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Architects and designers have recycled ancient practice of collecting rainwater to make buildings ecologically friendly
When the legendary Taiwanese rock band Mayday were due to perform in Beijing one evening in May 2023, some fans were worried that the rainy weather could affect the show. Mayday were taking to the stage in Beijing’s National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, built for the 2008 Olympics. Like the real-life twig piles that give the building its nickname, the stadium is built with an intricate and highly porous lattice, made of steel.
“Don’t worry too much,” reassured an article published by the official newsletter for China’s ministry of water resources. “The Bird’s Nest also has its ‘secret weapon’!”
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This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world
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In this week’s newsletter: US earnings would be 12% higher without the climate crisis, a study reveals – and the hotter the world gets, the greater the economic losses
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Donald Trump has long railed against emissions-cutting policy as an expensive “hoax” and “scam”. But the climate crisis itself comes with a major price tag for Americans, a new study shows.
Previous research has found that global heating has driven up utility costs, home insurance premiums and healthcare bills. But according to the new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, it has also slashed US incomes by more than a tenth since 2000 – a severe national economic jolt.
‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body
The crisis whisperer: how Adam Tooze makes sense of our bewildering age
Africa’s great elephant divide: countries struggle with too many elephants – or too few
Average person will be 40% poorer if world warms by 4C, new research shows
Economic damage from climate change six times worse than thought – report
Tackling climate crisis will increase economic growth, OECD research finds
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Flood warning raised to highest level with roads washed away and rain forcing evacuation of Kruger national park
Large areas of north-eastern South Africa and neighbouring Mozambique have been inundated for several days with exceptionally heavy rainfall. Some locations in South Africa recorded hundreds of millimetres of rain over the weekend, such as Graskop in Mpumalanga, where 113mm fell in 24 hours, and Phalaborwa, which recorded about 85mm of rainfall. Rain has continued to fall across the region since the weekend.
The deluge has been driven by a slow-moving cut-off low pressure system that has remained anchored over the region, repeatedly drawing in moisture and triggering intense downpours. Further heavy rainfall is expected on Friday and over the weekend. Maputo, Mozambique’s capital, could expect daily rainfall totals to exceed 200mm by the end of Friday, while western parts of South Africa and north-western Eswatini may record more than 100mm.
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Up to 30,000 customers of South East Water had no supply or low pressure at height of incident
Water has been restored to most homes across Kent and Sussex after almost a week of disruption.
South East Water (SEW) said the outage, which began on Saturday, was the result of Storm Goretti causing burst pipes and power cuts.
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Whiteley, Hampshire: It’s a remarkably mundane place for a large communal roost, but these birds are here for good reason
At the heart of the shopping centre, a courtyard opens between the shops and restaurants. A row of ornamental silver birches rises from the concrete paving, their pale trunks reflecting the glow from the storefronts. I was passing through on my way to meet friends for dinner when a burst of sound pulled my gaze upwards. The crown of the nearest tree was alive with movement. Pied wagtails were arriving from all directions, tails flicking like metronomes as they congregated. The flock’s chatter was punctuated by clipped, high‑pitched “chizzick” flight calls, as more birds streamed into the roost site.
Most shoppers hurried by without a glance. I had time to linger, so I leaned against a pillar and watched. For 10 minutes or so, the flock remained unsettled. Birds shuffled along the branches, displaced one another, then lifted together in a brief, swirling cloud before dropping into a neighbouring tree, only to rise again. Their white faces caught the artificial light, glinting like snowflakes.
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Authorities and firefighters say the Victorian fires of January 2026 were unlike anything seen before in speed, scale and destruction. And they came much earlier than normal
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A new fight for Victorian farmers – saving livestock that survived devastating bushfires
Victoria has been battered by some of the most destructive bushfires in its history, with blazes tearing through 400,000 hectares across the state and claiming the life of a cattle farmer, Maxwell Hobson. Almost 900 buildings have been destroyed, including more than 250 homes, and more than 15,000 livestock have been killed, along with countless wildlife.
Both authorities and firefighters on the ground have reported the fires were unlike anything seen before in their speed, scale and destruction. They also came much earlier than the traditional bushfire season, which typically peaks in February.
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The Uru Chipaya, one of South America’s most ancient civilisations, are battling drought, salinity and an exodus of their people as the climate crisis wreaks havoc on their land
In the small town of Chipaya, everything is dry. Only a few people walk along the sandy streets, and many houses look abandoned – some secured with a padlock. The wind is so strong that it forces you to close your eyes.
