Lee Bell

After decades of being cleared for fish farms and coastal development, the world's mangrove forests are gaining more area than they're losing – and most of the recovery is happening on its own

The refrigerants and gases brought in to protect the ozone layer have been quietly producing a persistent forever chemical called TFA that's now turning up everywhere from rainwater to Arctic ice

Researchers have mapped the optical properties of a crystal that has both glass and metal-like properties – and it bends light more powerfully than any natural material ever recorded

Researchers have created a particle that blends light with matter and can perform computing operations using almost no energy, which could matter a lot for AI's growing power problem

Most people don't associate the Mediterranean with tsunamis, but UNESCO has said there's a certain chance of one hitting the basin within the next 30 years, and Nice is already drawing up evacuation plans

A team in Japan has worked out how to measure a type of quantum entanglement that nobody had been able to detect before, and it could be important for the future of communication

Microplastics slip through most water treatment systems because they're just too small to catch. A team in Missouri has engineered algae that grab onto them instead

Scientists have worked out why the surface of the open ocean keeps releasing methane even though it shouldn't, and what it means for a warming planet is not reassuring

Researchers have found a class of silicone-based pollutants drifting through the atmosphere at far higher concentrations than anyone expected, from city centres to forests, and they think engine oil is a major source

An old financial trick that lets countries trade debt for environmental protection is having a resurgence, with deals now running into the billions — but not everyone's convinced

White 'magic eraser' sponges that clean without needing soap are actually breaking apart as you use them, and where those tiny pieces end up is starting to concern scientists, fresh research reveals

A researcher studying the Anthropocene says the collective human behaviours behind climate change and mass extinction are the same ones we'll need to reverse the damage

Fungi buried in forest soil might be quietly pulling down the rain, according to new research, and they might even be doing it more efficiently

A team drilling in Greenland found that a major high point of the ice sheet vanished entirely about 7,000 years ago, during conditions not dramatically warmer than today, and scientists are worried

Scientists studying air pollution in rural Oklahoma accidentally discovered a toxic chemical drifting through the atmosphere that's never been picked up in the Western Hemisphere before - and they think sewage-based fertiliser is behind it

The Atlantic current system that keeps Europe's climate stable looks more likely to collapse than previously estimated, after new research found climate models showing the worst outcomes best match real-world data

The Met Office produces nearly 300 text-based weather products, all drafted by human meteorologists. Now it's been testing whether AI could handle some of that heavy lifting, but can it replicate the job?

A team of scientists in Japan reckon they've found a way to change how we capture carbon, with a redesigned material that needs barely any heat to work

Tracking how marine ecosystems have changed over decades is difficult when reliable historical samples are hard to come by. A team of researchers in the US found an unlikely solution sitting in a Seattle warehouse

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.