Lee Bell

Around 12,800 years ago, Earth was warming steadily out of the last ice age – and then temperatures across the northern hemisphere plummeted. What caused that sudden reversal has been debated ever since.

When AI started breezing through the tests humans built to challenge it, researchers from around the world decided to build something it genuinely couldn't pass – and the scores are quite telling

Despite billions of years of evolution, researchers have found all living things appear to follow the exact same underlying temperature rule – with troubling implications for a warming planet

A big wave of aluminium from ageing cars is about to hit recycling yards, and researchers say they have found a way to turn that lower-value scrap into strong metal for new vehicles

Nasa has reshuffled its Artemis schedule by adding a new mission in 2027 to practise docking in low-Earth orbit, before it attempts to land astronauts on the Moon again

Antarctica’s melting ice has been linked to a possible climate “silver lining” — iron feeding algae that absorb CO₂. New field data suggest that iron boost has been overestimated

Sea levels have been climbing for decades, but pinning down exactly why has been tricky. Now researchers have built a 30-year record showing added ocean mass has taken the lead.

A spectacular rocket breakup over Europe has now been tied to something less visible: scientists say they’ve measured a sharp spike in lithium high above Earth, linked to that re-entry

Beach cleaners on a small Orkney island have been finding far more rubbish than usual, including items that look decades old and apparently travelled a very long way to get there

Quantum machines keep falling over because their qubits are too easy to disturb, but now researchers say they’ve nailed a key step for a new style that read their state cleanly, in real time

A massive global study tracking over 31,000 tree species suggests forests are drifting towards the same few fast-growing “sprinter” types - squeezing out slower natives and weakening biodiversity and carbon storage

The UN has appointed a new chair for the global plastics treaty negotiations, raising hopes the stalled process can move again - with campaigners already pushing for production cuts

Brain research is energy-hungry and often limited by what’s safe to do in healthy people. MIT researchers say a focused ultrasound method could open up deeper, cleaner tests of how awareness is generated

A long-running study in Norway’s Svalbard has found polar bears’ body condition has actually improved despite global warming, which has shocked researchers who were expecting the opposite.

Corals look like they’re just quietly existing, but a new study has found they run a proper day-night rhythm - while the coral rests, its microbial roommates keep working

A new McGill review has suggested something far smaller than warming air and darker oceans has been quietly speeding up the melting of ice behind the scenes

The government has unveiled its long-awaited Warm Homes Plan, promising £15bn over five years for solar panels, heat pumps and batteries - with new rules for renters and a push to slash bills.

Physicists have built a new simulation to test self-interacting dark matter, where particles collide with each other. It has let researchers model halo ‘core collapse’ accurately, from the comfort of a laptop

Penn engineers have shown that bubbles in wet foam never truly settle, even when the foam looks still. The surprising part is the maths matches how deep learning systems train

Scientists have pinned down iron as the tiny ingredient that keeps phytoplankton photosynthesis humming, and new at-sea measurements show exactly how things slip when oceans run short