Summer is drawing to a close and there is a growing desire to enjoy the garden and outdoor spaces. This is the ideal time to choose the plants that will bring every corner of the home to life.

Among the favourites is a shrub with glossy, dark green foliage that, in warm weather, fills the air with a sweet and intense fragrance: Cape jasmine.

Also known as gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides), it produces white flowers that look as though they are made from porcelain. Although it has a reputation for being a delicate plant, the reality is different. If it has the right position and the necessary care, it will grow vigorously. August is the perfect time to plant it in the garden and prepare it for the new season.

Choosing the right position and soil

To ensure particularly abundant flowering, the position is the most important factor. This plant needs plenty of light, but does not tolerate the strong, direct sunlight of summer afternoons particularly well.

The best solution is to find a spot where it receives the gentle rays of the morning sun and plenty of indirect light for the rest of the day.

To ensure particularly abundant flowering, the position is the most important factor. This plant needs plenty of light, but does not tolerate the strong, direct sunlight of summer afternoons particularly well.

The best solution is to find a spot where it receives the gentle rays of the morning sun and plenty of indirect light for the rest of the day.

Watering and fertilising advice

This species likes consistent moisture, but too much water can cause the roots to rot very quickly. The soil should feel slightly moist to the touch.

If the soil remains completely dry for several days, the plant will eventually drop its buds. Conversely, excessive watering encourages the appearance of unwanted fungi. A simple trick that always works: touch the soil before watering.

On the other hand, producing such large flowers requires a considerable amount of energy. With the arrival of spring, it is advisable to apply fertiliser every two or three weeks for acid-loving plants or a product rich in phosphorus and potassium. Adding compost once a year also helps keep the soil rich in nutrients and in good condition.

Propagation and growing in pots

Cape jasmine can easily be propagated at home from cuttings at the end of winter. Simply follow these straightforward steps:

• Choose a healthy, semi-hardwood stem around ten centimetres long.
• Cut it directly below a node.
• Remove the lower leaves, leaving just two at the top.
• Plant the cutting in a container with a light growing medium and place it somewhere bright, away from direct sunlight, while maintaining consistent moisture.

In addition, if you do not have a large garden, you can easily grow it in a pot. A pot around 40 centimetres in diameter with good drainage is sufficient for the first few years.

On bright balconies and verandas, it will flower without problems if some of the potting compost is replaced every two seasons.

Maintenance and mistakes to avoid

This shrub does not require heavy pruning. Simply remove the faded flowers and cut off dead branches after flowering. If you prune at the right time, you avoid damaging the shoots that will produce the following year's flowers.

The most common problems are generally caused by small lapses in care:

Buds falling before flowering: this can be caused by sudden changes in temperature, insufficient or excessive watering, or moving the pot once the buds have already formed.

Few flowers: this is usually a sign of insufficient morning light or a lack of nutrients in the soil.

With these simple measures, Cape jasmine will reward us every year with a display of flawless flowers and an unforgettable fragrance.

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has launched a global initiative to select the 7 Contemporary Wonders of the World.

The invitation is open to the entire travel community to nominate their favorite places. Once nominations close, a jury will move forward with selecting the finalists and eventual winners.

Competitions of this kind reached a major milestone on July 7, 2007, when the New7Wonders organization announced the results of a massive online vote in which more than 100 million people participated.

At the time, the New 7 Wonders of the Modern World, built from antiquity through the year 2000, were selected: the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, Petra, the Roman Colosseum, Christ the Redeemer, Machu Picchu and Chichén Itzá.

Unlike the historic competition, this new campaign is organized by the WTTC and focuses exclusively on the modern world.

The rule is clear: only structures built from 1801 onward can be nominated, with the goal of highlighting the engineering, design and architecture of the past two centuries.

Step by step: how to nominate your favorite place

If a monument, building or modern landmark has amazed you during your travels, you can help get it onto the official list of candidates.

The nomination process takes place directly on the campaign's website. Participation is free and open to anyone, and users simply need to visit the website to nominate their chosen site.

Nominations can be submitted until January 7, 2027. On that date, public nominations will close and the voting stage for the selected candidates will officially begin.

Requirements a site must meet

The technical jury and organizers will evaluate the nominations based on specific criteria.

• Tourism potential: the site's ability to attract travelers and become an international landmark.
• Impact on the local economy: its ability to generate jobs and revenue in the surrounding area.

• Cultural and social significance: the meaning the structure holds for the local community.
• Aesthetic and architectural value: the quality of its design, innovation or technical achievement.

Among the structures cited as inspiration are a diverse range of landmarks, including the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Grand Egyptian Museum.

A four-stage timeline leading to the final selection

The initiative follows a year-long schedule with four key stages.

• Opening of nominations: public nominations are now being accepted internationally.
• Announcement of the 70 nominees: on January 7, 2027, the list of 70 shortlisted sites will be announced and public voting will begin.
• Finalist stage: on April 7, 2027, the list will be narrowed down to the 30 most-voted destinations.
• Winners revealed: on July 7, 2027, the 7 Contemporary Wonders of the World will officially be announced.

The goal of the initiative extends beyond aesthetics. By updating the map of global icons, the WTTC aims to diversify tourism flows toward new destinations and stimulate local economies that are home to architectural achievements of the industrial and digital eras, demonstrating that the cultural and economic impact of a wonder can also be built in the present day.

Receiving this type of distinction is more than an honorary mention or recognition of aesthetic value. For a winning destination, being included on the list of wonders can represent a major turning point in its development.

The announcement often triggers an increase in visitors, immediately boosting hotels, businesses, tour guides and restaurants. It can also encourage public investment in transportation links and infrastructure, attract private investment and help redirect travelers toward areas that previously received less attention.

The opportunity to nominate a landmark you consider iconic is now open. By simply completing the form on the WTTC website, your recommendation could ultimately earn a place on the list of the world's new wonders.

You don't need a backyard to enjoy homegrown lemons. A lemon tree can live in a pot for years and remain productive, as long as its roots have enough space and it receives the light and nutrients it needs to grow.

Late winter, when the plant begins to become active again, is a good time to check its condition and prepare it for the months ahead. Some of these tasks are simple, but they can make a significant difference in flowering and fruit production.

First, check how much space the roots have

A pot with a capacity of at least 40 liters is a good starting point for a lemon tree, although larger specimens will gradually need a bigger container. If roots are growing out of the drainage holes or have formed a tightly packed mass around the root ball, the plant is already telling you it needs more space.

In that case, it is best to transplant it into a larger pot as growth begins to pick up again. There is no need to move it directly into an enormous container: simply increase the pot size gradually and use a well-draining potting mix.

If you cannot increase the size of the container, you should not routinely start cutting the roots yourself as a solution. Severe root pruning can reduce the plant's ability to absorb water and nutrients. For a tree you want to keep productive, it is better to control its size by choosing a less vigorous variety and moderately pruning the canopy.

Tasks to take care of now

As the lemon tree begins growing again, this is a good time to check several things before its demand for water and nutrients increases.

• Remove dry or damaged branches: Spring growth makes it easier to identify parts of the tree that did not recover during winter.
• Remove rootstock suckers: If shoots appear from the base or below the graft union, remove them so they do not compete with the lemon variety.
• Check drainage: Water should flow out through the drainage holes after a thorough watering. If it remains trapped in the pot, the problem needs to be corrected.
• Find the brightest location: Citrus trees need several hours of direct sunlight to support healthy growth and fruit production.

You do not need to prune heavily to get more lemons. At this time of year, simply remove damaged or crossing branches and any growth emerging below the graft, while maintaining a balanced canopy.

Fertilizing also plays a role in the harvest

Potted lemon trees have a much more limited supply of nutrients than those planted directly in the ground. Some nutrients are also washed out during watering, so regular fertilization is necessary during the growing season.

Use a fertilizer specifically formulated for citrus trees, following the manufacturer's recommended amounts and making sure it also provides micronutrients such as iron, zinc and manganese.

Foliar fertilization can be used as a supplement, particularly when you need to quickly correct a micronutrient deficiency. It is best applied during periods of active growth, avoiding the hottest hours of the day, days when rain is expected and periods when the tree is experiencing water or heat stress.

More fertilizer does not mean more lemons: balanced nutrition supports growth, flowering and fruit development without encouraging excessive production of shoots and leaves.

Light and water: two keys to producing lemons again

Where you place your lemon tree can be just as important as the pot itself. Find the sunniest spot on your balcony or terrace, ideally one that receives at least six hours of direct sunlight per day. Less sunlight may be enough to keep the tree healthy, but it can make abundant flowering and fruit production more difficult.

