Claire Asher

The familiar V-shaped flight formation of geese and other birds helps them save energy, by exploiting uplifting air created by the bird in front. When a bird flies, it forces air downwards beneath its wings. This air then flows upwards from the wing tips, creating an updraft on either side. Tracking devices strapped to ibises confirmed that they carefully position themselves and time their wing beats to catch the updraft from the bird in front.
This technique, known as ‘drafting’, is used by ...

Hot, dry winds carrying dust from the Sahara Desert are known as Calima. The winds can lift millions of tonnes of dust and fine sand up to 6km (3.7 miles) into the atmosphere, colouring the sky orange and turning rainwater a muddy brown colour (also known as blood rain). The suspended particles can be carried thousands of miles on atmospheric currents. When they reach lower altitudes, they can reduce visibility and cause respiratory issues. Calima mainly affects...

In the depths of winter, when conditions are just right, glittering clouds turn the polar skies into a spectacle of colour. Rainbow clouds – also known as ‘nacreous’ or ‘mother-of-pearl’ clouds after their resemblance to the iridescent shells of some molluscs – are an extremely rare atmospheric phenomenon. Known scientifically as ‘polar stratospheric clouds’, they’re found much higher in the atmosphere than clouds normally form. Most clouds are found less than 10km (6 miles) above Earth’s sur...

In certain parts of the world, such as Canada’s Hudson Bay, gravity is slightly lower than elsewhere. This is because objects with more mass exert a greater gravitational force and Earth’s mass isn’t uniform, so gravity varies from place to place. You’d need some very accurate scales to notice though – gravity in Hudson Bay is about 4/1,000ths of a per cent less than Earth’s average. When scientists discovered this anomaly in the 1960s, they developed two theories to explain it. The first is ...

For many years, the North Atlantic Ocean warmed more slowly than other parts of the world. In 2023, that changed — dramatically. Over the last year and a half, North Atlantic sea surface temperatures surged, with record-breaking heat extending roughly from Greenland south to the Caribbean, bleaching corals there, while whipping up violent European storms and fueling U.S. hurricanes like Helene and Milton. The underlying cause of this regionalized heating is undoubtedly greenhouse gas emissions. But while global emissions have been increasingly steadily, the climate has shown an abrupt...

In today’s world, disinformation and ‘alternative facts’ have become ubiquitous. But nearly 200 years ago, one reporter inadvertently created a science hoax that captured global attention.

The combined effects of humanity’s actions are making ecosystems less resistant to change, and threatening the vital ecosystem services humanity relies upon, according to a study published in Nature Geoscience. It’s already well known that humanity is driving myriad systemic environmental changes: altering the climate, converting forests to farmland, polluting the oceans with plastics, diminishing wild species, and much more. Yet scientists have little idea how these different environmental stresses are combining to impact ecosystems...

If you’ve ever heard a loud, distant booming noise with no obvious explanation like a thunderstorm or a car backfiring, then you might have experienced a skyquake. Skyquakes have been reported around the world and locals have different names for them in different regions. Near Seneca Lake in New York State, they’re known as ‘Seneca guns’; in Belgium they’re called ‘mistpoeffers’; and the Japanese refer to them as ‘uminari’, which literally means ‘cries from the sea.’

Inventors may hope that their creations will bring fame and fortune, but sometimes, they just lead to an untimely death. Here are four of the oddest cases of inventors killed by their own inventions…

Researchers at the University of Arizona analyzed 20 years of satellite data to understand how different Amazon forest ecosystems respond to drought. They found that variations in water-table depth, soil fertility and tree height influence forests’ response to droughts.
In the southern Amazon, experts observed a strong relationship between groundwater availability and the forests’ drought resilience. But the situation was more complex in the northern Amazon, where drought vulnerability depended on...

Australia is home to several pink lakes that have attracted tourists and scientists alike. One of the most famous is Lake Hillier in Western Australia, but pink lakes exist around the world, from Senegal to Spain. What these lakes have in common is salinity – the pink colour is caused by salt-loving microbes that produce red pigments to aid photosynthesis...

Since 1950, humanity has produced more than 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic. Most has ended up in landfills or the environment. Now, scientists are working on biological solutions to address the plastic pollution crisis at every stage of the material’s life cycle. Innovative new filters built from naturally occurring ingredients can capture micro- and nanoplastics in all their diverse forms. These filters could remove plastic contamination from drinking water, and prevent microplastic pollution...

Mushroom circles had magical significance in ancient folklore, being attributed to witches, dragons or dancing fairies. But there’s a natural explanation. Commonly known as fairy circles or pixie rings, each comprises a single fungus connected underground by threads called mycelia. When a fungal spore germinates, mycelia radiate out to absorb nutrients from the soil...

A fiery beast has awoken from centuries of slumber. The past three years have seen it create cracks in Earth’s crust on the southwestern tip of Iceland and belch fountains of lava up through them. nIt’s captivated people worldwide and inspired a mix of awe and fear. Experts say that after 800 years of quiet, this beast – the Icelandic fault line – has entered a new period of activity that could last decades...

The patch of sea between Florida, Puerto Rico and Bermuda gained legendary status in the mid-20th century when articles linked it to mysterious disappearances of boats and aircraft. One of the most famous incidents occurred in 1945 when Flight 19, a group of five US Navy bombers on a training mission, vanished in the area. Over the decades that followed, shipwrecks and crashed planes were frequently attributed to the Triangle’s destructive forces...