
It is the most extracted solid material on Earth – but this extraction can threaten ecosystems and livelihoods
Malé is one of the world’s most overcrowded cities, but it faces double pressure. As well as a growing population, the capital of the Maldives is also threatened by rising sea levels. Owing to climate breakdown, its living space is shrinking.
So the justification for a land reclamation project seemed clear. Take sand from elsewhere in the archipelago and use it to build up the land available for Malé’s people. What could go wrong? After all, it’s only sand, right?
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Cockrow Bridge in Surrey will open in the coming weeks to provide wildlife, including lizards and insects, with the ability to move between fragmented habitats
When James Herd moved near to Wisley Common 17 years ago, the heathland nature reserve was teeming with wildlife. “I’d take the dog around the common in spring and summer, and every few hundred metres I’d hear the rustle of a lizard in the undergrowth – and I’d see adders,” he says.
But over the past decade, the Surrey Wildlife Trust’s director of reserves management, who oversees the internationally important habitat, has seen that wildlife become depleted.
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Levels of Pfas in northern gannet eggs in Canada fell up to 74% over 55-year period of study
Levels of some of the most dangerous Pfas compounds have dramatically fallen in Canadian seabird eggs, which the authors of a new peer-reviewed study say illustrates how regulations are effective.
Researchers looked at Pfas levels in the eggs of northern gannets in the St Lawrence Seaway basin over a 55-year period. Pfas levels shot up from the 1960s through the peak of the chemicals’ use in the late 1990s and early aughts, then fell.
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After a series of deaths on the beaches of Brittany, one bereaved family set out to prove the foul-smelling bloom was to blame
When her phone rang at around 5pm on 8 September 2016, Rosy Auffray was still at work. It was one of her daughters, distressed, calling to tell her that their father, Jean-René, had not come back from his daily run. Only the family dog had returned, alone and exhausted. Rosy rushed back home.
When she arrived, Rosy noticed that the dog was behaving bizarrely: she refused to walk, then collapsed under a bush. Her fur stank of rotten eggs, of overflowing sewers. Rosy knew where that smell came from: the mudflats roughly three miles from the family home in Brittany, where seaweed had been accumulating and putrefying. The soggy, decomposing seaweed stretched for miles along the shore, sometimesas much asfive feet thick, killing other plants and suffocating fish and small birds.
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Data from missions showing critically low snowpack on mountains across the west raises alarm among experts
High above the jagged peaks of California’s Sierra Nevada, the view from the cockpit is breathtaking. At first glance, the mountains appear draped in a pristine white blanket. But as the flight crew gears up for a high-stakes mission, the sensors onboard this specialized aircraft prove that looks can be deceiving.
“This is a distinct dry year,” says Tom Painter, CEO of Airborne Snow Observatories.
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Move by largest donor to environment programme poses further uncertainty for already troubled negotiations
The largest donor to the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) is reviewing its funding to the body before its revised budget on 12 May, triggering concern among member states and NGOs.
The news could carry significance for the already troubled plastic treaty negotiations being overseen by Unep. Since 2022 countries have been struggling to agree on how to deal with the volume of plastics being produced and used, a subject widely acknowledged to be one of the most serious environmental issues of the age, but despite six rounds of talks there has been no agreement in sight.
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Hunt’s Cross, Liverpool: A survey of the roadside verge turns up 21 species including cuckoo flower and yarrow. But not everyone likes it
The impact was visceral. For days last spring I watched an army of confederates, with their uniforms of fiery gold bands and anthracite hoops, advancing up the road. They were cinnabar moth caterpillars, gathered on their host plant, common ragwort. And thanks to Liverpool city council’s observance of No Mow May, there were plenty of both in the roadside verge near my home.
But days before the month ended, the mowing team arrived, like pilgrims breaking their Lenten fast early. The ragworts and their parties of travellers were churned up and spat out. I was desolate.
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The Kenyan player has been recognised for his advocacy and grassroots work to tackle sport’s carbon footprint
“Most well-known people who talk about climate change are in North America and Europe,” says Kenyan rugby sevens star Kevin Wekesa, “but for us this is a very relevant conversation. It is not only about future tournaments or big international pledges. In Kenya, we see the effects in rising heat, cracked pitches and changing weather in communities where young athletes are growing up.”
A year before competing in his first Olympic Games at Paris 2024, Wekesa responded to Kenya’s relegation from the top tier of international sevens by offering free rugby coaching in schools across Kenya. After travelling to a school in Kirinyaga on the slopes of Mount Kenya, a wet and verdant region, Wekesa found an unplayable dry field and was forced to cancel the session. One of the students told Wekesa that conditions had been similar for two months, while another suggested the unfamiliar weather was because of climate change.
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As dingoes vanish from parts of Australia, a new documentary is calling on governments to move away from eradication and towards solutions that benefit both farmers and animals
Carol Pettersen was a small child when her family moved deep into the bush around the Fitzgerald river, on Western Australia’s south coast. It was the 1940s, and her white father and Aboriginal mother had broken the law simply by being together. So the bush became their refuge.
