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Most people think of microbes in simple terms: Some make you sick, while others help keep you healthy. But microbes' influence stretches far beyond human bodies. These astonishingly complex organisms regulate the health of forests, oceans and grasslands and determine how ecosystems respond to environmental change.

It's difficult to forget standing in front of a glacier that is advancing toward you, towering ice pillars constantly cracking as they inch forward. The motion is too slow to see in real time but is obvious from one day to the next.

As millions of visitors prepare to descend on North Texas for the FIFA World Cup, city of Dallas officials say the global spotlight also brings local environmental responsibility.

Quantum physics may sound abstract, but Ph.D. candidates Kirsten Kanneworff and David Dechant show that quantum research can also be very concrete. Together, they are investigating how quantum technology can change the world. While Kanneworff worked in the lab to study how quantum optics can be used to prove someone's location, Dechant focused on quantum computing for dynamic systems, such as the financial world. The two researchers are defending their doctoral theses this week.

A new study suggests that young men overwhelmingly support affirmative sexual consent in principle—yet often find its verbal implementation difficult in practice. The research, led by scholars at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and Melbourne University's Department of General Practice and Primary Care, explores how young heterosexual men interpret and navigate consent during real-world sexual encounters.

Cold air and frigid waters have caused more than 600 young green sea turtles to wash ashore on Florida's beaches this month—and more are turning up every day.

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are one of the largest families of cell surface proteins in the human body that recognize hormones, neurotransmitters, and drugs. These receptors regulate a wide range of physiological processes and are the targets of more than 30% of currently marketed drugs. The histamine H1 receptor (H1R) is one such GPCR subtype that plays a key role in mediating allergic reactions, inflammation, vascular permeability, airway constriction, wakefulness, and cognitive functions in the human body. While antihistamines primarily target H1R, current drugs can exhibit limited therapeutic efficacy, prompting researchers to look at H1R ligands from new perspectives.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework states that plastic pollution must be eliminated by 2030. So why haven't we enacted measures that make a real difference?

Though superbloom is not a scientific term, that doesn't stop legions from hoping for a giant display of wildflowers come springtime. UC Riverside plant ecologist Loralee Larios weighs in here on the outlook for such a show this year, where one might see it, and how flower lovers can protect the blooms for years to come.

When she was growing up, Sophie Adenot plastered her childhood bedroom with posters of rockets launching from Cape Canaveral.

December 16 marked 250 years since the writer’s birth – but at The Conversation, we have been celebrating all year.

There is a gap between the affection of graduates for universities and the relative scepticism of those that have not attended higher education.

Prototypes For Humanity brings in research talent from more than 800 universities around the world.

Prof Nishan Canagarajah, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester, is to step down as Chair of The Conversation UK’s Board of Trustees.

Conferences that bring people of different backgrounds together and propose solutions are more likely to create change.

Podcast series from The Conversation where children ask academics questions wins gold at the British Podcast Awards.

Six finalists want your vote for the People’s Choice winner of the Vitae Three Minute Thesis competition.

A series of lectures on decolonisation sheds new light on contemporary conflicts.

Successful applicants will be invited to the November event to present details of their project.

Whether you’re single, dating, married or somewhere in between, our love lives are increasingly mediated by technology.

Solving complex challenges often requires diverse expertise, but skepticism remains within traditional academic institutions and mindsets regarding interdisciplinary science and scientists.

Direct stress measurements inside deforming quartz reveal how its strength changes with temperature, improving models of continental crust deformation.

In NW India, rainfall in the 2025 monsoon was 27% above the long term average. Over 2,500 people were killed in India and Pakistan by landslides and floods as a result. In India and Pakistan, the 2025 summer monsoon generated unusual amount of landslide activity. I described some of these events along the way, most […]

Scientists are using new computational tools to analyze troves of old spacecraft data to better understand one of Mercury’s unsolved mysteries.

Scientists used sediments to create a millennia-long archive of Antarctic fast ice. Along the way, they discovered that the freezing and thawing of this enigmatic ice appear to be linked to solar cycles.

Water-Cherenkov cosmic-ray detectors can be used as a tool for monitoring and studying changes in the lower stratosphere over Antarctica.

Uncertainty in climate models could mean Earth systems are perilously close to their tipping points, scientists warn.

Tomorrow, the EPA will revoke the 2009 Endangerment Finding, finalizing a July proposal to do so, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a 10 February announcement.

