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Experts say climate crisis, corruption and lack or misuse of infrastructure among factors driving water conflicts
Water-related violence has almost doubled since 2022 and little is being done to understand and address the trend and prevent new and escalating risks, experts have said.
There were 419 incidents of water-related violence recorded in 2024, up from 235 in 2022, according to the Pacific Institute, a US-based thinktank.
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Researchers found a new way to filter and destroy Pfas chemicals at 100 times the rate of current systems
New filtration technology developed by Rice University may absorb some Pfas “forever chemicals” at 100 times the rate previously possible, which could dramatically improve pollution control and speed remediations.
Researchers also say they have also found a way to destroy Pfas, though both technologies face a steep challenge in being deployed on an industrial scale.
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Pollution from wood burners kills thousands but proposed emissions limit would cut toxic particles by 10%
New wood-burning stoves will carry a health warning highlighting the impact of the air pollution they produce, under UK government plans.
Ministers have also proposed cutting the limit on the smoke emitted from wood burners by 80%. However, the measure would only apply to new stoves, most of which already meet the stricter limit. The new limit would cut the annual toxic emissions from wood burning in the UK by only 10% over the next decade, according to the consultation.
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This year’s RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, which begins on Friday, could reveal ‘some surprise migratory visitors’
The chances of spotting a fieldfare or redwing in 2026 have risen, thanks to cold and unsettled weather in Europe, prompting a bumper year in birds migrating to the UK.
The RSPB highlighted the trend on the eve of the Big Garden Birdwatch, an annual event that constitutes the world’s largest garden wildlife survey, which will take place between 23 and 25 January.
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Study also says Balkan levels are often higher than in Beijing – and sometimes among the highest in the world
When we think of the world’s most polluted cities, images of Delhi or Beijing come to mind, but new data has revealed acute pollution problems close to the heart of Europe.
Prof Andre Prevot, of the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland, explained: “In winter, the particle pollution in the Balkans is the highest in Europe. Particle pollution levels are often higher than in Beijing and on some days they are among the highest in the world. Sulphur dioxide in winter can be over 30 times greater than what we normally see in western Europe.”
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Grays, Essex: I visit an unassuming gorge where a wealth of ice age fossils was once found, telling us about Britain’s megafauna – and Neanderthals
You wouldn’t know the Lion Pit was there. This overgrown gorge exists quietly, without the sensation its name implies, below a housing estate, by Lakeside shopping centre and within earshot of the M25, wedged on all sides as tightly as the newbuilds that line its cliffs. This is industrial West Thurrock, far south Essex, where the wild marshes that still thrive on the Blackwater Estuary, where I live in the north-east of the county, have long since disappeared.
As I arrive, a fox strolls up the road, urbanely cool. It darts over the edge and into the gorge. I follow it. Descend into the pit, and you’re down in deep time. Ice age time, to be precise, because this location has produced some of the most important archaeological finds of Britain’s Palaeolithic past.
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More than 30,000 households left with defects after ‘catastrophic failure’ of Tory government schemes
Members of parliament have called for the Serious Fraud Office to investigate the UK’s home insulation sector, after thousands of householders suffered ruined homes, big financial losses and months of disruption from the “clear and catastrophic failure” of two Conservative government schemes.
More than 30,000 households were left with defects, some of them severe, including mould, water ingress and damage to the fabric of walls, with about 3,000 dwellings so badly damaged they presented immediate health and safety risks to occupants.
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Neighbours might look askance at Jarno Coone’s unkempt yard, but the local birds, bees and bats aren’t bothered by the aesthetics
When they moved in about 13 years ago, there was plush green lawn out the front. Nowadays the grass is so high that neighbours fear it could be harbouring snakes. Even the meter reader is a bit wary.
“I’d love to have snakes in the front yard. But they need water. And so they stay down by the river, which is a couple of blocks away,” says Jarno Coone, whose unkempt front yard in Kyneton, Victoria, has been named the World’s Ugliest Lawn 2025.
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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
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Thailand’s Andaman Coast is home to one of the largest dugong populations in the world, with 273 of the plump marine mammals, sometimes called sea cows, estimated to be living there as of 2022. In recent years, though, more and more dead or stranded dugongs have been washing ashore. Now the Andaman Coast population may have fallen by more than half, experts say.
In late November, I travelled to Phuket, following in the footsteps of film-makers Mailee Osten-Tan and Nick Axelrod, who have been investigating Thailand’s dugong crisis over the past year for a new Guardian documentary.
