's Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage from the Republic of India. (more)

The World Health Organization and India's Health Ministry roll out campaign on women and girl's health and well-being
12 December 2025 - On Wednesday, the World Health Organization rolled out a month-long campaign on women's and girl's health and well-being in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Family welfare, Government of India. ''Healthy women are the pillars of a healthy family, community, and a healthy nation. Health of women and girls, including their mental health, is hence important not just for their well-being, but most importantly for our well-being,'' said Dr. Catharina Boehme, Officer-in-Charge, WHO South-East Asia. (more)

US: Local climate actions pay off immediately, delivering cleaner air, new jobs, and better public health
12 December 2025 - Local action to address the global threat of climate change can lead to many improvements for the local population, according to a new report by researchers at the George Washington University. To address barriers to implementing climate strategies at the local level, researchers identified actions that provide a net positive return on investment and offer other benefits such as job creation and cleaner air. (more)

UNESCO's Heritage Talanoa Celebrates Samoa's Living Heritage and Cultural Rights
11 December 2025 - On Human Rights Day, the ''Upu Ma Tala -- Fa'asao lou Fa'asinomaga Fa'aleaganu'u'' (Safeguarding Your Cultural Heritage) initiative concluded in Samoa, successfully focusing on revitalizing six elements of intangible cultural heritage at risk, such as fagufagu (nose-flute playing) and siapo-making (tapa cloth). This effort highlights the resilience and commitment to passing on cultural knowledge across generations. (more)

Singapore: Scientists invent new sunscreen made from pollen
10 December 2025 - Traditional chemical sunscreens can damage coral reefs. Scientists say there's a fix using one derived from tea plant pollen. Researchers found that a gel made from the pollen of camellia flowers (Camellia sinensis) blocked ultraviolet (UV) light about as well as existing commercial sunscreens, such as those made with oxybenzone or octinoxate. But unlike these conventional options, the pollen-based gel didn't cause coral bleaching in a laboratory experiment. (more)

Australia: These chefs left prestigious culinary jobs to cook at nursing homes: ''We want to make this industry better''
9 December 2025 - Facing burnout from his time as a fine dining chef, David Martin's parents suggested he pivot to working in the kitchen of a nursing home. He is now executive chef manager at St. Vincent's Care, a nursing home facility in Melbourne, Australia. Teaming up with another chef with a similar background, Harry Shen, the pair have a vision to elevate the standard of food in these facilities. Martin stated that it's been fulfilling for a whole team of chefs, who now cook for St. Vincent's Care's 10 properties, collectively producing 20,000 meals a day. (more)

Denmark: Small root mutation could make crops fertilize themselves, promising a major leap in Sustainable Agriculture
9 December 2025 - Denmark's Aarhus University researchers found a molecular switch that allows plants to partner with nitrogen-fixing bacteria rather than fight them. This discovery could pave the way for self-fertilizing cereal crops. Such crops could dramatically reduce synthetic fertilizer use and emissions. (more)

US: Scientists witness unexpected changes in rivers after knocking down dams: ''We didn't even know there was [one] there''
9 December 2025 - Across the northeastern United States, a quiet but powerful transformation is underway. Rivers that were once blocked by outdated dams are now running freely again, and the results are nothing short of astonishing -- long-lost ecosystems are returning, fish are migrating in record numbers, and local residents are reconnecting with revitalized waterways in ways they never imagined. (more)

MrBeast and the Rockefeller Foundation are teaming up to spark youth philanthropy
24 November 2025 - One of the most storied American philanthropies is teaming up with the internet's biggest creator to instill young people with a concern for what they call the world's 'most vulnerable' populations. (more)

US: Wisconsin archaeologists identify 16 ancient canoes in a prehistoric lake 'parking lot'
19 November 2025 - Archaeologists have identified more than a dozen ancient canoes that Indigenous people apparently left behind in a sort of prehistoric parking lot along a Wisconsin lakeshore. ...Tamara Thomsen, the state's maritime archaeologist, said that the site lies near a network of what were once indigenous trails, suggesting ancient people left the canoes there for anyone to use as they traveled, much like a modern-day e-bike rack. (more)

