Environmental News Network

As our skies increasingly crowd with buzzing, hovering, flitting drones, spare a thought for the humble hopping robot. Hopping, a popular form of locomotion in the insect and amphibian worlds, is nearly two orders of magnitude more energy-efficient than flying. Unlike a mosquito that must constantly expend energy to stay aloft, a flea only works out when it jumps.

Details 29 September 2026 Typography Font Size Default Reading Mode A new way of simulating wind turbines in the field shows how tweaking turbine operation could unlock tens of thousands of dollars per turbine every year. A new way of simulating wind turbines in the field shows how tweaking turbine operation could unlock tens of thousands of dollars per turbine every year. The world needs more wind energy.

Details 29 September 2026 Typography Font Size Default Reading Mode Dominik Fleitmann, how did you come to study the climate using stalagmites? Dominik Fleitmann, how did you come to study the climate using stalagmites? It was through my doctoral research. Using stalagmites as climate archives is a relatively young field. Previously, we mainly knew this kind of approach from ice cores, tree rings, or lake sediments. But stalagmites also give us a very precise view into the past.

Typography Font Size Default Reading Mode The health consequences of catastrophic wildfires that burn through towns and cities may extend far beyond the period when flames are extinguished and smoke disappears, according to new research from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Maui Wildfire Exposure Study (MauiWES).

Details 25 September 2026 Typography Font Size Default Reading Mode Sound travels through the ocean carrying clues about potential prey, predators and other animals, giving sharks an important way to detect what they cannot yet see. Sound travels through the ocean carrying clues about potential prey, predators and other animals, giving sharks an important way to detect what they cannot yet see.

Typography Font Size Default Reading Mode The research, published in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology, has found that grazing in spring can remove much of the nectar emerging bumblebees need, while commercial honey bee hives introduced during the summer heather flowering period have a much smaller impact.

Details 25 September 2026 Typography Font Size Default Reading Mode The bright orange plumes of water scientists first noticed billowing across a river in Alaska’s Brooks Range in 2018 were even more acidic and metallic than water leached from metal mines, despite their pristine surroundings.

Details 25 September 2026 Typography Font Size Default Reading Mode The switch to silicon cells could also halve the weight of the solar cells needed on the spacecraft, freeing mass for fuel or instruments, or cutting launch costs. The switch to silicon cells could also halve the weight of the solar cells needed on the spacecraft, freeing mass for fuel or instruments, or cutting launch costs.

Details 24 September 2026 Typography Font Size Default Reading Mode Lead contamination in soil tracked inside homes can cause dangerous indoor lead dust levels even in residences with no interior lead-based paint, according to researchers with the Rutgers Environmental, Occupational and Health Sciences Institute in collaboration with community scientists: members of the general public who participate in data collection under the direction of scientists.

Details 24 September 2026 Typography Font Size Default Reading Mode Marine carbon dioxide removal (CDR) has advanced significantly, with growing research activity, technological development, private-sector involvement, and movement toward field testing, but major questions remain about whether these approaches can remove carbon dioxide at meaningful scales, how that removal can be reliably measured and verified, potential environmental effects, and how marine CDR should be governed, says a...