Watering, on the other hand, should be adjusted according to conditions. At the end of winter, watering may still be relatively infrequent, but it will need to increase as temperatures rise and the plant begins growing more actively.

One advantage of growing a lemon tree in a pot is that you can move it to a protected location when there is a risk of frost. But it is important to plan ahead: as the tree grows, the combined weight of the plant, soil and water can become considerable. If you know you will need to move it, it is a good idea to place the pot on a wheeled plant stand from the beginning, while the tree is still small and the soil is dry.

This way, a task that seems simple at first will not later become an unnecessary struggle or create a risk of damaging the tree or its container.

Flying through the wall of clouds surrounding a hurricane from inside an aircraft is one of the most spectacular and dangerous missions in meteorology. That is precisely what NOAA and U.S. Air Force Hurricane Hunter aircraft have done during their flights into Hurricane Lowell, a powerful cyclone that has kept Hawaii on alert.

Images captured during these missions show the moment the aircraft approach Lowell's center and fly through its eyewall, the towering wall of convective clouds surrounding the eye, in this case creating a spectacular stadium effect, a feature typical of particularly intense hurricanes. From the outside, the system appears as an enormous spiral of clouds; from inside, the perspective changes completely.

More precise data than satellites can provide

The purpose of these flights is not simply to capture striking images. Hurricane Hunters fly directly into the system to collect information that satellites cannot provide with the same level of precision. During these missions, instruments measure pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind speed and direction—critical data for determining the cyclone's actual intensity and refining forecasts.

During one of the missions into Lowell, reconnaissance instruments detected significant changes in its structure. On September 6, an Air Force Reserve aircraft found a central pressure of 948 hPa during its first pass through the eye, along with flight-level winds of 109 knots. The observations helped establish the hurricane's initial intensity at 200 km/h.

Days earlier, Lowell had reached an even greater intensity. The Central Pacific Hurricane Center reported on September 4 that data collected by a Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicated a minimum pressure of 922 hPa and flight-level winds of up to 280 km/h. The system was classified at the time as a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

A dangerous mission to track the hurricane's evolution

To obtain these measurements, aircraft make several passes through the center of the hurricane. Crews also release disposable instruments known as dropsondes, which descend toward the ocean while transmitting meteorological data in real time.

The data collected during these dangerous missions provide a more precise picture of how the cyclone is organized and how it is evolving.

But these missions also deliver breathtaking images: an aircraft pushing through turbulence, rain, and towering clouds before reaching the relatively calm eye, surrounded by an eyewall containing some of the hurricane's most violent winds.

There is a wide variety of small trees that grow upwards in a columnar shape or with a slightly rounded form.

Narrow or rounded, these trees can grow upwards

Small and relatively narrow plots are ideal for trees such as the columnar hornbeam, columnar hawthorn or columnar rowan. They grow upwards in a slender form and provide little shade. They can quickly gain height. However, as they age, they can change shape, becoming somewhat more egg-shaped and developing a rounded crown.

Some varieties can still develop a crown 5 metres wide

For a somewhat larger garden or for the terrace, so-called ball-shaped trees are suitable. The best-known trees are the ball maple, the ball-shaped trumpet tree and the ball-shaped robinia. Small trees such as the red hawthorn or purple-leaved plum tend to grow upwards in a rounded shape. All ball-shaped trees can develop a crown around five metres wide as they mature.

Smaller varieties with a crown diameter of up to 2.5 metres include the ball-shaped steppe cherry, the ball-shaped swamp oak and a specially bred mini apple tree, such as Golden Hornet or Crony® from the Häberli brand.

Small apple trees have a certain something

Last but not least, all types of trees require sufficient care and, particularly at the beginning, regular watering. Small trees also need to be pruned and shaped. It is advisable to seek advice from specialists at a garden centre or tree nursery.

The timing and amount of pruning can vary depending on the location and underlying conditions.

Pruning varies depending on the type of tree

Fruit trees should generally be pruned lightly. Every part of the tree should be able to receive light and air.

In short, it is recommended that fruit trees are pruned in late winter and early spring, such as in February or March.

Other types of trees should generally be pruned in autumn and winter.

Nepal was hit by one of the most dramatic glacial and hydrogeological disasters of 2026. On 26th August, as we reported, a high-altitude glacier, at more than 5,000 metres, collapsed, generating a gigantic landslide of ice and rock which, as it descended into the valley, triggered a major flash flood. The impacts were devastating, affecting villages, tourists and mountaineers, downstream hydroelectric facilities and, above all, the local population.

Contrary to some reports in the first few hours, there is no evidence of either a pre-existing glacial lake or an artificial reservoir being at the origin of, or causing, the event. What is the role of climate change in this event? Here are the first theories put forward by a university professor from the University of Bristol.

What is happening to the glaciers of the Himalayas

Some information and clarification has been provided by Professor Jonathan Bamber, a professor of glaciology and Earth observation at the University of Bristol. In an article published in The Conversation, he points out that eight of the fourteen peaks above 8,000 metres are located in Nepal. The northern part of the country has particularly steep terrain, making it highly susceptible to landslides, rockfalls, avalanches and glacier collapses.

Human-induced global warming is particularly pronounced here; as in the polar regions, the rate of temperature increase is higher than the global average.

Based on satellite data and ground measurements, between 1976 and 2024, the mass balance of glaciers shows an acceleration in ice loss over the last decade. In High Mountain Asia (HMA), which includes the Himalayas, the rate of ice loss has increased by around 25%; in the European Alps, it has more than doubled.

The dangers of glacier retreat

The first consequence of melting glaciers is the release of meltwater. This creates meltwater streams that in turn feed extensive river systems. However, there is another serious problem and danger: glaciers are located on permafrost, ground that remains frozen even at depth.

As temperatures rise, permafrost thaws and rock and ice become unstable. The consequence is landslides and destabilisation of ice on steep terrain.

This process adds to the instability of the glacier itself, which may have sections positioned in such a way that a kind of tipping point, critical point or point of no return is created. In Italy, we unfortunately saw this clearly in the Marmolada disaster in July 2022.

Focus on Nepal and Tibet

In the case of the disaster in Tibet and Nepal, we should imagine a gigantic block of ice around 600 metres long and 50 metres high. When it collapsed, a mass of more than half a million tonnes descended into the valley, triggering what we have unfortunately seen.

Smaller collapses, although still dangerous, are well known to mountaineers. Seracs often collapse during the warmest hours, so mountaineers try to cross serac barriers at night or early in the morning. Glacier retreat can also favour the formation of “ephemeral” lakes, caused by ice or moraines that form small (or even large) natural dams. The sudden failure of the barrier can generate devastating flash floods of water and ice. Many trails in Nepal and India have warning signs for this phenomenon.

What should governments do?

Glacier retreat is one of the clearest and most obvious impacts of climate change. It is a problem that may seem far removed from European cities, which are nevertheless being hit by heatwaves, as is happening during the long summer of 2026.

In Europe, we are seeing the health emergency caused by this long summer, the wildfires in Spain and France, and the drought that has even spread to the UK, with the grass in London’s parks turning yellow and dry.

At the latest COPs, efforts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels have intensified, but in reality greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase. The symbolic declarations of climate emergency made by some countries have not been followed by concrete and sufficient action.

According to Professor Jonathan Bamber, we have the expertise and technology to tackle the climate crisis. What is missing is the political will and a long-term vision. He concludes with a warning: without rapid action, glacier melt will be just one aspect of the human-caused climate crisis, and the consequences will be devastating.

Reference of the news

Nepal‑Tibet disaster linked to climate change – a glaciologist explains, The Conversion, https://theconversation.com/nepal-tibet-disaster-linked-to-climate-change-a-glaciologist-explains-290656

At about 100 kilometers above the Earth's surface, in the ionosphere, structures invisible to the human eye can appear, but capable of disrupting radio communications. These are known as sporadic E layers and are formed, in part, from metals originating from meteors that disintegrate upon entering the atmosphere.

The experiment, called the Sporadic E Electrodynamics Demonstration (SpEED Demon) , used a suborbital rocket launched on August 24, 2022, from NASA's Wallops Launch Complex in Virginia. The results were published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics by a team led by researchers from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Debris from meteors that become radio “mirrors”

Sporadic E layers form in a region of the atmosphere where gases begin to ionize and become plasma . When meteors burn up, they leave behind small amounts of iron, magnesium, and other metals which, under certain conditions, can concentrate and form dense layers.