‘Every time I look at one, I smile!’: how axolotls took over the world
Labour’s warm homes plan is all carrot and no stick for UK households
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Sundance film festival: A cautionary new film, executive-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, warns of the devastating consequences if the Utah lake continues to disappear
The Sundance film festival kicked off its final edition on Thursday in Park City, the Utah ski enclave that has housed the independent film hub for more than four decades. Beginning in 2027, the festival will move to Boulder, Colorado, after a multi-year selection process that many assumed would end in Salt Lake City.
Utah’s largest city, a mere 30 miles from the festival center, has long hosted extra Sundance events and served as its transit center. It’s a rapidly growing metropolitan area, a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts, a major US city – and, according to a new documentary that opened this year’s festival, facing an imminent ecological crisis.
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Znanstvenici s University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, razvili su lijek koji djeluje u kombinaciji s bakrom kako bi ubio bakterije, uključujući i superbakteriju meticilin-rezistentni Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Lanac imunoloških reakcija u crijevima - potaknut ključnim signalnim proteinom i porastom broja bijelih krvnih stanica iz koštane srži - mogao bi pomoći u objašnjavanju zašto ljudi s upalnom bolešću crijeva (IBD) imaju veći rizik od raka debelog crijeva, tvrdi nova studija.
Čak i kratki popodnevni odmor može pomoći mozgu da se oporavi i poboljša sposobnost učenja, pokazala je nova studija. Naime, čak je i popodnevni odmor dovoljan za reorganizaciju veza između živčanih stanica kako bi se nove informacije mogle učinkovitije pohranjivati. Do sada se znalo da se ovi učinci javljaju samo nakon punog noćnog sna. No nova studija pokazuje da kratko razdoblje sna može rasteretiti mozak i vratiti ga u stanje spremnosti za učenje.
Visoki indeks tjelesne mase (ITM) mogao bi uzrokovati veći rizik od vaskularne demencije (kombinacija vaskularne + nespecificirane demencije), tvrdi nova studija. Inače, učinak visokog ITM-a na demenciju uglavnom djeluje putem visokog krvnog tlaka.
Osteoporoza (smanjena mineralizacija kostiju) predstavlja veliki izazov za zdravo starenje. Ipak, još uvijek postoji malo biomarkera rizika koji se mogu razviti kako bi zadovoljili ovu rastuću potrebu. No, nova studija sugerira da rutinska krvna pretraga kreatinina može pomoći u prepoznavanju ljudi s većim rizikom od osteoporoze i prijeloma.
Rezultati nove studije provedene u Kini pokazali su, da su razine mokraćne kiseline u serumu pozitivno povezane s opterećenjem fibrilacije atrija na način ovisan o dozi. U ovoj studiji opterećenje fibrilacije atrija definirano je kao udio trajanja fibrilacije atrija u ukupnom vremenu praćenja.
Teški nedostatak vitamina D povezan je s većom stopom hospitalizacija zbog infekcija dišnih putova poput bronhitisa i upale pluća, tvrdi nova studija. Znanstvenici su otkrili da su oni s teškim nedostatkom vitamina D (ispod 15 nnmol/L) imali 33 posto veću vjerojatnost da će biti primljeni u bolnicu na liječenje od onih s dovoljnom razinom vitamina D (najmanje 75 nmol/L).
Liječenje osoba s visokim rizikom od reumatoidnog artritisa može odgoditi pojavu bolesti za nekoliko godina, a koristi se nastavljaju i dugo nakon prestanka liječenja, pokazala je nova studija. Naime, jednogodišnje liječenje lijekom abataceptom, biološkom terapijom koja cilja aktivaciju imunoloških stanica, smanjilo je progresiju do reumatoidnog artritisa kod osoba s visokim rizikom.
Rak gušterače među je najtežim karcinomima za rano otkrivanje, a još ga je teže liječiti. Za razliku od mnogih karcinoma potaknutih mješavinom genetskih promjena, većina tumora gušterače dijeli zajedničkog pokretača - gen KRAS. Kada mutira, KRAS gura stanice u stalnu preopterećenost i preoblikuje njihovu okolinu. Zajedno, ovi čimbenici čine tumore gušterače uzrokovane KRAS-om da se brzo kreću, otpornima na liječenje i teškima za kontrolu.
Znanstvenici su otkrili odgovor na dugogodišnju misteriju zašto više od polovice pacijenata s kroničnom bubrežnom bolešću na kraju umire od kardiovaskularnih problema, naime, pokazalo se, da njihovi bubrezi proizvode tvar koja truje srce.
