Finnish researchers have installed the world’s first fully working “sand battery” which can store green power for months at a time. The developers say this could solve the problem of year-round supply, a major issue for green energy. Using low-grade sand, the device is charged up with heat made from cheap electricity from solar or […]
A new species of giant water lily has been discovered – and it’s been hiding in plain sight for 177 years. The huge plant had been in the archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and was growing in a number of aquatic collections but it was mistakenly identified as another species. Now a detailed […]
The Gambia has banned timber exports and revoked all export licenses to try to combat illegal logging. The ban has come into effect immediately, and the port authorities have been instructed to refuse to load timber logs onto any vessel. In 2020, a BBC investigation revealed that vast quantities of protected West African Rosewood were […]
A new map shows there could be around two million trees with exceptional environmental and cultural value previously unrecorded in England. That’s ten times as many as currently on official records. This tree-map is sounding a rare note of optimism in the conservation world. But the Woodland Trust charity warns that these trees – known […]
Getty Images South West Water is under investigation over its treatment of sewage, the Water Services Regulation Authority has announced. It joins five other water companies in England and Wales being probed over wastewater concerns. Raw sewage was discharged into waterways 375,000 times last year, according to the Environment Agency. South West Water said it […]
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. An unassuming patch of red dirt in remote Australia has made history as the site of Nasa’s first rocket launch from a commercial spaceport outside the US. The sub-orbital rocket blasted off from the tiny site early […]
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Explorers have found the deepest shipwreck ever identified, a US navy destroyer escort sunk during WWII. The USS Samuel B Roberts went down during the Battle Off Samar in the Philippine Sea in October 1944. It lies […]
Empics Five major planets in our solar system will shine brightly in a row during a rare planetary conjunction from Friday. If the sky is clear, the naked eye alone will be enough to see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn glowing before dawn. It’s a special opportunity to see Mercury, which is usually obscured […]
Getty Images Major UN talks aimed at striking a deal on safeguarding nature have been moved from China to Canada. The COP15 UN Biodiversity Conference began as virtual, online talks in October last year. Negotiations were meant to reconvene in Kunming, China in April but that was repeatedly postponed due to Covid. The talks are […]
There is a lot of talk about the climate crisis, much less about the biodiversity crisis. Yet the loss of species and habitats is reckoned to pose as much danger to life on Earth as global warming does. The UN warns a million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction in the coming […]