These structures act like enormous "mirrors" for radio waves . Signals can bounce unexpectedly back to the surface, causing distant transmissions to appear close or radars to detect targets that don't actually exist.

The phenomenon can also introduce uncertainty into positioning systems such as GPS , since the characteristics of the plasma present in the ionosphere affect the propagation of signals.

Five observation points revealed an unexpected structure

Until now, scientists had difficulty studying these layers because they are too high for weather balloons and too low for satellites. Sounding rockets could pass through them, but could only take measurements along a single trajectory.

SpEED Demon incorporated a key innovation: once inside the layer, the rocket released four small probes that traveled away from the main vehicle. Each probe took measurements along its own trajectory. Together with the rocket's instruments, researchers obtained simultaneous data from five different points.

The results showed that the layer was not a uniform, flat structure, like a kind of "pancake" of metallic particles. On the contrary, it exhibited irregularities and undulations associated with turbulent atmospheric movements.

During the descent, two distinct peaks in plasma concentration were even observed. Researchers believe this configuration could be related to Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities , a phenomenon that generates ripples when different layers of air move at different speeds.

However, they clarify that this explanation cannot yet be considered confirmed , because local winds and electric fields could not be directly measured during the flight.

A new tool for understanding the ionosphere

The mission was initially conceived to test whether it was possible to deploy probes within a sporadic E layer. The positive result opened the door to new experiments.

The team subsequently used a similar strategy during the solar eclipses of 2023 and 2024 to study the changes in the upper atmosphere caused by the sudden decrease in solar radiation. In June 2025, they also launched a successor mission, SEED , from the Marshall Islands to analyze these structures at lower latitudes.

Scientists already know that sporadic E layers exhibit some seasonality and appear more frequently during the local summer. With the new multipoint measurements, they hope to get a step closer to answering a question that has remained open for decades: how and why these gigantic structures capable of altering radio waves form at the edge of space.

Slash, the legendary guitarist from Guns N’ Roses, is a lifelong reptile lover and supporter of zoos and museums. And now, he’s the namesake for a newly discovered species Lielaphis slashi – Slash’s groundsnake.

“Guns N’ Roses has been one of my favourite bands since I was in first grade, and by fifth grade, I had already told my teacher that I wanted to be a herpetologist-- a scientist who studies reptiles-- when I grew up,” said Sara Ruane, the Field Museum’s Associate Curator of Herpetology and senior author of the paper published in Zootaxa. “So when I was twelve years old and got my copy of Reptiles Magazine in the mail, and it had a picture of Slash holding his pet reticulated python on the cover, I thought, ‘This guy is so cool.’”

Ruane then grew up to be a scientist, and when she got to give a new species of reptile an official scientific name, she thought back to the magazine article.

“I reread his interview, and he talked about how much he loves museums and zoos and natural history, and about how when he was a kid, he’d go outside and look for snakes-- it was all stuff that I really related to, and it made me think that he’d be a great person to name a new species after,” said Ruane.

Chance to name a new species

She then got her chance with a reddish-brown, 28-inch-long snake from the forest of New Guinea.

New Guinea is the second-largest island in the world, located just north of Australia. The island’s tropical forests have not been well studied, suggesting they may harbour previously unknown biodiversity. In 2006, Chris Austin, a curator of herpetology at the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science, was conducting fieldwork in New Guinea when he stumbled upon an unfamiliar snake.

“These New Guinea groundsnakes are nocturnal, so the best way to find them is at night. They are typically found just after sunset at the base of large trees where they are looking for something to eat,” said Austin. “When working at night in New Guinea, you need to be very careful, as there are several highly venomous species that look very similar to the non-venomous groundsnakes.”

In 2016, Ruane then spent time working with Austin, where they collaborated to start studying the poorly known snakes of New Guinea.

They were unsure whether the snake was a new species, based solely on its appearance. But analyses from the lab then found some interesting differences.

"Using multiple cutting-edge genetic analyses, we found that L. slashi is genetically distinct from other similar snakes in the same genus,” said Tianqi Huang, a post-doctoral researcher at the Field Museum with Ruane. "The combination of physical characteristics, like differences in the number of scales when compared with other species, and the genetic evidence is what led us to realise that it is an entirely new species. We also used ecological modelling to show that L. slashi's preferred habitat is different from similar snakes.”

There is still plenty to uncover about Slash’s groundsnake.

“It’s incredibly hard to observe snakes in the wild before they slither away, so our knowledge about L. slashi is limited,” said Ruane. “Snakes in this genus often have large teeth in the back of their mouths, which New Guinea groundsnakes may use to grab on to and eat small, slippery-scaled lizards and the eggs of other reptiles; this snake isn't grasping and squeezing its prey like a boa constrictor.”

Potential threats on the horizon?

Slash’s groundsnake does not pose a threat to humans, but human activity could harm this snake in the future.

“The habitats that Slash’s groundsnake is from are under threat from industries like coffee farming and mining,” said Ruane. “That’s part of why describing the species that live there is important. Every species should be recognised in order for us to better understand how ecosystems work, how everything fits into the environment. We can't conserve animals or other living things that we don't know about.”

American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto nearly a century ago, but that discovery did not mark the beginning of its orbit. The object had already been orbiting the Sun for billions of years when Tombaugh managed to identify it on photographic plates at Lowell Observatory in Arizona. Since then, humanity has tracked its journey for only a fraction of a Plutonian year.

The numbers put the extraordinary wait into perspective: about 248 years will pass between Pluto's discovery and its return to the same point in its orbit. During that time, Pluto will travel an enormous distance around the Sun as several human generations are born, live and pass away. The paradox is that we have already sent a spacecraft there and know its trajectory without ever witnessing one complete revolution.

Pluto takes 248 years to complete its orbit

The length of a year depends on which world we're talking about. Earth's roughly 365-day year is not a universal standard. Mercury takes about 88 Earth days to complete its orbit, while Neptune needs nearly 165 years. On Pluto, a year lasts about 248 Earth years.

The explanation lies in its enormous distance from the Sun. Pluto is, on average, about 5.834 billion kilometers from our star, or roughly 39 astronomical units. Its orbit is not circular either: its distance from the Sun varies from approximately 4.44 billion to 7.375 billion kilometers, equivalent to about 30 to 49.3 AU.

That orbit placed Pluto closer to the Sun than Neptune between 1979 and 1999. This does not result in a close encounter between the two bodies because their orbits are locked in a 3:2 resonance. For every two orbits Pluto completes around the Sun, Neptune completes three, keeping their relative positions from bringing them dangerously close together.

Pluto's discovery did not mark the beginning of its first orbit

In 1930, Tombaugh was searching from Lowell Observatory for a possible planet beyond Neptune. To find it, he photographed different areas of the sky and compared plates taken at different times. The stars remained virtually stationary, while an object belonging to the Solar System could change position.

That is how Pluto was discovered. But two events that can easily be confused need to be separated: discovering an object is not the same as the beginning of its orbit. Pluto did not start orbiting the Sun in 1930. What began that year was humanity's record of its position and, with it, our ability to track its movement.

The situation is similar to photographing a runner who has already been circling a track for a long time. The picture marks the moment we started watching, not the moment the race began. In Pluto's case, that track stretches billions of kilometers, and completing one lap takes nearly two and a half centuries.

In 2178, Pluto will return to its 1930 position

Astronomers do not need to wait until 2178 to know how long Pluto's orbit takes. Observations allow scientists to determine its position, speed and motion. By applying the laws of gravity to those data, they can calculate its trajectory, determine where Pluto was before its discovery and predict where it will be in the future.

There are also photographs taken before 1930 in which Pluto was captured without anyone identifying it at the time. These pre-discovery images expand the available data and help scientists reconstruct its motion over a longer period.

NASA places Pluto's return to the orbital position it occupied when it was discovered in 2178. Some estimates point to approximately March 23, although the space agency does not specify an exact date. By then, nearly 248 years will have passed since Tombaugh's discovery.

New Horizons reached Pluto before it completed its year

Humanity did not have to wait for that return to get a close-up look at Pluto. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, launched in 2006, reached Pluto and performed its historic flyby on July 14, 2015, after traveling billions of kilometers. The images revealed mountains of water ice, vast frozen plains and the famous bright, heart-shaped region. The tiny point Tombaugh had spotted among the stars became, 85 years later, a world we could see in remarkable detail.

All of this happened while Pluto was still far from completing the orbit that, from our perspective, we began tracking in 1930. By 2015, only 85 years had passed, still a relatively small fraction of its 248-year orbital period.

