Nature's comeback: How rewilding is transforming former golf courses
4 March 2025 - Communities worldwide are transforming former golf courses into thriving natural habitats, enhancing biodiversity and public well-being. The Plock of Kyle in Scotland, once a neglected golf course, now flourishes with diverse ecosystems, including wildflower meadows and peat bogs, supporting species like otters and dragonflies. (more)

LiDAR reveals abandoned fort was actually a lost Zapotec city with temples and ball courts
3 March 2025 - A recent LiDAR survey in southern Mexico has revealed that a known site of pre-Colombian fortifications was actually a thriving urban center of 5,000 people or more. Despite being known to Spanish explorers, modern historians, and archaeologists, the site of Guiengola in the hills above the modern town of Santo Domingo Tehuantepec is now understood to contain ballcourts, roads, temples, and neighborhoods. (more)

Scientists discover mysterious abandoned Zapotec city hidden in the Mexican jungle
3 March 2025 - A McGill University researcher has revealed that Guiengola, a 15th-century Zapotec site in southern Oaxaca, Mexico, was not merely a military fortress, as previously believed, but a vast, fortified city. (more)

Mexico: Researchers thought it was just a fortress. It turned out to be a lost Zapotec city
2 March 2025 - Lidar scans have revealed a 600-year-old fortified city in southern Mexican state of Oaxaca that boasted ball courts, roads, neighborhoods, and temples. The sprawling metropolis, known as Guiengola, was built by the Zapotecs, a pre-Columbian group that inhabited the region as early as the sixth century B.C.E. (more)

Britain's net zero economy is booming, CBI says
1 March 2025 - The net zero sector is growing three times faster than the overall UK economy, analysis has found, providing high-wage jobs across the country while cutting climate-heating emissions and increasing energy security. (more)

Beaver releases into wild to be allowed in England for first time in centuries
28 February 2025 - The release of beavers into English waterways is to be allowed for the first time in centuries, the Guardian can reveal. The environment secretary, Steve Reed, is to announce that nature groups will be able to get a licence for the release. ...Until about 20 years ago, the rodent had been extinct in Britain for 400 years, having been hunted for their fur, meat and scent oil. ...Beavers create useful habitats for wildlife and reduce flooding by breaking up waterways, slowing water flow, and creating still pools. (more)

Stonehenge-like circle unearthed in Denmark may have links to UK
26 February 2025 - Archaeologists suggest 'woodhenge' was built between 2600 and 1600BC on similar axis to English stone circle. An 'extraordinary' timber circle believed to be thousands of years old and connected to Stonehenge in England has been discovered in the ground in Denmark. ...Experts say the find shows how widespread shared belief systems were and the close connection between Denmark and England. (more)

A planet alignment happens in late-February
25 February 2025 - A visible line of planets has for weeks been the talk of astronomers and hobbyist stargazers who have sought to catch a sight of our solar system's worlds. ...Visible parades of planets only occur every few years, making the cosmic events ones not to be missed. Here's what to know. (more)

Every planet of our solar system is lining up in the February night sky
25 February 2025 - Seven planets grace the sky at the end of February in what's known as a planetary parade, though some will be difficult to spot with the naked eye. These planetary hangouts happen when several planets appear to line up in the night sky at once. ...This month, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter are visible to the naked eye. A faint Saturn and Mercury are close to the horizon, making them hard to spot. (more)

The Scotland based speaker whose wise TED talks have amassed 150 million views
24 February 2025 - The global learning platform, Kahoot!, recently ran a poll to decide the UK's favourite TED talk. The result was one from 2013 by Julian Treasure, entitled How To Speak So That People Want to Listen, which was delivered in Edinburgh and is the sixth most viewed TED talk of all time. Treasure's five talks have now collectively amassed 150 million views. (more)

Solar cell breakthrough: new method makes perovskite panels fully recyclable
21 February 2025 - Linkoping University researchers have developed a sustainable method to fully recycle perovskite solar cells using water instead of toxic solvents. The recycled cells retain their original efficiency, addressing both environmental and technological concerns. A study published in Nature by researchers at Linkoping University introduces a new method for recycling solar cells without using environmentally hazardous solvents. (more)

Water-based recycling of perovskite solar cells
20 February 2025 - Scientists led by Linkoping University [Sweden] and Cornell University [US] have proposed a new technique to recycle perovskite solar cells made on glass substrates using a water-based solution. The novel approach is described as efficient and stable as the original devices in the study. (more)

