Did you know there is a cat theme park in China? In 2025, a vacant lot along the Yangtze River, in Chongqing’s Nan’an District, was transformed into a cat theme park. Covering an area of 30,000 square meters, the park serves as a shelter for abandoned or injured stray cats, according to Chinese news agency Xinhua.

This park has already rescued more than 600 cats, many of them abandoned or injured, who receive treatment and vaccines before moving into the visitor areas. The park has more than 40 workers, including caretakers and veterinarians, who handle daily feeding, cleaning and medical care.

Admission costs ¥19.9, equivalent to $2.86, and includes a cat treat, meaning visitors can enter and immediately help with feeding.

Since the park opened in early January, more than 50 cats have already been adopted, turning a public space into something that truly changes lives. The space includes rest areas, play structures, elevated shelters and green areas adapted for the felines.

You either hate cats or love them, and they are the same way. Each has a unique personality, and if they “click” with their human, half the battle is already won; otherwise, it can turn into a full-blown territorial struggle. But if a cat chooses you, you are on the right side — and you now have an ally to help fight stress.

Cat-assisted therapy already exists. It is an emerging therapeutic approach that uses the companionship and unique characteristics of these felines to promote people’s physical, emotional and psychological well-being, according to UNAM’s science outreach magazine.

Although cats are often seen as solitary and unsociable animals, studies conducted in Belgium and recent experiences show that, when well socialized and trained, they can become excellent therapeutic companions.

Therapy Cats

This form of therapy offers benefits ranging from motor stimulation and stress relief to support in emotional and cognitive processes, making it a valuable alternative in settings where innovative and affectionate methods are sought to improve the quality of life of people who need that emotional support.

UNAM Global interviewed Dr. Claudia Edwards, a professor at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science at the university, who explained that cats play an important role as assistance animals and that this has been influenced by Japanese culture.

Because of the benefits observed, some Japanese companies, such as Qnote, have promoted similar initiatives to improve the work environment and reduce stress among employees. In Europe, particularly in Poland and Belgium, this positive relationship caught the attention of the scientific community.

Nine years ago, the University of Warmia and Mazury was already considering the use of cats as assistance animals for people with physical and mental conditions. This year, several Belgian institutions and Washington State University confirmed that cats, like dogs, can provide comfort to those who need it.

A new study published in Science, “Fires reverse progress toward ozone quality standards in the U.S.” led by researchers from the University of Iowa shows that surface ozone pollution from wildfires has contributed to over 300 premature deaths in the country each year since 2013.

Wildfires across the US

Smog is the concentration of surface ozone. Researchers calculated smog on a kilometer-by-kilometer grid for the continental US between 2003 and 2024. Air quality as a result of ozone pollutants became worse from 2015 to 2024 across the Midwest and Western US.

The increase in wildfire-driven ozone pollution in the last ten years has undercut air quality improvements prior to 2015 due to reductions in car emissions, which are the main contributor to surface ozone. US wildfires have reached historic levels this spring.

Surface ozone is caused by a chemical reaction involving carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide gas is emitted when wildfires don’t fully combust organic matter, like trees. Surface ozone can form near fires when nitrogen oxide combines with carbon monoxide and sunlight. Smog can also form away from fires when carbon monoxide rises into the atmosphere and travels nefpre falling to the surface, as well as undergoing reactions with sunlight.

“The bottom line is the air is getting worse in these regions, and the reason is pollutants are being transported long distances from wildfires in the western U.S. and Canada. We show in high spatial resolution how a large part of the continental U.S. has been affected by worsened air quality through surface ozone pollution,” explains Jun Wang, Lichtenberg Family Chair in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and the study’s co-author.

Surface Ozone

Smog levels in the US have increased by 0.13 parts per billion (ppb) each year between 2015 and 2024. That reverses the annual decreases in surface ozone levels since 2003 due to tightened federal regulations around tailpipe emissions. Surface ozone levels would have continued to decrease during the study period “if fire impacts were removed, suggesting that fires are the major driver of the national trend reversal.”

Weizhi Deng, graduate research assistant in Wang’s group who led the modeling linking wildfires and surface ozone pollution and study’s lead author, “While U.S. air quality regulations have reduced surface ozone, a pollutant linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, this progress has reversed since around 2015. Wildfire smoke has become a major driver of increasing ozone pollution, especially in the western and midwestern United States.” In 2023, surface ozone exceeded safe levels for more than one week in the Midwest.