When 2178 arrives, Pluto will return to the same point in its orbit that it occupied when it was discovered. For Pluto, there will be no anniversary or meaningful change: it will simply continue along its path around the Sun. The date matters only to us because 1930 was when we began observing it.

As three hurricanes churn in the Pacific, the Atlantic Basin is eerily quiet, even as the peak of hurricane season approaches on September 10th.

The latest hurricane formation date in the Atlantic on record is September 12th. Since the satellite record started in 1966, only 7 years have gone into September without an Atlantic hurricane.

And according to the National Hurricane Center, as of the morning of September 5th, no hurricane activity is expected in the next 7 days. That would take the Atlantic all the way to the record date.

Meaning that, as of right now, this year is looking on track to see the latest hurricane formation on record.

Soon-to-be record-shattering El Niño to blame

The big factor that is leading to the quiet Atlantic hurricane season so far is actually in the Pacific: El Niño. This latest El Niño event was declared a few months ago, and it continues to strengthen. Current modelling has it on track to be the strongest El Niño on record.

During El Niño events, Atlantic hurricane activity is often suppressed. This is because this phase of the ENSO cycle increases wind shear across the basin, or a change in wind direction with height. This increased wind shear acts to tear apart any storms that do form.

On top of that, there has been a relative lack of disturbances rolling off of Africa, which often are the start of tropical storms across the Atlantic.

Conditions can change quickly, and people should still be prepared

So far this year, there have only been five named storms in the Atlantic. While all have been short-lived and didn't strengthen into hurricanes, three brought heavy rain and storms to land, including Arthur and Edouard.

One of the big factors is the rising temperatures across the western Atlantic and across the Gulf, which could help to trigger those thunderstorms.

It is good to note that every El Niño year on record has created at least one hurricane. So coastal areas and residents should take care to continue to prepare for hurricane season as normal, as it does last all the way to November 30th.

Australia is traveling at a speed that will surely surprise you, approximately seven centimeters each year to the north-northeast, driven by plate tectonics causing Australia to collide with Southeast Asia.

In fact, Australia has moved thousands of kilometers since it began to separate from Antarctica and continues to move towards Asia, but some geological models point to something amazing and place Australia as part of a new supercontinent in about 200 or 300 million years.

Australia is the fastest continent

The figure has also been confirmed through geodetic observations and GNSS systems, which are capable of detecting movements that are completely imperceptible to any person.

The Australian plate moves approximately 70 millimeters each year, and that means that in ten years the accumulated movement is around 70 centimeters, while in a century it already reaches 7 meters, a very considerable figure.

Faster than nail growth

In the study, the ScienceBlog magazine points out that a speed of about seven centimeters per year is approximately 1.7 times higher than the average growth of nails, making it a very simple way to understand the scale, since while a nail grows a few centimeters over the course of a year, an entire continent moves an even greater distance.

Why is Australia moving?

The answer, let's say, lies thousands of kilometers beneath our feet, since the Earth's surface is divided into large tectonic plates that move slowly over the mantle, and it is on these plates that the continents travel , and as these plates move, the position of the continental masses also changes.

Australia is part of the Australian Plate , which includes not only the continent, but also a significant expanse of oceanic lithosphere.

Its current north-northeastward movement is related to the dynamics of subduction zones and the forces acting on the plates surrounding Australia. Furthermore, to the north and east, the advance encounters other microplates that generate a complex deformation zone.

And that is why Australia does not simply move as an isolated block across the ocean.

Where will Australia be in 200 million years?

Throughout Earth's history there have been different supercontinents that later fragmented, and the most well known was Pangaea.

And for this purpose, there are geodynamic simulations that study how the next supercontinent could form, and for example, a study published by National Science Review suggests that the Pacific Ocean could end up closing and that the continents would end up grouping around Asia, in a process that could develop within 200-300 million years.

As expert Ben Noll points out in X, " After months of increasingly intense forecasts, predictions have finally stabilized — but at a record-breaking level ."

A historic and record-breaking El Niño event is now a reality.

El Niño could reach its peak of around 4°C in November-December 2026 , according to the latest ECMWF seasonal guidance, related to the Niño 3.4 index and based on this index in both relative and traditional modes . See the images above and below, respectively. These projected values will far exceed the previous monthly record of +2.8°C reached in November 2015.

For several months, seasonal trends, using the Niño 3.4 index located in the central equatorial Pacific as a reference, have been altering the value and maximum intensity of this year's historical El Niño. In many cases, the original scales on the vertical axis have had to be adjusted month after month toward higher values due to the predictions reached by this index.

Recently, predictions of maximum sea surface temperatures (SSTs) have stabilized, according to the European ECMWF model , although there may be some further surprises before the end of the year. In fact, some probabilistic models are predicting values as high as 5°C. If this were to happen, the vertical scale would need to be revised upwards.

According to Ben Noll , the Niño 1+2 index near Peru and Ecuador has reached a remarkable and record-breaking 4.8°C above average , surpassing the 1983 record. Ocean temperatures are forecast to soar to around 6°C above average during October. There is no modern precedent for these conditions .

And after the peak, what can happen?

After reaching its peak at the end of this year, the intensity of El Niño is expected to decrease, with a La Niña event on the horizon by the end of 2027 , according to the ECMWF seasonal model predictions.

There is considerable uncertainty in such a long term , but it seems like it would be the most logical thing to do.

We will see how the waters of the central and eastern equatorial Pacific cool, and we could be facing the opposite, colder phase of El Niño: La Niña, in the second half of 2027. But that's another story.

The York Gospels, and other well-known European historic manuscripts, have proven to be time capsules for uncovering the 3,500-year history of the sheeppox virus (SPPV).

Scientists can extract DNA from the animal skins used to make the parchment, and an international team led by University College Dublin have now provided the first genetic evidence of how this disease plagues European farmers’ herds.

What was this virus?

Sheeppox is highly contagious and spreads quickly through a flock. It can cause high mortality rates, especially in younger animals, and reduces the farm's productivity by damaging wool, milk and meat yields.

“The recording of ancient DNA of pathogens has completely changed our understanding of infectious disease in the past, and here we show that parchment can also preserve animal pathogen DNA. It is possible that archives and libraries around the world also contain the genetic traces of disease outbreaks in animals in the past,” said Louis L’Hôte, PhD candidate at UCD.

“These genomes help us understand how these pathogens evolved and how they impacted past societies - such as sheeppox virus, which we show has been affecting Eurasian sheep herds for at least three and a half millennia.”

In the new study, the team reconstructed over 3,500 years of sheeppox evolution, identifying the disease in ancient manuscripts. Among the works they analysed was the 1,000-year-old York Gospels, one of the finest illuminated manuscripts from the early Anglo-Saxon period.

In several cases, multiple pages from the same manuscript were found to contain sheeppox virus DNA, showcasing that infected sheep would have been used to produce these documents. Because the parchment used was made from the hides of animals such as cows, goats, and sheep, it serves as a unique bio-archive, preserving the animals' health at the time of their death.

One of the most surprising findings from the study was the presence of sheep pox virus on parchment made from cow and goat hides, suggesting that there may have been cross-species infection or contamination of the parchment during the document's making.

“Parchment making has been considered a vanishing craft, but we are beginning to understand just how much of the past it has retained. This project shows that parchments not only preserve our cultural history for hundreds of years, but also the landscape of disease in our livestock in the medieval period,” said Dr Kevin G. Daly, Associate Professor at UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science.

“This kind of exciting, surprising discovery is only possible when researchers from a range of disciplines come together to share their expertise and data - a generosity and trust that collaborative science depends on.”

By studying both the manuscripts and older samples from Bronze Age sheep teeth, the study showed that Sheeppox has threatened livestock for around 3,700 years. Teeth can preserve genetic evidence of infections over thousands of years, providing an important record for past outbreaks.

Finding the earliest evidence

The team have found that the earliest evidence of sheeppox virus comes from dental remains of ancient pastoralist settlements in the Eurasian steppe, and by comparing the ancient sequences with modern ones, they can estimate that capripoxviruses (sheeppox virus, goatpox virus, and lumpy skin disease virus) diverged around 11,500 – 3,700 years ago.

This timeline aligns with the domestication of animals and the translocation of sheep from the steppe into Europe.

“People around the world are still fighting against this pathogen - there is currently an outbreak of sheeppox in Greece, causing much economic damage,” said Louis L’Hôte. “Ancient genomes can help us understand how these pathogens affecting us today evolved. We find that unlike the smallpox virus, the sheeppox virus genome was very stable over the last few millennia.”

“This might mean that genetic changes before this point were very important to how the sheeppox virus evolved to infect its host, which may help us fight the pathogen in the future.”

