Science
Scientific discoveries and research
What 2024's record-breaking rainfall says about the next El Niño
Though strong El Niños have occurred only four times in as many decades, 2024's intense El Niño is already getting a sequel. New UCLA research shows that 2024 b...
Primordial helium further confirms our understanding of the Big Bang
In the early moments of the big bang, two elements were forged: hydrogen and helium. Technically, the tiniest traces of light elements such as lithium were prod...
Elephants continue to shape the savanna even after death
Elephants shape the African savanna. They consume huge amounts of forage, dig for water, topple trees and affect all the animals around them. So, what happens t...
High-speed video reveals how honey bee stingers keep pumping venom after detachment
Australian scientists have used high-speed video to uncover the unique mechanism that allows a honey bee's stinger to continue to pump venom into its target eve...
Fijian bee genomics suggest 99% effective population decline since European colonization
The decline of pollinator species due to habitat loss and pesticide use over recent decades has been a global concern. Pollinators like bees and butterflies sup...
Study links environment and youth mental health
A new University of Canterbury-led study of almost 1 million young people in New Zealand shows the environments they live in may be linked to their mental healt...
Alternative gravity theory offers possible explanation for dark energy changing over time
For many years, the simplest view of dark energy has been that it remains unchanged. Throughout cosmic history, the mysterious ingredient believed to drive the...
The dying sun could tear the solar system apart sooner than thought
The fate of our solar system is written in the stars—well, one star to be precise: the sun. Estimates of what the end will look like once the sun sheds much of...
Physics Nobel highlights Antarctica's role in exploring the cosmos
When Belgian American particle physicist Francis Halzen was awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in physics "for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observat...
A migration running out of time? New Zealand banded dotterels reach Australia later each year
On open beaches, gravel riverbeds and bare volcanic plateaus, banded dotterels—or double-banded plovers, as they are called in Australia—are a familiar and much...
This economist believes the system is broken. Maybe she has a point
Governments need to work hand in hand with the private sector, rather than leaving business to its own devices. They should be "moving away from fixing market f...
Letters reveal forgotten role of Baghdad antiquities dealers in early 20th-century Kish excavations
Between 1880 and 1912, no official excavations took place at Kish. Yet museums from London and Paris to New York were somehow acquiring brand-new tablets from t...