For the study, researchers derived surface ozone concentrations and premature death estimates from satellite data and around 1,000 ground-based stations monitoring air quality. The team used “deep learning” which lets computer systems cluster data and make accurate predictions to calculate surface ozone concentrations. Premature deaths were calculated with a formula incorporating average lifespan, ozone exposure and population density.

Wang explains, “While there are regional differences, in general the impact of surface ozone is always bigger than black carbon.”

Weizhi Deng et al, Fires reverse progress toward ozone air quality standards in the United States, Science (2026). DOI: 10.1126/science.aed3197. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aed3197

There is good news for those dreaming of swimming in São Miguel’s most iconic volcanic crater, in Portugal’s Azores archipelago. After a summer of 2025 marked by a total swimming ban, the islet of Vila Franca do Campo will reopen its waters this bathing season.

Located off the town of Vila Franca do Campo, on the southern coast of São Miguel, this islet is one of the archipelago’s most iconic landscapes. Just a few minutes by boat from the marina, it hides a natural lagoon with calm, clear waters, formed by the ancient crater of a submerged volcano.

Every year, thousands of visitors go there during the warmer months, whether to swim, snorkel, or simply enjoy one of the island’s most special landscapes.

The Reasons for the Closure in 2025

Last year, however, the bathing area ended up closing due to water quality test results, which prevented swimming throughout the entire season.

"The closure of the bathing area in the summer of 2025 was not a last-minute surprise," writes Ekonomista. "The first negative water quality rating for the islet was recorded in 2020, leading to the creation of a working group with representatives from the Regional Government, the municipality, and other entities."

"Mitigation measures were applied for years, including reducing the gull population, identified as one of the sources of bacterial contamination, but the accumulated results over five consecutive years led to the closure."

However, after new monitoring work and assessments carried out in collaboration with environmental authorities, it was considered possible to reopen the space to the public.

An Imminent Reopening

The reopening was announced on April 7, ensuring that it will be available for the summer season. With this update, the archipelago now has 88 approved bathing areas for 2026. Along the coast alone, there are 25 different areas. Pico Island has the largest number of bathing areas in the region, with 26. According to the newspaper Público, it is followed by Terceira Island (16), Faial (six), Graciosa (five), Santa Maria (four), São Jorge (three), Flores (two), and Corvo (one).

Although swimming has resumed, strict rules remain in place to protect the islet’s delicate ecosystem. Daily access remains limited to 400 people, of whom only 200 can stay inside the crater at the same time.

The round-trip transport ticket has been €6 for Azores residents and €10 for non-residents. Fares for the 2026 season should be confirmed directly at the CNVFC online ticket office or at the physical ticket office at the marina, as they may change.

And keep in mind that anyone visiting the islet out of season or arriving without a reservation risks being unable to access it if capacity is full.

Good News for the Local Economy

Classified as a Nature Reserve, the islet is also part of the Natura 2000 Network and the Azores UNESCO Global Geopark, statuses that reinforce the environmental and scientific importance of this small volcanic paradise.

The reopening is also good news for the local economy. During the summer, the islet attracts thousands of visitors, directly benefiting restaurants, accommodations, cafés, and tourism businesses in the town of Vila Franca do Campo.

"According to conservative estimates of average visitor spending (€40 to €60), the overall economic impact associated with the islet exceeds €3.5 million per bathing season," reads the Açoriano Oriental website.

For those planning to visit São Miguel in the coming months, the reopening of swimming at the islet brings back one of the island’s most sought-after experiences: plunging into a volcanic crater surrounded by the blue of the Atlantic.

The start of summer puts the resilience of plants to the test, while the vegetable garden enters one of its most critical stages: producing crops under conditions of high temperatures and water stress.

In this scenario, watering becomes essential. All gardening and vegetable-growing enthusiasts use water to keep their plants alive; however, in many cases, all our efforts can be in vain, as the timing, quantity and method used to apply water are fundamental.

Watering should be carried out at key moments and according to sound principles that prevent effects contrary to those intended. Below, we reveal the key times for watering during summer.

Watering in the morning: the ideal time

The early hours of the morning are the best time to water. Ideally, this should be done between sunrise and 10am, when temperatures are still mild and the sun is not yet strong enough to cause rapid evaporation.

