Blackbird numbers have fallen in the UK as the Usutu virus has taken hold Ytje Veenstra/Shutterstock A deadly virus is killing blackbirds across the UK. Beyond the risk to the birds, its spread indicates that mosquito-borne viruses now pose a growing threat to humans and animals in the country, in part as a result of…
The Athena lander in low lunar orbit Intuitive Machines Intuitive Machines’s Athena lander has made it to the moon, but it seems to have fallen over. The lander is still working, but it isn’t yet clear which parts of its mission it will still be able to accomplish. The spacecraft launched on board a SpaceX…
On 29 January, an American Airlines flight collided with an army helicopter near Washington DC Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images Safety concerns about flying in the US have risen after a series of plane accidents and collisions in recent months, which were followed shortly by the administration of President Donald Trump eliminating hundreds…
Vaccinating animals on poultry and dairy farms could help contain the bird flu outbreak Iuliia Zavalishina/Alamy As farmers across the US struggle to contain a deadly bird flu virus, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is considering adding animal vaccines to its strategy for controlling the outbreak. Until now, vaccination was largely off the table…
A coot’s nest filled with plastic rubbish in Amsterdam AUKE-FLORIAN HIEMSTRA Covid-19 face masks, a chocolate wrapper from 1994 and a 30-year-old polystyrene burger box – the nests of Amsterdam’s Eurasian coots chart changes to consumer society through plastic waste. Usually, Eurasian coots (Fulica atra) build their waterside nests from scratch each year using natural,…
Technology In a record-breaking test, researchers remotely detected radioactive material by shooting it with infrared laser pulses and analysing how the light scattered By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan 6 March 2025 There is a new application for lasers laboratory/Alamy Lasers could become an important tool for detecting radioactive materials, such as those in covert nuclear weapons, from…
A Soyuz MS rocket at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Rhiannon Adam This ghostly image of a Soyuz MS rocket at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, shot the night before it took off for the International Space Station in December 2021, has a particularly poignant resonance for its photographer, Rhiannon Adam. Around a month earlier, she had…
“If the 20th century was the age of atomics, then the 21st is the age of the internet” DKosig/Getty Images If you cast your mind back over the past two and a half decades, a bizarre fact emerges: everyone from business investors to teachers has been planning for a future ruled by communications technology. If…
A Greenland shark photographed near the seabed dotted zebra/Alamy A genomic study may have revealed how Greenland sharks live for centuries and yet rarely get cancer. These sharks (Somniosus microcephalus) are slow-moving dwellers of the deep that can reach more than 6 metres long and weigh over a tonne. We know little about their lives…
Shimmering blue waters off the coast of Ogliastra, Italy guteksk7/Alamy Walk the shores of Ogliastra in Sardinia, an Italian island with crystal-clear waters and pink hillside flowers, and you’ll see families eating fresh fish, people working the land and older couples strolling the hills. You might also see an unusual number of centenarians. This area…