The state of Amazonas, in northern Brazil, is home to a stunning natural landscape that changes twice a year with the rainy season. Its scenery shifts with the seasons: white-sand beaches and sandbars emerge during the dry season, while flooded forests known as igapós dominate during the rainy season.

We are talking about the Anavilhanas Archipelago, the second-largest river archipelago in the world, with approximately 400 islands and 60 lakes spread across the Negro River. Here's more about this remarkable place.

The attractions of the Anavilhanas Archipelago

Anavilhanas National Park is a freshwater archipelago located within the municipalities of Manaus and Novo Airão, along the Negro River. It consists of approximately 400 islands, 60 lakes and a complex maze of channels and flooded forests.

Its landscape changes dramatically twice a year, depending on the rainy season. During the dry season, which runs from September to February, river levels drop, revealing freshwater beaches and sandbars that offer visitors places to cool off.

During the flood season, which typically runs from March to August, river levels rise, allowing visitors to navigate by boat through the igapós, or flooded forests.

The archipelago covers a total area of more than 350,000 hectares, and around 60% of the area becomes submerged during the flood season.

Located about 180 km from Manaus, the state capital, the park attracts hundreds of tourists each year looking for a unique experience. Tourism supports the local economy through accommodations, vacation rentals, passenger transportation and the sale of food and services.

The area also offers a good selection of ecotourism excursions and accommodations. Visitors can choose from water and land tours, scenic flights and even interactions with dolphins.

During the dry season, boat trips to the river beaches are the most popular activity. Some of the best-known beaches include Aracari, Iguana, Bararoá, Camaleão, Folharal and Iluminado. With the exception of the shoreline, which can be reached by land, the beaches are accessible only by boat.

The best time to visit during the dry season is between late September and December, when numerous beaches are exposed. During this period, visitors can also explore the normally flooded forests on foot along trails.

During the flood season, visitors can take boat trips through the flooded forests, observe the region's diverse wildlife and interact with pink river dolphins at the Floating Dolphin Platform along the shore of Novo Airão.

Anavilhanas National Park is a true natural treasure, offering a unique opportunity to experience the beauty and richness of the Amazon. Visitors also have the chance to learn about the local culture of riverside communities.

The ocean contains a complex underwater system that helps regulate the planet's thermostat. Deep below the surface, currents and water masses converge and transport heat and nutrients for thousands of miles. When the temperature of these layers changes, it can trigger a chain reaction that transforms weather patterns around the world.

The equatorial Pacific acts as Earth's primary heat reservoir because it receives intense solar radiation. Under normal conditions, the trade winds push warm water toward Asia and Oceania, concentrating heat in the western Pacific while maintaining a steady flow of nutrients along the coasts of the Americas.

The warm phase begins when the trade winds weaken or reverse direction. Without that push, the enormous mass of warm water flows eastward, extending as deep as 200 meters before reaching the coasts of the Americas, altering the ocean's thermal structure along the way.

How El Niño affects the atmosphere

This ocean warming directly alters global atmospheric circulation. Massive evaporation from unusually warm waters releases enormous amounts of energy, shifting the path of the jet streams and disrupting rainfall patterns around the world.

Globally, the weather impacts of ENSO's warm phase can be devastating. While some regions experience prolonged drought, wildfires and extreme heat waves, others face torrential rainfall, severe storms and historic flooding that can threaten communities.

Risks to marine ecosystems and abrupt changes in ocean cycles

In the ocean, the advance of warm water puts marine ecosystems under stress through the formation of Kelvin waves. This pulse of warm water pushes down the cold, deep layer known as the thermocline, blocking the upwelling of nutrient-rich water that supports coastal species.

Disrupting this vital flow can lead to a collapse of the marine food chain. A lack of food can cause fish, seabirds and marine mammals to migrate or die in large numbers, while also disrupting fishing activity and dealing a major blow to local economies.

Excessive ocean warming can also trigger severe coral bleaching events. Extremely warm waters place reefs under widespread stress, threatening marine biodiversity and weakening the natural protection reefs provide to coastlines.

Monitoring ENSO

To track these changes, a global network of more than 4,000 in-situ instruments is deployed across the oceans. Buoys, drifting devices and Argo floats continuously dive to depths of up to 300 meters to measure changes in temperature and salinity in real time.

At the surface, weather satellites complement these observations by measuring infrared radiation from the ocean's surface. These tools make it possible to evaluate areas of unusually warm water and track sea-level rise caused by the thermal expansion of seawater.

Official institutions such as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), meteorological services and agencies around the world, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirm the presence of El Niño when the sea surface temperature anomaly in the "Niño 3.4" region exceeds 0.5°C above average for three consecutive months.

Understanding and monitoring this massive heat engine is vital for anticipating future weather and climate disasters.

The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy made up of different components, including the stellar disk, central bulge, halo and a dense nuclear region. At the center of the galaxy lies the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, surrounded by a large concentration of stars and gas.

Despite advances in observations and simulations, we still do not fully understand the process that led to the formation and evolution of the Milky Way. The galaxy grew over billions of years through processes such as gas accretion, star formation and mergers with other galaxies and smaller systems.

New simulations are helping reconstruct the evolution of the central region of galaxies similar to the Milky Way. These models allow us to track the dynamics of stars, gas and the gravitational potential over billions of years. The results offer new clues about the nucleus and disk.

The center of the Milky Way

The center of the Milky Way has a structure dominated by a stellar bulge and a galactic bar, which is a concentration of stars extending across the central region of the disk. The bar stretches for several thousand light-years and influences the distribution and dynamics of gas and stars in its surroundings.

The Milky Way's main spiral arms do not originate directly from the black hole, but are connected to the galactic disk and the ends of the bar. The differential rotation of the disk and the distribution of mass contribute to the organization of these arms, which contain concentrations of gas, dust and star-forming regions.

The galactic bar

The stellar bar plays an important role in the evolution of the galaxy's inner region, acting as a mechanism that transports gas toward the center. In the simulation, it functions as a kind of "cosmic conveyor belt," channeling material from the disk toward the center.

The simulation also shows that these structures form dynamically over an extended period rather than in a single event. As gas becomes concentrated in the central region, feedback produced by stars in their final stages generates shock waves that trigger new episodes of star formation.

Relationship between the galactic nucleus and the disk

The relationship between the nuclear star cluster and the nuclear stellar disk could be closer than observations suggest. The apparent difference between these structures does not necessarily indicate the existence of stellar populations with different ages, chemical compositions or motions.

The simulation shows that this relationship changes naturally over time. During prolonged periods of star formation, the relative masses and sizes of the cluster and disk evolve at different rates, causing them to appear increasingly different.

The role of dark matter

Dark matter forms an extensive halo surrounding the galaxy and dominates its total mass. Its gravitational distribution influences the rotation of the disk and the dynamics of the stars, gas and the galactic bar itself. Representing dark matter as a dynamic component is essential.

In the new simulation, dark matter was represented by dynamic particles, allowing the halo to respond gravitationally to the evolution of the bar. This approach allowed a bar to form naturally and evolve over time, eventually contributing to the emergence of nuclear structures.

Not everyone knows that, following the seismic catastrophe of 28 December 1908, the Strait of Messina area was hit by a magnitude 5.0 earthquake on the Richter scale, which has almost been forgotten. During the night of 15–16 January 1975, at 1:09am, the Strait of Messina began to shake once again.

A tremor with an estimated magnitude of between 4.7 and 5.1, with a hypocentre at a depth of between 10 and 21 kilometres and an epicentre in the Calabrian area between Gallico Marina and Reggio Calabria, shook both sides of the Strait.

It was the strongest local seismic event since the catastrophe of 28 December 1908. Yet, fifty years on, it remains an earthquake that has almost disappeared from collective memory, largely because there was little damage in the two cities.

What do we know today about that earthquake?

The earthquake originated along the plane of a stepped fault bordering the coast of Reggio Calabria, on the Calabrian side of the Strait. The system had probably not completely released its accumulated strain during the great earthquake of 1908.

The most recent studies of the Strait of Messina (particularly research published in Tectonophysics in 2025–2026) describe a system of small fault segments oriented NE-SW, arranged in a staircase-like, en-échelon pattern, forming an elliptical area close to the epicentre of the 1908 earthquake.

The macroseismic intensity reached VII–VIII on the Mercalli scale. In Reggio Calabria, cracks were recorded in some older buildings, along with falling plaster and cornices, and cracks appeared in churches and historic buildings, including the Cathedral and some public buildings.