Watering at this time allows the water to penetrate deeply into the soil and reach the roots, which are responsible for absorbing the nutrients required for the plant's development.

In addition, this gives the leaves enough time to dry during the day, reducing the risk of diseases caused by fungi and other microorganisms.

Another important benefit is that plants begin the day with a good reserve of moisture, something that is essential for coping with the hottest hours of the summer.

Is it good to water at night?

Watering at night, or late in the day, is also a common and recommended practice. At night, temperatures generally fall, meaning evaporation is virtually non-existent and, therefore, the water is used more efficiently by plants.

However, this option has some drawbacks. When water remains on the leaves or on the soil surface for many hours, it creates a humid environment that encourages the development of fungi, mould and plant diseases.

For this reason, if you choose to water at night, it is advisable to do so at ground level and avoid wetting the foliage. In addition, the soil should have good drainage to prevent excess moisture from accumulating around the roots.

Watering during the hottest part of the day: a mistake

One of the most common mistakes during summer is watering at midday or during the hours of strongest sunshine. There is a false belief that plants need water precisely when temperatures are at their highest, but this practice is inefficient and can even be harmful.

When the sun is at its highest point, much of the water evaporates before it reaches the roots. This means plants receive less hydration and a considerable amount of water is wasted.

In addition, although there is some debate about whether water droplets can burn leaves by acting like a magnifying glass, the reality is that wetting foliage under intense sunshine can increase heat stress in some species and cause damage to particularly sensitive tissues.

From a water-saving perspective, watering during the middle of the day also represents an unnecessary waste of water, something that is especially important in regions affected by restrictions or periods of drought.

Tips for more efficient watering

In addition to choosing the right time, there are several recommendations that can help keep plants healthy throughout the summer.

• Carry out deep but less frequent watering: this encourages roots to grow into deeper layers of soil.
• Use mulch or organic coverings: these help retain moisture and reduce evaporation.

• Drip irrigation systems: one of the most efficient alternatives, as they deliver water directly to the root zone.

If you are looking for the ideal time to water plants in summer, the morning remains the preferred option. Night-time watering can be a valid alternative in certain circumstances, while the hours of strongest sunshine should be avoided in order to make the best use of water and protect plant health.

Since the James Webb Space Telescope began exploring the most remote corners of the cosmos, the so-called "Little Red Dots" (LRDs) have become one of the great mysteries of modern astronomy. These tiny, bright structures, observed when the universe was still in its infancy, appeared to conceal supermassive black holes. However, numerous theoretical models suggested that estimates of their mass might be exaggerated.

Now, an international team of researchers has resolved those doubts thanks to the first direct measurement carried out on one of these objects. The result not only confirms the presence of a gigantic black hole but also reveals a completely unexpected situation for scientists.

The research, published in the journal Nature, focused on Abell 2744-QSO1, an object so distant that its light began its journey when the universe was only 700 million years old.

The help of a natural cosmic magnifying glass

To achieve such a level of detail, astronomers combined the capabilities of the James Webb Telescope with a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. In this case, the gravity of a galaxy cluster located between Earth and the object acted as a gigantic natural magnifying glass, amplifying the signal coming from the early universe.

Thanks to this combination, the researchers were able to study in detail the movement of gas orbiting the centre of Abell 2744-QSO1. Using high-resolution spectroscopy, they analysed the speed of this material and reconstructed its rotation curve.

The data showed behaviour perfectly consistent with the Keplerian motion expected around an extremely compact mass. The analysis made it possible to calculate that the central object has a mass equivalent to around 50 million Suns.

This evidence rules out other possible explanations, such as the existence of a very dense star cluster or concentrations of dark matter capable of producing the same gravitational effect.

"Our results represent a direct dynamical measurement of a black hole mass in the early universe," explained Ignas Juodžbalis, a researcher at the University of Cambridge and lead author of the study. The work also confirms that the indirect methods commonly used to estimate black hole masses remain reliable even at extreme distances.

Spanish participation in a historic investigation

The study also benefited from a significant contribution by Spanish scientists. Astrophysicists Michele Perna, Santiago Arribas and Pablo G. Pérez-González, from the Centre for Astrobiology (CAB), participated in the processing and interpretation of the complex information obtained by James Webb.

