News without the noise
Discoveries about the natural world: animals, plants, oceans, weather and the planet itself.
17 articles
Arizona has joined Nevada in a legal challenge against the Trump administration's proposed cuts to their shares of the Colorado River, escalating a dispute over how to manage the drought-stricken waterway's shrinking supply.
Almost every home destroyed in New South Wales during the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires was within 100 metres of flammable vegetation, new research has found, validating the buffer zone used by authorities but raising concerns that climate change will push fires further into suburban areas.
Honeybees are actively bullying wild pollinators away from flowers, using physical displacement and chasing to secure more pollen and nectar, according to a two-year study from Anglia Ruskin University. The research provides direct evidence that the surge in managed honeybee hives, driven by public campaigns to “save the bees”, is harming wild pollinator populations through aggressive competition.
New research published in Nature Communications has found that the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica is losing mass significantly faster than previously estimated. A team from the University of California and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered that warm seawater is intruding beneath the glacier, melting it from its core. This mechanism could add 1.2 inches (30 millimeters) to global sea levels over the next century, roughly double what earlier models predicted.
Bushfire smoke is affecting Queensland's urban air quality more frequently and more severely than previously understood, with bushfire-impacted hours during fire season roughly three times more common in recent years, according to a Queensland University of Technology-led study.
Microplastics in drinking water may not be as chemically inert as previously assumed, according to a new study published in Nature. Researchers from Columbia University have demonstrated that plastic particles can generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), a class of damaging molecules, when broken into microscopic droplets at the air-water interface.
NASA is closely monitoring a historic El Niño event unfolding in the equatorial Pacific, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration placing an 83% chance that it will become the strongest since records began in 1950. Satellite data show sea surface temperatures and sea levels rising dramatically, with effects already felt by farmers, firefighters and coastal communities around the world.
A new study published in Science Advances suggests that restoring native ecosystems on coral-fringed atolls could help these vulnerable landforms keep pace with rising seas. The research, which examined 28 atoll islands across the Pacific and Indian oceans, shows that healthy seabird colonies and native vegetation create a self-reinforcing cycle that builds and stabilises island sediment.
A first-of-its-kind genetic study has found that the black teatfish, a sought-after sea cucumber species, can live up to 100 years, far longer than the previously assumed lifespan of 5 to 20 years. Researchers warn this means Australian fisheries regulators may be overestimating how quickly the species can replenish, raising doubts about the sustainability of current catch limits.
Mont Blanc, Western Europe's highest mountain, has shrunk by more than a metre in the past year, a team of French surveyors announced on Wednesday. The peak now stands at 4,807.47 metres above sea level, a decrease of 1.29 metres from 2025 and 3.43 metres lower than its recorded high in 2007.
High-speed video has revealed how a honey bee stinger keeps pumping venom into a victim after the bee has flown away: the three-part stinger works as a double-piston pump, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The footage provides the first direct observation of the mechanism behind the phenomenon, known as autotomy, in which the detached stinger continues to penetrate tissue and deliver venom on its own.
Wild bird populations in the UK have dropped to their lowest level since records began, according to official figures. The data, produced by leading conservation bodies for the government, shows that average populations across 132 native breeding species fell by 19 percent between 1970 and 2025, with farmland birds and seabirds suffering the steepest recent losses.
A levee built in the 1970s to protect a popular caravan park and nearby homes on Victoria’s Barwon River Estuary is showing signs of strain from repeated water exposure, with a new report warning it will be fully inundated by 2100 under current sea level rise scenarios. The state government has received $250,000 in federal funding to study the defence and design upgrades.
The northern lights could make another appearance over parts of the UK on Monday night, but heavy cloud cover is likely to deny Londoners a view of the aurora borealis, forecasters have said.
Arctic sea ice reached its annual minimum extent on September 12, 2026, tying several previous years for the 10th-lowest minimum since satellite records began, according to NASA data.
New Zealand faces more frequent and intense heatwaves and catastrophic glacier melts as greenhouse gas levels reach record highs, according to the Our Atmosphere and Climate 2026 report released Wednesday. The findings paint a stark picture of mounting climate pressures with wide-reaching implications for the environment, native species and communities.
A low-pressure system in the western Gulf of Mexico is expected to strengthen into a tropical storm and has a decent chance of becoming a hurricane, according to the latest forecast modeling. Such a development would be unremarkable in early October under normal circumstances, but this year it would end a record-setting stretch: no Atlantic hurricane has formed yet this season.