The Netherlands has a record crop of new millers to keep the windmill sails spinning
19 February 2025 - The age-old craft of harnessing wind power to drain lowlands, saw lumber, or grind grain is enjoying a renaissance in the Netherlands, a nation famous for the windmills dotting its landscape. Peter Booij and d'Ailly are part of a record crop of 110 newly qualified millers. (more)

The traditional sari is on colorful display at a massive Hindu festival in India
17 February 2025 - The traditional colorful Indian fabric worn by women is ubiquitous to the world's largest religious gathering in northern India's Prayagraj city, where millions of Hindus are gathering to seek absolution from their sins and take dips in the holy waters. ...Saris have remained traditional dresses for women in India and other South Asian countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. (more)

US: Court restores protections for endangered whale species to prevent entanglement in fishing gear
15 February 2025 - Commercial fishermen who hoped for a loosening of fishing regulations during President Donald Trump's administration faced a setback when a federal appeals court reinstated rules meant to protect a dwindling whale species from getting entangled in fishing gear. (more)

Older women in Nepal are learning how to read and write
14 February 2025 - For about a year now, [Sushila Gautam, 77] has been going for free lessons near her home on the outskirts of Nepal's capital Kathmandu, at the Ujyalo Community Learning Center. The center was set up three years ago by the local council to provide basic education to women like her. ...The center has made more than 200 women literate in its first three years. (more)

Thousands in Taiwan and China celebrate the Lantern Festival with high hopes and rice dumplings
13 February 2025 - Thousands in Taiwan and China celebrated the Lantern Festival on Wednesday [13 February] by releasing paper lanterns into the night sky, visiting light installations, and snacking on glutinous rice dumplings. The holiday marks the end of the Lunar New Year period and is celebrated annually on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar. (more)

Scientists detect record-breaking 'ghost particle' in the Mediterranean Sea
12 February 2025 - Astronomers using a giant network of sensors, still under construction at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, have found the highest-energy cosmic 'ghost particle' ever detected. The neutrino, as the particle is formally known, is 30 times more energetic than any of the few hundreds of previously detected neutrinos. (more)

An unusual ghost particle is spotted by a deep-sea telescope in the Mediterranean
12 February 2025 - A neutrino detector submerged in the Mediterranean Sea has sniffed out the most energetic ghost particle yet, scientists reported Wednesday [12 February]. The newly detected neutrino is around 30 times more active than the previous recordholder. Scientists think it came from outside the Milky Way galaxy but its exact source remains a mystery. (more)

Lost cities of the Amazon: how science is revealing ancient garden towns hidden in the rainforest
12 February 2025 - Archaeologists using 3D mapping are uncovering the remains of thousands of green metropolises with composted gardens, fisheries, and forests groomed into orchards. ...The discovery challenges historical ideas of a pristine jungle too harsh to sustain human occupation. (more)

Many birds-of-paradise species emit light through their plumage, study finds
11 February 2025 - Birds-of-paradise are known for their bright and colorful plumage, but it turns out they are even more dazzling than previously thought. Researchers have found 37 of the 45 species show biofluorescence -- in other words, patches of their plumage or other body parts absorb UV or blue light, and emit light at lower frequencies. (more)

Eager beavers: rodents engineer Czech wetland project after years of human delay
11 February 2025 - Beavers accomplish long-stalled conservation plan on former army site, sparing crayfish and taxpayers alike. Beavers have saved Czech taxpayers $1.2m by flooding a protected former army training site where a long-stalled dam was planned. Officials had hoped to build a barrier to shield the Klabava River and its population of critically endangered crayfish from sediment and acidic water spilling over from two nearby ponds. (more)

Space telescope spots rare 'Einstein ring' of light around galaxy in our cosmic neighborhood
10 February 2025 - Europe's Euclid space telescope has detected a rare halo of bright light around a nearby galaxy, astronomers reported Monday [10 February]. The halo, known as an Einstein ring, encircles a galaxy 590 million light-years away, considered close by cosmic standards. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. Astronomers have known about this galaxy for more than a century and so were surprised when Euclid revealed the bright glowing ring, reported in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. (more)

Euclid telescope captures Einstein ring revealing warping of space
10 February 2025 - The Euclid space telescope has captured a rare phenomenon called an Einstein ring that reveals the extreme warping of space by a galaxy's gravity. The dazzling image shows a nearby galaxy, NGC 6505, surrounded by a perfect circle of light. ...'This is a beautiful, extraordinary, thrilling and lucky find in our first data,' said Prof Stephen Serjeant, an astronomer at the Open University. (more)