Chipaya lies on Bolivia’s Altiplano, 35 miles from the Chilean border. The vast plateau, nearly 4,000 metres above sea level, feels almost empty of people and animals, its solitude framed by snow-capped volcanoes. It raises the question: can anybody possibly live here?
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Changing the way you get about offers some protection from the hazards of ice, snow and compacted leaves
Winter is peak season for slipping and falling outdoors, which is ironic given that we are advised to go outside for our mental and physical wellbeing.
Ice is the most obvious danger but snow, which looks so cheering, becomes a slip hazard when compacted or melted and refrozen. The most common risk, though, is from fallen leaves. Safe when dry, leaves crushed underfoot exude a mix of waxes, lignin, cellulose and plant oils. This mixes with rainwater to form a slimy, low-friction gel every bit as slippery as black ice.
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Long criticised as overcrowded and filthy, the city’s Zando marketplace has had an elegant and sustainable redesign
Selling vegetables was Dieudonné Bakarani’s first job. He had a little stall at Kinshasa Central Market in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Decades later, the 57-year-old entrepreneur is redeveloping the historic marketplace that gave him his start in business to be an award-winning city landmark.
Bakarani hopes to see the market, known as Zando, flourish again and reopen in February after a five-year hiatus. The design has already been recognised internationally; in December, the architects responsible for it won a Holcim Foundation award for sustainable design.
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Novi biomarker u krvi odražava opseg ozljede mozga nakon ishemijskog moždanog udara i može predvidjeti ishode za pacijente mjesecima do godinama kasnije, tvrdi nova studija.
Trudnice s upalnom bolešću crijeva (IBD) imaju više razine proupalnih imunoloških molekula, poznatih kao citokini, u vaginalnoj sluznici nego njihove zdrave vršnjakinje, pokazala je nova studija.
Znanstvenici su identificirali bradikardiju - abnormalno nizak broj otkucaja srca - kao simptom predoziranja ksilazinom. Ovo revolucionarno otkriće Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai moglo bi pomoći liječnicima hitne medicine da otkriju jesu li pacijenti bili izloženi ksilazinu, lijeku koji se sve češće nalazi kao dodatak ilegalnoj ponudi fentanila.
Prekomjerna upotreba tetiva može uzrokovati bolna medicinska stanja za koja postoje samo ograničene mogućnosti liječenja. No, švicarski znanstvenici su sada dešifrirali važan molekularni mehanizam koji pokreće ove probleme te bi ovo otkriće moglo olakšati razvoj novih tretmana.
Britansko istraživanje je pokazalo da porast šećera u krvi nakon obroka može povećati rizik od Alzheimerove bolesti. Iako istraživanja već dugo sugeriraju da su hiperglikemija, dijagnosticirani dijabetes tipa 2 i inzulinska rezistencija snažno povezani s lošijim zdravljem mozga, posebno povećavajući rizik od kognitivnog pada i demencije, temeljni mehanizmi nisu bili dobro shvaćeni.
Toksin koji izlučuje uzročnik kolere, bakterija Vibrio cholerae, može inhibirati rast raka debelog crijeva bez nanošenja ikakve mjerljive štete tijelu, pokazuje nova studija provedena u Švedskoj. Sustavna primjena pročišćene bakterijske tvari mijenja imunološko mikrookruženje u tumorima, a rezultati bi mogli otvoriti put istraživanju nove vrste liječenja raka.
Prema studiji faze I koju su vodili znanstvenici s The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, novo monoklonsko antitijelo linavonkibart pokazalo je potencijal za prevladavanje otpornosti na liječenje inhibitorima imunoloških kontrolnih točaka anti-PD-1 kod više vrsta raka.
Nova studija sugerira da bi malo poznata regija duboko u mozgu mogla biti ključna za očuvanje fizičke snage kako starimo. Rezultati studije bi mogli pomoći u otkrivanju i sprječavanju krhkosti prije nego što ona počne.
Rezultati predkliničke studije ukazuju na potencijalni novi tretman za milijune ljudi koji žive s bolešću jetre poznatu kao fibroza jetre. Naime, radi se o novom kandidatu za lijek, EVT0185, koji je razvio Espervita Therapeutics, a koji ima potencijal spriječiti i preokrenuti fibrozu jetre - opasno, bolešću uzrokovano nakupljanje ožiljnog tkiva u jetri koje često dovodi do raka jetre.
Abdominalna mast nije uniformno tkivo, a nova studija otkriva da mast smještena blizu debelog crijeva sadrži neobično velik broj upalnih masnih stanica i imunoloških stanica. Rezultati sugeriraju da je ovo tkivo posebno prilagođeno za komunikaciju s imunološkim sustavom u području crijeva.
