Microbial life lurks in places like this thermal vent in the Pacific Ocean Galih/Alamy IntraterrestrialsKaren G. Lloyd (Princeton University Press) I can think of a shelf-full of books about forests, and nearly as many about the ocean or deserts. And consider how much ink has been spilled over expeditions to far-flung ecosystems, from the Amazon…
The first orbital rocket made and designed in Australia crashed 14 seconds after lift-off during its first test launch. Videos show the Eris rocket, launched by Gilmour Space Technologies, lifting off the ground before losing momentum and crashing. Plumes of white smoke then start to rise at Bowen Orbital Spaceport in North Queensland. Gilmour Space…
Victoria Gill Science correspondent, BBC News Watch: some of the strange, extreme life filmed at the depths of the ocean Beds of clams, mats of bacteria that look like ice and fields of tube worms – these are just some examples of the strange, extreme life that an expedition to the deepest parts of the…
The deep-sea environment is partly dominated by marine tube worms Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, CAS Ecosystems fed by chemicals from tectonic plate collisions have been found more than 9500 metres beneath the surface of the north-west Pacific Ocean. “Their resilience and beauty left me in awe,” says Mengran Du at the Chinese Academy…
Esme Stallard and Mark Poynting BBC News Climate and Science S. Lakamov/Anadolu/Getty Images Debris in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula after a 8.8 magnitude earthquake It has been one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded – but so far has not brought the catastrophic tsunami that many feared. When the 8.8-magnitude quake struck eastern Russia at 11:25…
A stick insect from the species Acrophylla alta Angus Emmott/James Cook University A newly named species of giant stick insect found in Australia’s Wet Tropics rainforests is thought to be the heaviest insect ever found on the continent. Acrophylla alta weighs 44 grams, around the same as a golf ball, and is approximately 40 centimetres…
Gwyndaf Hughes Science Videographer Amanda Clark/Cabinet Office Prof Michele Docherty showed courage and talent to become Astronomer Royal Astronomer Prof Michele Dougherty did not study science in secondary school – but was instead inspired to learn more about space after using her father’s telescope. Now she is the first woman to be appointed the UK’s…
BBC Andrew Davies was on his way to New Zealand to work on a Doctor Who exhibition, for which he was project manager. The first leg of his flight from London to Singapore was fairly smooth. Then suddenly the plane hit severe turbulence. “Being on a rollercoaster is the only way I can describe it,”…
A new law in Brazil could cause “significant environmental harm and human rights violations”, and represents a “rollback for decades” of protections in Brazil, including for the Amazon, a UN expert has told BBC News. Plans to speed up approvals for development projects were criticised by Astrid Puentes Riaño, a UN special rapporteur, as the…
SPL Artwork: Uranus and its five largest moons had been thought to be inactive and sterile. The planet Uranus and its five biggest moons may not be the dead sterile worlds that scientists have long thought. Instead, they may have oceans, and the moons may even be capable of supporting life, scientists say. Much of…