Thousands of people ran into the streets in fear, while many spent the night outdoors. There were six fatalities in total, almost all caused by cardiovascular collapse brought on by fright. Only a few people suffered minor injuries from falling plaster.

Why was there not much damage?

In hindsight, what is particularly striking is the limited extent of the damage. In two densely populated cities, hit by a tremor capable of causing panic and producing high intensity levels, collapses were virtually absent and structural consequences remained limited.

It is true that a magnitude 5.1 earthquake on the Richter scale is not particularly intense. But much of the credit for the limited damage goes to the seismic building regulations introduced after 1908.

The earthquake that struck Messina and Reggio Calabria on 28 December 1908 had levelled entire neighbourhoods and caused tens of thousands of deaths. The legislative response was immediate and strict. The Royal Decree of 18 April 1909 (and subsequent updates) imposed stringent rules for reconstruction and for all new construction in the Strait area.

Height restrictions were introduced, along with requirements for horizontal and vertical connections, the use of stronger materials and construction techniques, and strict inspections. Those regulations, applied with relative consistency for decades, transformed the building stock of the two cities.

Masonry buildings reconstructed or built after 1909, and even more so those constructed using reinforced concrete in subsequent years, demonstrated a significantly greater capacity to withstand earthquakes than the pre-1908 urban fabric.

A testing ground for the area rebuilt with earthquake-resistant standards

The 1975 earthquake was, in a sense, the first serious test of that regulatory system. The tremor, although moderate, was enough to highlight the difference in the area’s building stock.

Where buildings complied with earthquake-resistant criteria, damage remained superficial or was practically non-existent. Where older buildings stood, or those constructed with less care or poor-quality materials, cracks and detachments appeared.

There were no widespread collapses, no entire roads rendered unusable, and no second urban catastrophe.

Today, half a century later, that earthquake has almost disappeared from the public narrative. In collective memory, it has been overshadowed by more widely reported events or by subsequent tremors (such as the 1978 Gulf of Patti earthquake). Yet it remains an instructive episode.

It reminds us that the Strait of Messina is a seismically active area, characterised by a complex system of faults (with smaller ones existing alongside the main system responsible for the 1908 earthquake), and that intermediate-magnitude events can occur even just a few decades after a major earthquake.

But above all, it reminds us that earthquake-resistant regulations, when they are well written and rigorously enforced, work. In 1975, in Reggio and Messina, those rules, born from the tragedy of 1908, made the difference between a frightening earthquake and a disaster.

Reaching Scandinavia by overnight train without having to make multiple transfers will become a reality starting in 2028. Rail operator European Sleeper has announced a new route connecting Brussels (Belgium) and Amsterdam (the Netherlands) with Copenhagen (Denmark) and Malmö (Sweden), expanding a network of overnight connections aimed at reviving a way of traveling across Europe that once seemed destined to disappear.

The new service is expected to launch in spring 2028 and will allow passengers to cross much of northern Europe overnight. The route is part of the expansion of the Belgian-Dutch cooperative, which is betting on overnight trains as an alternative to air travel.

From Brussels to Scandinavia while you sleep

The idea is simple: board the train in the afternoon or early evening and arrive at your destination the following morning, avoiding much of the time normally spent at airports or making rail connections.

According to the first details released by the company, departures from Brussels and Malmö are expected at around 7:00 p.m., with arrival at the final destination at approximately 10:00 a.m. the following morning. Some details still need to be finalized, including the full schedule, service frequency and exact times for all stops.

The connection will also make it possible to use the route as a gateway to other European destinations. From the cities served by the train, passengers will be able to continue their journey to London, Paris, Stockholm or Oslo, although these trips will require at least one additional transfer.

A train designed for sleeping

Avoiding air travel will not be the only appeal of the new route. European Sleeper wants to bring back one of the features that once made European overnight trains so popular: turning the journey itself into a night's accommodation.

The planned trains will offer several types of accommodations, ranging from conventional seats to couchettes and sleeping compartments. The company is also considering more comfortable options, including double beds and private bathrooms, although the full range of accommodations available on the Scandinavian route has not yet been announced.

Being able to sleep while the train is moving also allows travelers to make much better use of their time. Instead of spending part of the day traveling, checking luggage and waiting to board, passengers can leave one city at the end of the day and begin the next morning in another country.

It is precisely this combination of comfort, time savings and the rail travel experience that is driving the return of overnight trains across Europe.

European Sleeper expands its network

The new connection to Scandinavia will not be an isolated project. European Sleeper is gradually expanding its international network and already operates overnight connections between Brussels and Prague, as well as a route between Paris and Berlin.

The network will also include the new Brussels-Milan route, scheduled to begin on September 9, with a journey of around 17 and a half hours and an initial frequency of three days per week. The route will include stops in cities such as Cologne and Zurich.

The expansion shows just how much overnight rail travel is regaining its place on Europe's tourism map. The goal is no longer simply to connect two major capitals, but to build a network that makes international travel possible without necessarily relying on airplanes.

European Sleeper has also hinted at plans for a future overnight connection between Brussels and Barcelona, although no specific launch date has been announced yet.

How much will it cost to travel to Scandinavia?

One of the biggest questions surrounding the new route is the cost of tickets. European Sleeper has not yet announced final fares for the service connecting Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden.

Current fares on the company's other routes offer a rough idea of what travelers might expect across different accommodation categories. For example, a one-way trip between Paris and Berlin can be booked from around 79 euros per person in a shared compartment, while more comfortable options can cost approximately 116 euros.

Fares for the new connection will likely depend on the distance traveled, how far in advance the ticket is booked and the type of accommodation selected. In any case, sleeping while traveling across Europe can eliminate the cost of a hotel night while turning hours of rest into travel time. For travelers who are not in a rush and prefer a slower way of exploring the continent, the new route could be an especially attractive option.

NASA's space shuttles were accustomed to carrying satellites, telescopes and sophisticated scientific instruments. But in April 1984, one of their payloads was much smaller — and, above all, much noisier: a colony of bees.

On April 6 of that year, the space shuttle Challenger lifted off from Kennedy Space Center as part of the STS-41-C mission. Among its main objectives were deploying the Long Duration Exposure Facility, a platform designed to study the effects of prolonged exposure to the space environment, and retrieving and repairing the Solar Maximum satellite.

Alongside those major NASA operations was a student-led experiment. The question was simple to ask, although much more difficult to answer: Could bees build a honeycomb normally without gravity?

What changes for a bee when gravity disappears?

On Earth, bees use gravity as a reference for orientation. This signal plays a role in different aspects of their behavior, from how they move to honeycomb construction and communication within the colony.

The so-called "waggle dance" is a particularly interesting example. When a foraging bee finds food, it can return to the hive and perform movements that communicate information to other bees about the direction and distance of the food source. The orientation of these movements uses gravity as a reference and allows the bees to relate the location of the food to the position of the Sun.

In space, that reference disappears. That is why scientists wanted to observe what would happen when bees were exposed to a microgravity environment. The answer began to emerge shortly after Challenger reached orbit.

Initial disorientation, followed by rapid adaptation

Although NASA did not specify the exact number of bees that traveled on the mission in its official report, other records place the colony at around 3,300 bees.

The first moments were not easy. Without gravity, the insects lost some of the cues they normally use to navigate and maintain their trajectory. However, they adapted relatively quickly.

The mission report indicates that after this initial period, the bees were able to walk, fly and even float inside their enclosure without major difficulties.

And the most important observation was still to come.

The honeycomb kept growing in space

Despite conditions that were completely different from those on Earth, the colony continued working throughout the mission. By the end of the flight, the bees had built approximately 200 square centimeters of honeycomb.

The initial analysis was particularly striking: the cells had a normal structure comparable to those bees build on Earth. The colony also continued to reproduce. The queen laid 35 eggs during the experiment, a sign that fundamental biological processes continued under microgravity conditions.

The results were later analyzed in a scientific study published in the journal Apidologie. The research concluded that the bees were able to adapt their behavior to weightlessness and continue building recognizable hexagonal cells.

Researchers even observed that once the bees had adapted, they could move around the enclosure at a higher flight speed than is typical on Earth.

An experiment that anticipated the challenges of traveling to Mars

The Challenger experiment took place more than four decades ago, but its findings are gaining renewed relevance as space agencies study increasingly long-duration missions.

Traveling to the Moon or Mars involves more than figuring out how to transport humans and keep them alive. It will also be necessary to find ways to produce food and sustain biological systems for extended periods. In that context, insects and pollinators could play an important role.

A scientific review published in 2025 in Frontiers in Physiology included bees among the insect species that deserve further study because of their potential usefulness and resilience in future space-based food systems.

