Leishmaniasis: this neglected tropical disease is spreading fast, and Europe is nowhere near prepared

Jul 24, 2024 11:32 am UTC| Nature

In recent decades, Europe has seen a worrying increase in cases of vector-borne tropical diseases like dengue, malaria and chikungunya. The climate directly affects the spread and distribution of pathogen-transmitting...

Why we find extreme weather so fascinating

Jul 21, 2024 16:28 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature

When climate change leads the news, its often down to a hurricane, heatwave or flood. And, judging by our most widely read environment stories over the past decade, extreme weather really is one of the main ways the public...

‘Alien invasion’: researchers identify which exotic animals may soon hitchhike into Australia

Jul 17, 2024 08:35 am UTC| Nature

Australia is renowned for its native flora and fauna, but did you know the continent is also home to about 3,000 alien species of animals, plants, fungi and microbes? Alien species are those brought by humans to areas...

The Atlantic Gulf Stream was unexpectedly strong during the last ice age – new study

Jul 11, 2024 07:57 am UTC| Nature

Twenty thousand years ago the world was locked into a great ice age. Ice sheets two miles thick covered much of North America, Scandinavia and the British Isles. Greenhouse gas concentrations were much lower, the world...

Farmers told me what they really think about reintroducing lynx and wolves to Britain and Ireland

Jun 20, 2024 05:39 am UTC| Nature

The only howl I heard on a recent walk across the Garron plateau in the Glens of Antrim, Northern Ireland, was from a bitter, biting wind. But 300 years ago, the howls would most definitely have been lupine: this place was...

We’ve found a way to help endangered eels overcome dams and weirs

Jun 20, 2024 05:29 am UTC| Nature

The European eel Anguilla anguilla, a sleek, snake-like fish with a fascinating life cycle, once teemed in rivers. But their numbers have plummeted by over 95% since the 1980s. Behind this dramatic decline is a...

High fliers: pleasure-seeking parrots are using aromatic plants, stinky ants and alcohol

Jun 20, 2024 05:28 am UTC| Nature

Birds have been known to seek out pungent chemicals for various reasons. Some consume fermented fruits with gusto and suffer the ill effects. Others expose themselves to ants, but only the stinky kind. These ants produce...