Their work was crucial in reconstructing the dynamics of the gas surrounding the black hole and understanding the physical conditions present during the earliest stages of cosmic history.

A black hole larger than its own galaxy

The greatest surprise came when the researchers attempted to calculate the mass of the host galaxy.

The results were astonishing. The information obtained indicates that the space available to host stars is extremely limited. In fact, even the most conservative estimates show that the black hole possesses at least twice the mass of all the stars in the galaxy combined.

The difference is extraordinary. In the present-day universe, galaxies typically have masses approximately one thousand times greater than those of their central black holes. In Abell 2744-QSO1, that relationship is completely altered and exceeds by three orders of magnitude the values observed in nearby galaxies.

For this reason, scientists consider it the most "naked" massive black hole ever detected.

A possible seed of the first cosmic giants

The object also displays another unusual characteristic: it exists in a highly primitive chemical environment, virtually free of heavy elements.

This condition leads researchers to believe they may be observing a genuine supermassive black hole "seed" at an early stage of growth. It would be the first time that an object of this kind has been captured actively accumulating matter.

The discovery also provides significant evidence in favour of the so-called "black hole primacy" theory. According to this hypothesis, giant black holes may have formed and developed even before the first generations of stars were born within their galaxies.

The researchers believe that this cosmic giant did not emerge from the death of a massive star, but rather through the direct gravitational collapse of enormous clouds of primordial gas. If so, Abell 2744-QSO1 would represent a unique window into one of the oldest and most fundamental processes in the history of the universe.

Reference of the news

Juodžbalis, I., Marconcini, C., D’Eugenio, F. et al. A direct black-hole mass measurement in a little red dot at high redshift. Nature 653, 1017–1021 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10579-4

On May 20, 2026, researchers from Texas A&M University published a study in Nature that certain types of storms can intensify over urban areas. They found isolated thunderstorm cells can grow stronger and produce more rain over cities.

Storm Study

Researchers from Texas A&M University found that isolated storm cells can grow stronger and produce more rain over cities. They analyzed over 40,000 storms over a 22-year span in Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio from 1996-2017. Specifically, they honed in on rainfall resulting from different types of storms that hit cities.

Co-author John Nielsen-Gammon of Texas A&M explains, “Different storms are driven by different physical processes. Once you separate storms by type, the patterns become much clearer.” Two categories of storms the researchers looked at were single-cell thunderstorms and larger isolated storms. They found intensification and heavier rainfall when encountering a city. Single-cell thunderstorms, they found, grew taller and more intensive over urban areas.

The urban heat island effect is where cities trap heat to make themselves warmer than surrounding areas by causing updrafts that strengthen storms. Of the 4 studied cities in Texas, small storms occurred 7-31% more often than over rural areas nearby. This is especially true at night when cities retain heat, “Urban areas hold heat after sunset. That retained warmth can continue to fuel storms overnight, when similar storms over rural areas are more likely to weaken,” explains Neilsen-Gammon.

Urban Issues

Urban flooding is a significant city problem. There are not many places for rainwater to naturally soak into the ground due to a large presence of concrete and buildings. Storms that hit a city with heavy rainfall overwhelm stormwater systems, resulting in flooded streets. This endangers drivers and pedestrians, and homes and businesses can experience flood damage.

Not all storms intensify when they reach urban areas. Storms along a cold front can weaker over the urban heat island since these storms form from the temperature difference between advancing cold air and the current warm air. Storms associated with cold fronts decreased 16-28% in rainfall intensity compared to surrounding rural areas.

Nielsen-Gammon says, “Cold front rainfall is driven by sharp temperature and wind differences. As they move into the warmer and more turbulent urban environment, those contrasts can weaken, reducing rainfall intensity.”

Urban planners should factor in storms that are short in duration and high in intensity. Neilsen-Gammon says, “If you design only for region-wide averages, you can underestimate the kinds of rainfall that actually cause the most damage […] Asking whether cities get more or less rain is the wrong question. The right question is which storms are affected, because that’s what determines the risk people actually face on the ground.”

There is an 80% chance of an El Niño event during June to August, with a 90% chance it will continue until at least November, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has said.

Experts around the world have been warning of the coming El Niño for some weeks.

Although some uncertainty remains about when it will arrive, and how strong it will be, most forecast models suggest it will be at least moderate – and possibly strong.