France's birds start to show signs of recovery after bee-harming pesticide ban
18 November 2025 - Insect-eating bird populations in France appear to be making a tentative recovery after a ban on bee-harming pesticides, according to the first study to examine how wildlife is returning in Europe. (more)

Experts lead tours uncovering Mexico's hidden ancient sites
17 November 2025 - Amid the constant blare of car horns in southern Mexico City, it's hard to imagine that Cuicuilco was once the heart of a thriving ancient civilization. Yet atop its circular pyramid, now surrounded by buildings and a shopping center, a pre-Hispanic fire god was revered. ...Cuicuilco means 'the place where songs and dances are made' in the Nahua language. (more)

This Tunisian startup has an answer to expensive EV charging: solar rays
16 November 2025 - Every type of EV charging comes with a price tag, but North African startup Bako Motors has a pretty simple workaround: just let cars charge themselves. Bako's ultra-compact cars and fun-sized cargo vans actually have solar panels on the top. ...With most EVs across the continent still depending on electricity from the power grid, Bako Motors hopes to rewrite that equation by tapping into one of the region's most abundant resources: sunshine. (more)

Zanzibar's 'solar mamas' are trained as technicians to help light up communities
13 November 2025 - Tatu Omary Hamad is one of dozens of 'solar mamas' trained in Zanzibar by Barefoot College International, a global nonprofit, through a program that brings light to rural communities and provides jobs for local women. So far in Zanzibar, it has lit 1,845 homes. (more)

The 'Seven Sisters' just found thousands of long-lost siblings
12 November 2025 - Astronomers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered that the famous Pleiades star cluster, the 'Seven Sisters' often spotted on winter nights, is just the bright tip of a much larger stellar family. By combining data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the European Space Agency's Gaia space telescope, the team uncovered thousands of hidden siblings spread across the sky, a sprawling structure they call the Greater Pleiades Complex. The discovery shows the Pleiades is 20 times larger than previously thought. (more)

The Seven Sisters star cluster is 20 times larger than we thought
12 November 2025 - For as long as humans have looked up, the Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, have stood out - a compact cluster of blue-white stars that seems small to the eye but hides a vast galactic family. Astronomers have traced that family outward, uncovering thousands of long-lost siblings and redefining what we know of the Pleiades. (more)

Renewables overtake coal as world's biggest source of electricity
7 November 2025 - Renewable energy overtook coal as the world's leading source of electricity in the first half of this year - a historic first, according to new data from the global energy think tank Ember. (more)

From St. Basil's to Bondi: the brilliant 'beaver' supermoon - in pictures
6 November 2025 - The largest supermoon of the year, the so-called 'beaver' moon is the biggest and brightest of 2025, just 357,000 km from Earth. (more)

See stunning photos of November's full 'Beaver Moon' -- the biggest supermoon of 2025
6 November 2025 - The November full moon put on a magnificent show for stargazers on Nov. 5, as the largest and brightest supermoon of 2025 flooded the sky with reflected sunlight mere hours before it reached its closest point to Earth in its 27-day orbit. ...Photographers around the world captured a treasure trove of magnificent lunar portraits as the disk of Earth's natural satellite climbed over the eastern horizon last night, rising close to ancient monuments and modern skyscrapers along with breathtaking natural landscapes. (more)

The Nobel Prize in medicine goes to 3 scientists for key immune system discoveries
2 November 2025 - Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday [6 October] for discoveries about how the immune system knows to attack germs and not our own bodies. ...Experts called the findings critical to understanding autoimmune diseases such as Type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus. (more)

How to spot November's supermoon, the closest of the year
1 November 2025 - The moon will look slightly bigger and brighter Wednesday night during the closest supermoon of the year. (more)

Physicists detect rare 'second-generation' black holes that prove Einstein right . . . again
31 October 2025 - Physicists have analyzed two enormous black hole mergers that happened one month apart and have come up with tantalizing evidence that rare 'second-generation' black holes were involved. Scientists have found two pairs of merging black holes, and they think the larger one in each merger is a rare 'second-generation' veteran of a previous collision. (more)