Its time to get the gardening gloves on for an autumnal clear out and spring time prep. Here are a few jobs and tips to help you prepare your garden for the winter and new year to come.

Trim back and tidy up

Survey your garden borders and paths and identify spent flowers and other turned over plants that have gone to seed. Cut back when necessary and only if you have left flowering plants sufficient time to die back naturally, especially for bulbs that need time to send the any remnant nutrients and moisture from the years growth back down into the bulb scales for storage over winter.

Cut back some seed heads to store and replant next spring to summer, but leave some to provide feed for overwintering and native birds. The seeds of sunflowers, cornflowers, coneflowers, and cosmos are favoured by birds such as goldfinches, sparrows, and other small garden birds.

Remove dead leaves and any diseased stems from plants (such as roses), completely removing them from the garden to avoid spread after winter during the next growing season.

Dib in your spring bulbs

It’s time to think about the blooms you wish to experience in the coming spring, and when you’ve got some free time, head on down to the local garden centre and pick out your favourite varieties.

Planting bulbs between September and November provides the right conditions for incubating bulbs before the winter sleep and eventual sprouting up in spring. The autumn temperatures soften in intensity and soils retain summer warmth while loosening with the increase of welcome rain.

Some popular bulbs include alliums, daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and crocuses. Plants alliums and crocuses in early to mid autumn and save tulips from planting in late October/November.

Use a dibber to create holes big enough to pop your bulbs in, ensuring the depth is two to three times the heigh of he bulb (about 10 to 20 cm). Placing your bulbs in clusters of six or more will provide a bold and striking display come springtime.

Harvest any left over vegetables from your raised beds or patch, remove any weeds and turn over the soil ready for sowing green manures such as mustard seeds to feed the ground vital nutrients for the coming year and simultaneously blanket the ground to prevent further weed growth.

You can start by scattering seeds evenly over prepared, damp soil, starting the process in late summer or early autumn when the ground still retains some warmth.

Allow for 4 to 8 weeks of growth and then cut back mustard plants before they become woody. You can turn in the green manure into the ground and leave for a couple of weeks to break down into the soil.

Divide your perennials

The best time to double the beauty of your garden without spending any money is in the autumn. Perennials such as hostas, daylilies, and coneflowers benefit from being divided now (while soils are still retaining heat and temperatures become more cool) so the roots have time to grow before winter slumber.

You can enhance spring blooms by lifting overloaded clumps of plants and dividing them into new sections.

You can also obtain "free" plants to share with family and friends or fill in any empty spaces. To guarantee a rich, flourishing landscape for the upcoming year, just dig them up, rip or cut the root mass lengthwise, replant them right away, and water in well.

Help support wildlife

In the leaner months of winter, insects and other animals will be focusing on building/finding shelter, as well as finding and storing food.

To maximise their chances of survival amidst the harsh winter months you can create bug hotels with spares bits of wood, including branches, bark, twigs, and leaves. You might also have some fun at making your own hedgehog shelter.

Birds, bees, hedgehogs, and other insect pollinators can all benefit from a accessible, clean water source.

Placing water dishes, bee drinkers, and bird baths at strategic locations within your garden and making sure these water sources are cleaned and refreshed, will help encourage fauna to visit your garden and help them when the dry weather persists. In winter, try to remember to break the ice on the surface of the water to allow fauna to drink.

You can leave some seed heads for birds and put out good quality, high-protein feeds to keep them nourished through the winter months.

Swiss scientists have drawn up a map of soil health across the country using the results of an experiment involving members of the public burying cotton underpants.

Soil is the foundation of the world’s food supply, storing water, carbon and nutrients. It is also home to more than half of global biodiversity.

Yet this biodiversity is declining worldwide, damaging soil health. This has consequences for agriculture, food security and the functioning of entire ecosystems.

Scientists from the University of Zurich and Swiss agricultural research organisation Agroscope wanted to improve their understanding of the activity of microscopic organisms living in the soil.

In 2021, they asked 1,000 volunteers to bury more than 2,000 pairs of cotton underwear and 12,000 tea bags at around 1,000 locations across Switzerland.

Two months later, the volunteers dug up the pants, photographed them and sent them to the laboratory together with a sample of the soil they were buried in.

The decomposition rate provided the scientists with a measure of biological activity in the soil: the more active the soil organisms, the faster they break down the cotton material.

Pants decompose fastest in gardens

Land use proved to be the most important factor influencing how quickly the underwear decomposed.

Whether a site was used as a garden, meadow, cultivated field or lawn explained the differences better than most of the soil properties measured.

The analysis shows that the underwear decomposed at very different rates depending on the location.

The fastest pants to break down those buried in private gardens. This is where researchers found the highest levels of organic matter – ideal conditions for earthworms, fungi, bacteria and other soil-dwelling organisms.

Soil organisms were least active in lawns, while agricultural fields and meadows fell somewhere in between.

What other factors affect soil health?

Chemical soil characteristics, such as nutrient levels, also played a significant role.

Soil life also depends strongly on temperature and soil moisture; if conditions are too cold or too dry, the soil is barely active.

“Our results show that how soil is managed can significantly affect both soil life and soil quality,” said co-study leader Marcel van der Heijden, UZH professor of agroecology.

“Healthy, biologically active soil is crucial for fertility, nutrient cycling and many other ecosystem services,” she said.

Soil life can be promoted by keeping the soil permanently covered, adding compost, diversifying crop rotations and limiting the use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides.

Quantum gravity and dark energy are among the biggest unsolved problems in physics. The former seeks to describe gravity when quantum effects become relevant, while the latter is the name given to the component thought to be responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe.

The challenge also lies in the enormous difference between the scales involved: quantum effects of gravity are typically associated with microscopic scales, while dark energy manifests itself on cosmological scales. Therefore, a direct relationship between the two phenomena would not normally be expected.

Published in Physical Review D, the paper proposes a quantum uncertainty relation applied to the scale factor of the universe. In this model, cosmic acceleration emerges as a macroscopic manifestation of quantum gravity effects, without requiring a new dark energy particle or field.

Dark energy

Dark energy is the name given to the unknown component associated with the accelerating expansion of the universe. Its nature has yet to be determined, but it accounts for approximately 68% of the energy content of the cosmos in the standard cosmological model. Dark energy is associated with a repulsive effect on cosmological scales.

However, other possibilities include dynamic fields or even modifications to general relativity on large scales. Determining which of these hypotheses correctly describes cosmic acceleration is one of the major unresolved questions in modern cosmology.

Quantum gravity

Quantum gravity seeks to describe gravity in regimes where the effects of quantum mechanics cannot be ignored. General relativity treats gravity as the continuous curvature of spacetime, while quantum theory describes matter and other interactions in terms of quantum fields and states.

This problem becomes especially important under extreme conditions, such as near black hole singularities and in the early universe, where general relativity and quantum mechanics fail to provide a complete description when considered separately.

How could the two be connected?

The newly proposed connection comes from applying the quantum uncertainty principle to the evolution of the universe itself. The study considers the possibility that it may not be possible to simultaneously determine the size of the universe and its expansion rate, and that this uncertainty could modify the equations describing cosmological dynamics.

The proposal also suggests that these quantum effects could modify our description of the Big Bang. According to the formulation, the universe may have gone through a phase of contraction. Dark energy, therefore, would not be a new particle or field, but rather a macroscopic manifestation of the quantum structure of spacetime itself.

Very different scales

Part of the difficulty in connecting quantum gravity with dark energy lies in the enormous difference between the scales at which their effects are normally studied. Quantum mechanics describes phenomena at the subatomic level, while gravity governs the dynamics of cosmological structures.

Both theories have been subjected to precise tests within their respective domains, but we have yet to reproduce conditions in which extreme quantum and gravitational effects operate simultaneously. Regions such as the interiors of black holes or the earliest moments of the universe remain beyond the reach of current experiments.

A new study published in The Astrophysical Journal and led by a team from Syracuse University has sought to solve the mystery of why successive flares grow progressively dimmer, realising it could be due to a previously overlooked factor – a star’s spin.

At the centre of most galaxies is a supermassive black hole, with a mass millions to billions of times that of our Sun and some of the most extreme gravity known.

Some stars which come close to black holes can survive and will make repeated passes, producing a new flare of light each time. These repeating partial tidal disruption events (rpTDEs) allow scientists to observe the same star-black hole interaction over and over again using wide-field time-domain surveys.

In a typical tidal disruption event (TDE), a black hole’s tidal force – the difference in gravitational pull across a nearby star – will tear the star apart. As the stellar debris falls towards the black hole, it loses energy, which is emitted as light over days to months.

