Claire Asher

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...

More effective management of nitrogen fertilizers could reduce emissions of a harmful air pollutant from the cultivation of three staple crops by up to 38%, according to a study published in the journal Nature and conducted by an international team of scientists led by Yi Zheng from China’s Southern University of Science and Technology. A model using a type of artificial intelligence known as machine learning helped researchers untangle the complex relationship between environment, climate and agricultural practices to generate the most detailed map to date of global ammonia emissions...

As the world grapples with escalating climate change, policymakers remain laser-focused on CO2, with humanity striving to decarbonize energy systems, capture carbon, issue carbon credits, and plant millions of trees to absorb emissions. But carbon dioxide is just one of several powerful greenhouse gases destabilizing the global climate, and just one of the human-produced pollutants severely impacting the natural world and threatening to push Earth out of its current habitable state...

In the tropical rainforests of the Philippines, New Guinea and Indonesia, grows a tree that looks more like a painting than a plant. The rainbow eucalyptus (Eucalyptus deglupta) is named after the vibrant coloured stripes on its trunk, which appear because the trees shed their thin bark throughout life...

Just off the coast of southern Brazil lies the island of Queimada Grande, known as ‘Snake Island’. Covering just 43 hectares (106 acres), this rocky island is home to between 2,000 and 4,000 highly venomous golden lancehead vipers (Bothrops insularis), which can grow to 70cm (just over 2ft). The snakes were trapped there around 11,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, when rising sea levels cut them off from the mainland. No mammals live on the island, so the snakes had no predators...

I researched and wrote nine chapters for this wonderful ecological guidebook.

From the depths of the ocean to soaring mountain peaks - via coral reefs, deserts, rainforests, and even cityscapes - discover how unexpected wildlife partnerships make up the habitats plants and animals call home. Each habitat section starts with a fascinating illustration to explain how it works, exploring the combination of conditions, plants, and animals that make it up. It then delves deeper, ...