Science

A study published Friday warned that a systemic collapse of the Atlantic Ocean currents driving warm water from the tropics toward Europe could be more likely than researchers previously estimated—an event that would send temperatures plummeting in much of the continent.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which includes the Gulf Stream, could be headed for a relatively sudden shutdown that René Van Western, who led the Dutch study published in Science Advances, called "cliff-like."

An all-European quartet of astronauts, including Turkey's first, splashed down off the Florida coast on Friday morning, completing Axiom Space's third private mission to the International Space Station.

The Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) was the company's first launch where all three paid seats were bought by national agencies rather than wealthy individuals.

Certain plants have flowers that open only in the evening, and depend on nocturnal pollinators such as moths to thrive.

But a new paper published in Science on Thursday finds an atmospheric pollutant that is much more prevalent at night drastically reduces the fluttering creatures' ability to track floral scents.

NASA has kicked off a series of marathon flights in Asia with the world's biggest flying laboratory, in an ambitious mission to improve the models that help to forecast and fight air pollution.

Millions of deaths each year are linked to air pollution, and improving the ability to identify its sources and behaviour can lead to more accurate warning systems for the public.

The idea that two different human species, Homo sapiens (us) and Neanderthals, co-existed in western Eurasia 50–40,000 years ago has long captured the imagination of academics and the public alike.

It is therefore not surprising that this time period – the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic transition – has been a focus of research for many archaeologists, physical anthropologists and, more recently, geneticists.

Since the first detonation of an atomic bomb in 1945, more than 2,000 nuclear weapons tests have been conducted by eight countries: the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea.

Groups such as the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization are constantly on the lookout for new tests. However, for reasons of safety and secrecy, modern nuclear tests are carried out underground – which makes them difficult to detect. Often, the only indication they have occurred is from the seismic waves they generate.

Glowing lava spewed early Thursday from a new fissure on Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula, the third eruption to hit the area since December, deepening worries about the area's viability for towns and villages.

Live video images of the crack in the Earth's surface, stretching an estimated three kilometers (two miles), showed the fissure illuminating plumes of smoke rising under the dark sky that was visible from the capital of Reykjavik.

Population numbers of endangered monarch butterflies have fallen sharply at their wintering sites in Mexico, experts said Wednesday, blaming the "sobering" drop primarily on climate change and the use of pesticides.

The orange, black and white-spotted insects covered 0.90 hectares (2.2 acres) of forest in the 2023-2024 season, Gloria Tavera, conservation director at the National Commission for Natural Protected Areas, said.

Earth has endured 12 months of temperatures 1.5C hotter than the pre-industrial era for the first time on record, Europe's climate monitor said Thursday, in what scientists called a "warning to humanity".

Storms, drought and fire have lashed the planet as climate change, supercharged by the naturally-occurring El Nino phenomenon, stoked record warming in 2023, making it likely the hottest in 100,000 years.