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Warwick primatologists, in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute, have shown that young orangutans develop their nighttime nest building skills via observational social learning — by closely watching others and then practicing these complex constructions. Nest-building is an often-overlooked behavior in great apes, but for arboreal species, a well-built nest is essential to survival. Nests…

Researchers at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute have released a landmark review tracing four decades of changes in pelagic sargassum – free-floating brown seaweed that plays a vital role in the Atlantic Ocean ecosystem. Once thought to be primarily confined to the nutrient-poor waters of the Sargasso Sea, sargassum is now recognized as…

Under high-emission scenarios, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a key system of ocean currents that also includes the Gulf Stream, could shut down after the year 2100. This is the conclusion of a new study, with contributions by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The shutdown would cut the ocean’s northward heat…

Helen BriggsBBC environment correspondent and Gwyndaf HughesScience videographer BBC The Druids Oak is the oldest living tree in this woodland in Buckinghamshire Dr Ed Pyne snips a leaf from the Druids Oak, an 800-year-old tree that has watched over this woodland in Buckinghamshire for centuries, enduring droughts, storms, heatwaves and more. “We know that this…

“Find the moon and watch it darken and redden…” JG Photography/Alamy My feelings about the moon changed in the past year, when I gave birth on the day of not just a full moon, but a Harvest Moon. For the first few months of my son’s life, the passing of time felt very strange –…

On 20 February 1962, NASA astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth. The mission was part of NASA’s Mercury human spaceflight programme and came just nine months after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space. Another significant moment came when Glenn used a camera he had purchased from a…

Solar storms pose a threat to electronic systems on Earth Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA. We may one day be able to forecast powerful solar storms capable of devastating Earth’s electronics more than half a day in advance, following a successful test of the approach using the Solar Orbiter spacecraft. The sun occasionally releases powerful blasts…