In that country of mallee heath, banksias and low coastal scrub, dingoes were part of the family’s hidden world. At night, Pettersen could hear them calling through the dark; by day, she glimpsed them moving through the bush – a flicker of red fur among the trees.
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London mayor talks up coalition-building, highlights his environmental record, and worries national Labour party is on the wrong track
When Sadiq Khan was first elected as mayor of London 10 years ago, Barack Obama was US president, the UK was still in the European Union and Leicester City had just been crowned the unlikely champions of the English Premier League.
In the intervening decade, Donald Trump has gone from reality TV star to two-time US president, the UK has had six different prime ministers, and Brexit has convulsed the country. London has been rocked by tragedies ranging from terror attacks to the Grenfell Tower fire.
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Iako dijele slične depresivne i kognitivne simptome, biološki temelji bipolarnog poremećaja i velikog depresivnog poremećaja su različiti. Nova studija, prva je koja identificira klinički relevantne putove koji povezuju metaboličku disfunkciju, strukturu mozga i kogniciju kod poremećaja raspoloženja, s jačim i specifičnijim učincima uočenim kod bipolarnog poremećaja. Ističe potencijal ciljanja metaboličkih putova za poboljšanje kognitivnih simptoma kod bipolarnog poremećaja.
Izgleda da mentalni stres može izravno utjecati na protok krvi u mišićima i finu motoričku kontrolu tijekom jednostavnih fizičkih zadataka, pokazuje nova studija. Naime, stabilnost sile tijekom kontrakcija vrlo niskog intenziteta i vaskularni odgovori uključeni u izvođenje motoričkih zadataka mogu se smanjiti pod kognitivnim stresom.
Znanstvenicii koji prate pacijente s blagim moždanim udarom otkrili su da je abnormalno širenje i iskrivljenje moždanih arterija, a ne tradicionalno sužavanje velikih arterija, najsnažnije povezano s progresivnim oštećenjem mozga malih krvnih žila i lakunarnim moždanim udarom.
Za dojenčad rođenu od strane majki s endometriozom postoji mali, ali značajan povećan rizik od kongenitalnih anomalija, često nazivanih urođenim manama, tvrdi nova studija. Endometrioza je često bolno kronično upalno stanje u kojem tkivo slično endometriju raste izvan maternice. Pogađa 1 od 10 žena reproduktivne dobi i može utjecati na plodnost.
Utvrđeno je da se rizik od srčanih bolesti povećava kod žena sa sindromom policističnih jajnika (PCOS), čak i kod onih s normalnom tjelesnom težinom, pokazuje nova studija. Ova studija prva je i najveća provedena o povezanosti između PCOS-a i srčanih bolesti u tri nordijske zemlje i naglašava važnost redovitih medicinskih pregleda kod žena sa sindromom policističnih jajnika.
Nova studija pokazuje da oko 8.500 koraka dnevno može pomoći ljudima da održe smanjenu težinu nakon dijete. Inače, programi za kontrolu tjelesne težine često uključuju savjete o povećanju broja koraka, međutim, nedostajali su dokazi koji bi pokazali da to pomaže u gubitku težine tijekom dijete.
Što se događa ako stanice raka izgube i mitohondrijsku opskrbu energijom i svoj glikolitički rezervni sustav? Ovo pitanje je ključno za novu studiju koju su proveli znanstvenici sa Northwestern Polytechnical University i suradničkih institucija.
Nedavno objavljena studija sugerira da bi široko korišteni lijek za astmu, formoterol, potencijalno mogao ponuditi sasvim drugačiji terapijski put te da bi se mogao koristiti za liječenje steatohepatitisa povezanog s metaboličkom disfunkcijom (MASH). Formoterol je agonist beta-2 adrenergičkih receptora koji se desetljećima propisuje za otvaranje dišnih putova kod stanja poput astme i kronične opstruktivne plućne bolesti (KOPB).
Desetljećima su liječnici i znanstvenici mislili da metformin, vodeći lijek za liječenje dijabetesa tipa 2 koji uzimaju milijuni ljudi diljem svijeta, uglavnom cilja jetru kako bi suzbio proizvodnju glukoze. No, nova studija je otkrila da se ovaj lijek umjesto toga prvenstveno fokusira na crijeva, djelujući tako da sprječava porast razine glukoze u krvi potičući iskorištavanje glukoze unutar stanica koje oblažu crijeva.
Prema rezultatima novog istraživanja, izgleda da hormoni povezani s muškim razvojem mogu igrati ključnu ulogu u ograničavanju rasta tumora mozga kod muškaraca. Naime, otkriveno je da gubitak androgenih hormona, poput testosterona, u predkliničkom modelu glioblastoma potiče rast tumora izazivanjem lokalne upale i poticanjem proizvodnje hormona stresa.