PC:  Czech-UNDP Partnership for the Sustainable Development Goals In Kashitu, Zambia, a project implemented by Přátelé New Renato and New Renato Community Society, with support from the Czech-UNDP Partnership for the SDGs, is piloting a sanitation system that turns human waste into fertiliser as farmers face rising fertiliser costs and declining agricultural productivity. The project…

Mississippi River islands near Iowa are disappearing; $40M project to restore 630 acres of habitat (Image Credit: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District) Islands and backwaters along the Mississippi River near Guttenberg, Iowa, have been gradually disappearing as erosion, flooding, wind and waves wear away their shorelines. Now, a major habitat restoration effort…

The seeds that NASA sent to space in 1984, returned to Earth six years later in 1990 and had to be distributed among students as plant kits. What lies behind this statement is a tale of space motion that many remain unaware of. The mission was to determine whether exposure to the space environment would…

The discovery also has implications far beyond Lassen Volcanic National Park. Astrobiologists study extremophiles to understand the physical and chemical boundaries within which life can survive In the steaming pools of California’s Lassen Volcanic National Park, life has found a way to thrive where most cells would begin to fall apart. Hidden in geothermal waters,…

PC: Dr Joshua Copping/ University of Cambridge Solar farms can provide renewable electricity while also supporting wildlife when managed carefully. A study of six solar farms in the East Anglian Fens found that bird abundance and species richness varied with site management. Researchers surveyed 23.2 km of transects across the solar farms and 15.2 km…

At 13, Kelvin Doe was searching through piles of discarded materials in Freetown for things most people would have left behind. Acid, soda, scrap metal and broken components became part of a series of homemade experiments that gradually moved from a battery to a generator and then a transmitter. The teenager had no conventional electronics…

According to scientists, the South American cactus moth primarily attacks Opuntia species, commonly known as prickly pear cactus. It can also occasionally affect Nopalea, Cylindropuntia and Consolea species. A pest once deliberately moved around the world to solve an agricultural problem has become a problem of its own. According to a report by the USDA’s…

A dolphin named Bubbles has surprised researchers with an unusual way of getting a meal near Lady Elliot Island in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Seen in the area since at least 2017, the adult male common bottlenose dolphin has been filmed repeatedly chasing Bigeye Trevally until the fish regurgitate food, which Bubbles then eats. Researchers…

Alexander Du, a 17-year-old student from Sewickley, Pennsylvania, has been named a 2026 Presidential AI Challenge National Champion for inventing IRIS, an AI-powered wearable designed to help blind and visually impaired people navigate their surroundings. The teen built the $170 system after watching his grandmother struggle to navigate the world differently after losing her sight….

In 2024, California removed an 18-foot dam from Neefus Gulch and restored 1,600 feet of stream, reopening habitat that salmon had been unable to reach for more than seven decades. By January 2026, surveys recorded eight spawning nests, known as redds, in the newly accessible reaches above the former barrier, a sign that endangered Central…