“The most recent El Niño, in 2023-24, was one of the five strongest on record and it played a role in the record global temperatures we saw in 2024,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

Why are experts worried?

El Niño – and its opposing climate phase La Niña – are opposite phases of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), one of the most powerful naturally occurring climate patterns on Earth.

El Niño is characterized by a warming of ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern Equatorial Pacific, the WMO explained.

The effects of each El Niño/La Niña event vary depending on the intensity, duration, time of year when it develops, and also how it interacts with other climate phenomena.

However, it typically linked to increased rainfall in parts of southern South America, the southern United States, parts of the Horn of Africa and central Asia.

It also blamed for drier conditions over Central America, northern South America, the Caribbean, Australia, Indonesia, and parts of southern Asia.

It typically occurs every two to seven years, and lasts around nine to twelve months, reaching peak intensity between November and February.

“We need to prepare for a potentially strong El Niño event – which will exacerbate drought and heavy rainfall and increase the risk of heatwaves both on land and in the ocean,” said Saulo.

Changes will be 'sudden and chaotic'

Professor Graeme Swindles, professor of physical geography at Queen’s University Belfast, says that El Niño can cause sudden and chaotic changes to weather conditions.

“When these powerful natural climate oscillations combine with the rapid pace of human‑driven warming, the impacts can be sudden, chaotic and severe – from extreme heat to flooding and drought,” he said.

Gareth Redmond-King, head of international at think tank the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said: "With global food supplies already under heavy strain from climate change and strangled off fertiliser supply flows in the Strait of Hormuz, confirmation of El Niño is bad news.”

It will ‘turbocharge’ climate change, intensifying already dangerous extremes in many parts of the world, he warned.

At the dawn of our Solar System, the so-called planetesimals also orbited the Sun. These are considered the precursors of asteroids, comets and planets. They were relatively small aggregates of dust that grew larger over time.

A Computer Simulation Sheds Light on the Young Solar System

Using a new computer simulation, researchers in Göttingen were able to look into the period roughly between two and four million years after the birth of the Solar System.

For example, Jupiter had already accumulated all the matter present in its immediate neighborhood. As a result, only small clumps of matter remained nearby.

These so-called "pebbles" could also grow into planetesimals. Over long periods, these aggregations of matter could be composed of various types of fine-grained material.

The Variable Composition of Materials Makes It Possible to Determine Their Age

The current study makes it possible to reproduce these conditions. In doing so, two distinct types of material were identified: fragile, crumbly dust and small fragments made of more stable material.

Further research revealed that these meteorites invariably formed from a combination of both materials; however, their exact composition varied over time.

Jupiter Helped Create Specific "Accumulation Zones"

The different groups of meteorites can be traced back to different generations of planetesimals, mainly those that formed over a period of approximately two million years.

According to the new simulations, Jupiter’s gravitational influence may have helped form specific "accumulation centers."

Beyond Jupiter’s orbit, the two types of matter accumulated in varying proportions. This process laid the foundation for the formation of multiple generations of small planetesimals.

Therefore, there are strong reasons to hypothesize that, during the early stages of the Solar System’s history, the region beyond Jupiter’s orbit may have served as a true "nursery" for future meteorites.

News References

Nerea Gurrutxaga, Joanna Drążkowska, Vignesh Vaikundaraman, Thorsten Kleine. (2026). Carbonaceous Chondrites Provide Evidence for Late-stage Planetesimal Formation in a Pressure Bump. The Astrophysical Journal. Volume 1003, Number 2.

Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung. (2026). Verschiedene Meteorite, selber Geburtsort. Nachrichten. Aktuelles.

Age is often associated with mountains, fossils, or vast deserts, but these are not the only witnesses to Earth’s geological past. Some rivers preserve an even older history and originated long before dinosaurs appeared. Calculating how old a river is is much more complex than it seems. To do so, scientists analyze the clues the river itself left behind over millions of years.

Determining which is the oldest river on the planet is not an easy task. Among the most frequently mentioned candidates are the Meuse River, the New River in the United States, the Rhine, and the Sava River. However, Australia’s Finke River is among the leading candidates. It is considered one of the oldest river systems still surviving on Earth, and its history could date back hundreds of millions of years.

How Is the Age of a River Determined?

To do this, geologists analyze ancient sandstones, gravel deposits, river terraces, eroded gorges, and minerals transported by water. A river’s age can be inferred from the sediments it deposited or the mountains it crossed.