Black holes don’t emit light, but TDEs provide a short supply of fuel which lights up the surrounding area, allowing scientists to study them indirectly.

If an orbiting star does not come close enough to a black hole to be completely torn apart, it can lose a fraction of its mass – creating a partial TDE. In a repeating partial TDE, the surviving core will continue to orbit the black hole, losing material with each pass, occurring every few months to years.

But how much material do they lose?

How much material a star loses depends on its internal structure. Bandopadhyay compares a star with low mass to a fluffy meringue, which will become vulnerable to a black hole’s tidal forces. However, a high-mass star will be more centrally concentrated and will shed its outer layers while the dense core will remain relatively unaffected.

The differences help explain why rpTDEs do not all behave the same way. However, one pattern has mystified scientists: 4 out of 10 repeating systems produce flares that progressively dim.

Previous hydrodynamical simulations showed that, even as material loss decreased after each encounter, the predicted flares retained roughly the same brightness, challenging the idea that decreasing mass loss explained the phenomenon.

“We were puzzled by this for two years,” Bandopadhyay said.

Their previous work revealed another effect of black hole tidal forces: they exert a torque that causes the star to spin faster with each encounter. This results in less material falling back into the black hole, but it returns over a shorter period, helping keep the flare at roughly the same brightness.

To reproduce the dimming, researchers needed a star which was already spinning before its first encounter with a black hole. The study found that this initial spin prevents the star from being spun up during each passage; without the additional spin-up, the time during which the stripped material falls back remains relatively constant. As the star loses less material with every encounter, the peak fallback rate can finally decline.

But why would a star already be spinning so fast?

“It is also extremely difficult to ‘bind’ a star to a supermassive black hole so tightly that it orbits the black hole in a matter of months, and yet they seem to do so in rpTDEs,” Coughlin said.

The Hills mechanism could explain both. In this scenario, a pair of orbiting stars passes near a supermassive black hole, tearing the binary apart and ejecting one star while capturing the other.

In a close binary, the stars become tidally locked, meaning each rotates on its axis at the same rate at which the pair orbits each other. The tighter the binary, the shorter the orbital period and the faster the star spins. The binaries of stars on a short orbit seen in rpTDEs would have to be extremely tight.

“Ananya’s work demonstrates that each of these peculiarities can be explained by the same underlying phenomenon: the tidal destruction of a binary system and the capture of one of the stars,” Coughlin said. “From a theoretical standpoint, this is a major step forward in our understanding of the physics at play in these systems.”

Coughlin also notes that Hill's capture may have also made some of the stars that orbit Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. The findings from the new study therefore help to explain the properties of stars within our own “cosmological backyard.”

It is the undisputed king of the pantry, adding character to almost any dish and, with its strong aroma, helping keep garden pests away. Garlic has it all, and to top it off, all you need to grow it at home is a pot on your balcony or a sunny spot by a window.

Take note, because we'll explain everything you need to know to grow it successfully without complications.

Choosing your starting material: not all cloves are the same

Your starting point is probably already in your kitchen. However, there are a couple of important details to keep in mind when choosing the right garlic.

Ideally, use organic garlic bulbs or ones purchased at local farmers' markets. Why? Because commercial garlic from supermarkets is sometimes treated with cold temperatures or chemicals to delay sprouting while it sits on store shelves.

Always select the largest, plumpest and firmest cloves. Avoid any that look wrinkled, soft or have unusual spots, as they are unlikely to thrive.

One important detail: don't remove the thin skin covering the cloves. This outer layer provides natural protection against soil fungi during their first few days underground.

When is the best time to start?

Garlic is a crop that gets off to a good start in fall and winter. It needs exposure to the colder temperatures of these seasons so the original clove can divide internally and develop into a complete bulb with multiple cloves.

If you start in spring, you'll get delicious green shoots, but the bulb underground is unlikely to fully develop.

Method 1: growing in a pot, ideal for small spaces

Growing garlic in a pot is very easy and is perfect if you want to make the most of your balcony space.

The right pot: look for a container that is at least 15 to 20 centimeters deep. Make sure it has good drainage holes at the bottom. Garlic likes consistent moisture but hates standing water.

The perfect soil mix: prepare a light, loose mixture. You can combine regular garden soil with some organic compost and perlite to improve drainage.

Time to plant: bury each clove about 3 to 4 centimeters deep. Always place the flat end, where the roots emerge, facing downward and the pointed end facing upward. Leave 10 to 15 centimeters between each clove so the bulbs have enough room to develop.

Sunlight and watering: place the pot somewhere that receives at least six hours of direct sunlight each day. Water moderately: the soil should feel moist to the touch but should never become waterlogged.

Method 2: growing garlic in the garden

If you have a small patch of open soil or a garden bed in your yard, garlic will have plenty of room to thrive and can produce considerably larger bulbs.

Prepare the soil: use a shovel or rake to loosen the soil until it is soft and well aerated. Add a generous amount of worm castings to provide nutrients from the start.

Give them enough space: make holes about 4 centimeters deep and space them approximately 15 centimeters apart. Place the cloves with the pointed end facing upward and gently cover them without compacting the soil too much.

Add a good layer of mulch: cover the garden bed with straw, dry grass or fallen leaves. This homemade mulch helps retain soil moisture, suppress weeds and protect young shoots from the harshest winter frosts.

Method 3: growing in water for quick green shoots

There's a simple trick if you want faster results or simply want flavorful green shoots to add to salads or stir-fries.

Take a whole garlic bulb or several individual cloves and place them in a small glass or jar. Add tap water until it covers only the flat base of the garlic.

Place the glass near a well-lit window. Change the water every two days to keep it clean and prevent unpleasant odors or fungal growth.

Within just a few days, you'll see white roots and fragrant green shoots begin to emerge. You can trim the green tips and use them to season your dishes. You can also transfer the rooted cloves to a pot filled with soil and allow them to continue growing naturally.

Patience pays off: harvesting and curing

The complete growing cycle generally takes between seven and nine months. But don't worry—garlic gives you clear signs when it is ready to harvest.

You'll notice the lower leaves beginning to dry out and turn yellow. When more than half of the plant has turned golden, stop watering completely for one week. This allows the bulb to finish maturing and reduces the risk of rot from residual moisture.

After those few days, carefully dig up the bulbs, using a small garden trowel to avoid cutting or damaging them. Shake off the excess soil and place them in a cool, dry and shaded location for about 15 days.

This process is called “curing,” and it is the secret to keeping garlic fresh in your pantry for months without spoiling. And that's it: enjoy your own homegrown garlic!

The centre of Cabugao, in the province of Ilocos Sur, Philippines, was at the mercy of powerful winds on Monday, causing significant property damage and producing particularly striking images. The phenomenon, described by local authorities and media as a **tornado or **ipo-ipo, passed through the town at around 5pm, sending roofs, sheets of metal, branches and other objects flying through the air.

Videos recorded by residents show the violence of the gusts and how debris was carried by the wind during the storm. Initial assessments by the authorities indicate that at least 60 homes were damaged, two of them completely destroyed.

Aid for those affected

Following the tornado, local authorities began assessing the situation to determine the extent of the damage and identify families in need of assistance.

The Ilocos Sur provincial government has already announced aid for affected households, including materials to repair homes and financial assistance depending on the severity of the damage and each family’s financial circumstances.

So far, no deaths or injuries related to these tornadoes have been reported, according to the latest available assessments. Authorities are nevertheless continuing inspection and clean-up operations in case further damage is discovered as teams gain access to all affected areas.

A succession of extreme storms fuelled by the monsoon

The appearance of these tornadoes coincides with a period of heavy rainfall associated with the south-west monsoon. Humidity and atmospheric instability are favouring the development of storms capable of producing very strong gusts and destructive winds.

But the Cabugao incident is part of a broader weather situation affecting Ilocos Sur province. Authorities have reported whirlwinds, tornadoes or destructive winds in ten municipalities in recent days, coinciding with the persistence of the south-west monsoon, locally known as Habagat.

In addition to Cabugao, similar phenomena have been recorded in Burgos, Narvacan, Bantay, Sinait, Santa Catalina, San Vicente, Santo Domingo, Magsingal and Caoayan. In Narvacan, for example, strong winds damaged five huts in the Sulvec area.

In Burgos, the storm had already damaged homes on Sunday night. Later, during the early hours of Tuesday, another tornado affected the municipality of Bantay and tore the roof from a house in Barangay Pudoc Norte. No injuries had been reported in that incident either, initially.