A new study highlights the partnership between scientists and nonscientist community members in building an interactive GIS map to show flooding risk in a Superfund site.

Scientists apply machine learning to demonstrate that geosynchronous satellites can be used to assess the health of oceans from deep space.

Open access notables Shifting baselines alter trends and emergence of climate extremes across Africa, Taguela & Akinsanola, Atmospheric Research World Meteorological Organization baselines used to identify climate extremes are routinely updated to reflect recent climate conditions. Yet the implications of these updates for the characterization, trends, and detectability of climate extremes remain poorly understood, particularly in data-sparse and highly vulnerable regions such as Africa. Here, we quantify how updating the reference period from 1981–2010 to 1991–2020 systematically alters the characterization of temperatu

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah Wesseler Want to lower your carbon footprint? Consider ditching your car.  In a 2025 study, researchers at the World Resources Institute found that going car-free is the most effective step individuals can take to lower their personal emissions. In fact, it has a bigger impact than adding a home solar system and going vegan combined, they wrote, and 78 times more effective than composting. But in much of the U.S., getting around without a car is difficult, if not impossible, due to overwhelmingly car-centric infrastructure. However, while going car-free may be hard for many Americans to imagine, this could change. As cities like 

Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Can nearby solar farms reduce property values? Property values can decline from close proximity with utility-scale solar farms, but the losses are modest and less than from nearby fossil fuel plants. One 2023 study of 1.8 million homes found minor impacts on property values. Homes within 0.5 miles of solar farms experienced around 1.5% price reductions; homes

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons When Jessica Fujii was in kindergarten, she drew a picture of her future. In a “What do you want to be when you grow up?” booklet, she skipped ballerina and veterinarian and wrote down something else entirely: sea otter biologist, complete with cartoon-like otters in the great tide pool at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Fujii grew up in California’s Bay Area, and trips to Monterey and its aquarium became a regular part of her childhood. She remembers paddling alongside her dad in a kayak on Monterey Bay, watching wild otters float on their backs as they cracked open crabs and let the shells sink. Back then, she mostly took their presence for granted. Today, as a sea otter researcher and program manager at the&n

A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 1, 2026 thru Sat, February 7, 2026. Stories we promoted this week, by category: Climate Policy and Politics (11 articles) Flawed economic models mean climate crisis could crash global economy, experts warn "States and financial bodies using modelling that ignores shocks from extreme weather and climate tipping points" The Guardian, Damian Carrington, Feb 4, 2025.

Open access notables Risk perception and response to changing wildfire hazards: family forest owners in the western US Pacific Northwest, Fischer et al., Climate Risk Management Climate models predict future increases in the frequency, magnitude, and duration of natural hazard events, including heat waves, droughts, and wildfires. People may be aware of these natural hazards but unfamiliar with new patterns expected under climate change. Ideally, people would take action to protect themselves from natural hazard events—even those with whi

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob Henson his week’s mammoth U.S. winter blast wasn’t the only storm affecting the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society occurring in Houston, Texas. Looming in the background of the meeting – and jumping into the foreground during an evening town hall on Wednesday, January 28 – was the fate of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, or NCAR, which the Trump administration is moving to dismantle. Based in Boulder, Colorado, and sponsored by the National Science Foundation since its founding in 1960, NCAR (or NSF NCAR, as the center brands itself) is a premier national and global hub

Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Can solar projects improve biodiversity? Solar projects do not inherently reduce biodiversity, and when designed with best practices, they can sustain or even increase local wildlife and plant diversity. Impacts depend on where and how projects are built. Siting solar on already developed land and minimizing soil disturbance can maintain habitats and s

This article by Mathew Barlow, Professor of Climate Science, UMass Lowell and Judah Cohen, Climate scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. A severe winter storm that brought crippling freezing rain, sleet and snow to a large part of the U.S. in late Janu

A listing of 28 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 25, 2026 thru Sat, January 31, 2026. Stories we promoted this week, by category: Climate Change Impacts (11 articles) Thailand’s endangered ‘sea cows’ are washing ashore – pointing to a crisis in our seas "The Andaman Coast has one of the largest concentration of dugong in the world, so why are numbers falling dramatically and what can they tell us about a biodiversity warning cry" The Guardian, Gloria Dickie, Jan 23, 2026.