By determining the age of these minerals and tracing where they came from, researchers can reconstruct ancient river routes and calculate how long a particular river system has existed.

The Geological Clues Behind the Finke’s Age

From the MacDonnell Ranges in central Australia, the Finke extends southward until it reaches the Lake Eyre Basin. At nearly 600 kilometers long, it crosses some of the driest and most remote areas of Australia.

The interest in the Finke goes beyond its location. Its history is closely tied to the geological evolution of the landscape it crosses. That is one of the reasons the Finke is so unique.

When the MacDonnell Ranges began to rise, the Finke was already there. For millions of years, it continued deepening its channel without significantly changing its course. This allowed it to cut through highly resistant rock formations and preserve a route that, according to available evidence, has remained in place for hundreds of millions of years.

The History of the Finke River Dates Back to the Paleozoic Era

The most recent estimates place the age of the river system associated with the Finke between 300 and 400 million years. Much of what is known about the Finke’s age comes from materials accumulated over millions of years in the Amadeus Basin. There, traces of ancient rivers remained from the Devonian period, when they carried sediments from higher areas toward the south.

These deposits indicate that an extensive river network already existed in an area very similar to the one occupied by the Finke today. Another important clue is that the river cuts through geological formations younger than its own course. This suggests that the system already existed before the region’s mountains finished rising.

Even so, all evidence suggests that its main channel has remained active since very ancient times. That is why the Finke is considered one of the oldest known river systems.

A River That Awakens When the Rain Arrives

At first glance, the Finke does not even look like a permanent river. Along much of its course, isolated waterholes, sandy beds, and dry channels dominate, sometimes going long periods without showing surface water.

Although today it may seem like a modest river, the Finke holds evidence of a history that dates back hundreds of millions of years. Its channels and sediments have helped reconstruct a time when Australia had a very different configuration and the continents were still joined in ancient supercontinents.

For this reason, many specialists consider it one of the strongest candidates for the title of the world’s oldest river.

News Reference:

What’s the Oldest River In the World? It’s So Old It Passed Through Pangea. May 8, 2026. Mihai Andrei.

It is mosquito season once again. And warnings are already being issued about the dangerous tiger mosquito, which can transmit dengue fever and other tropical diseases – including the Chikungunya virus, which could become firmly established in Central Europe over the coming decades. This is the conclusion of a new study.

At the centre of the study is the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), whose range has been expanding for years. The species benefits both from rising temperatures and the increasing global movement of people and goods. It is now regularly detected across Europe, including in Germany.

Tiger mosquito is a key vector

Using climate models and distribution data for the main disease vectors, researchers examined how the virus could develop up to the year 2100. They found that the mosquito species Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus play a decisive role in determining where the virus occurs.

"In our study, the Asian tiger mosquito played a particularly important role and accounted for more than 70 per cent of the projected spread of the virus," said co-author Yang Wu from the Customs Technology Centre in Guangzhou. Together, the two mosquito species explain around 84 per cent of the global Chikungunya risk.

The resilience of the tiger mosquito significantly increases its ability to spread. Its eggs can survive temperatures as low as minus 10 degrees Celsius. This makes the species far better adapted to temperate climates than many other tropical mosquitoes.

Risk shifting northwards

At present, 139 countries and regions are considered risk areas for the Chikungunya virus. This corresponds to more than 21 per cent of the world's land area.

"However, our climate models show that the virus will continue spreading northwards into temperate regions, particularly north-eastern North America, Central Europe and East Asia," said lead researcher Ye Xu from Zhejiang Chinese Medical University.

Scientists expect transmission risks to increase in parts of Central Europe as early as 2040. In the following decades, additional regions could become affected, including higher-altitude areas. Alongside Germany, the researchers identify the United Kingdom and Ireland as potentially affected countries.

"The public does not need to panic, but healthcare systems should prepare at an early stage," Xu emphasised. He recommends consistent monitoring of Aedes mosquitoes, training healthcare professionals, and strengthening mosquito-control measures. Emergency plans for potential outbreaks should also be developed.

In recent years, significant outbreaks have already occurred in Italy, France and Spain. Last summer, infections were also recorded just a few kilometres from the German border. However, transmission by locally established mosquitoes within Germany has not yet been documented.

Reference of the news:

Zhang, Q., Zhang, L., Ma, Y., et al. (2026): Predicting the global risk of chikungunya virus under climate change using ensemble species distribution models. Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology.

On most maps, rivers follow a clear logic: they have a source, grow as they flow, and eventually reach the sea. The Okavango River does not. This major river system in southern Africa fades away in the middle of the desert, never reaching the ocean.

What is remarkable is that in its "disappearance" it creates one of the richest and most complex ecosystems on the planet: an inland delta that sustains life in one of the driest regions in the world.

From an extremely wet environment to a desert landscape

The Okavango's journey begins in the wetlands of western Angola, where abundant rainfall feeds a network of rivers that slowly flow southwards.

One of its main channels, the Okavango River, winds through the highlands before entering increasingly arid territory. It is a long, quiet and decisive journey, as it moves from a very wet environment into a desert landscape.

Extreme fieldwork: paddling to understand the river

For more than a decade, highly skilled teams have travelled through the Okavango system from within, using small traditional boats known as mekoro.

This type of exploration, driven by the Okavango Wilderness Project, has made it possible to document areas of the river that remained virtually unexplored until recently, where access was almost impossible.

During these expeditions, fieldwork has combined science, physical endurance and direct observation, revealing how small changes in the landscape can alter the entire river system downstream.

The miracle lies in the formation of an inland delta

As it continues its journey, the Okavango enters Botswana, and this is where something extraordinary happens: instead of continuing towards the sea, the water spreads out into a vast network of channels, lagoons and islands that form the famous Okavango inland delta.

This formation is not permanent, as it changes with the seasons, expanding during flood periods and shrinking during the dry season, with distinct periods of low flow.

An ecosystem that pulses with water

In essence, the delta functions almost entirely as a pulsating system. Every year, floods revitalise its surface and trigger a biological explosion, with plants, insects, fish and large mammals all depending directly on this hydrological rhythm and variability.

Elephants, hippos, buffaloes and predators such as lions and leopards use the delta as a feeding ground and refuge, while migratory birds make the most of one of the most important wetlands on the African continent.

Most remarkable of all is that this cycle does not depend solely on local rainfall, but on precipitation that fell months earlier in Angola, turning the system into a kind of "hydrological memory" of the landscape.

Meteorological summer is a division of the year created by scientists that differs from conventional astronomical summer. Unlike astronomical summer, which begins with the solstice and changes date each year, the meteorological version is based strictly on the annual cycle of atmospheric temperature. This convention allows the start and end of the season to coincide with the hottest months.

By grouping the days this way, scientists achieve perfect alignment with the quarter that historically records the planet’s highest temperatures.

The Goal of Atmospheric Sciences

Assigning fixed dates to the seasons greatly helps the monitoring carried out by meteorologists and climatologists worldwide. By eliminating the date variation of the solstices, scientists obtain uniform periods that make it easier to compare data from different years.

This simplifies the calculation of monthly and seasonal averages for variables such as rainfall and heat. Thanks to this system, the collection of climate statistics becomes much more accurate and comparable over the long term.

Forecast models and global warming studies benefit from these structured observations to detect anomalies more quickly. In this way, meteorological summer becomes a fundamental tool for understanding how our climate and weather are changing.

Meteorological Summer Climatology

The climatology of recent summers has shown an alarming pattern, characterized by a sharp increase in the frequency and intensity of global temperature anomalies.

Summer temperatures have repeatedly shattered historical records, turning what were once isolated extreme events into a new climate normal. This accelerated warming speeds up evaporation and alters wind patterns, intensifying droughts and wildfires worldwide.

The most destructive feature of these recent seasons has been the spread of persistent heat waves, which can last for weeks due to seasonal atmospheric blocking patterns.

These warm, stagnant air masses not only break daytime highs but also dangerously raise nighttime temperatures. This summer temperature surge causes severe impacts that go far beyond simple discomfort, directly affecting public health, agriculture, and countries’ power grids.

Summers no longer represent only a seasonal change, but a critical period of water stress for ecosystems and vulnerability for urban populations. The consistency with which these heat peaks are increasing confirms that meteorological summer is the window of the year where the climate crisis is manifesting most rapidly.

Most Common Illnesses During Summer

The three most common heat-related illnesses are heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke. Below, we explain each of these meteorological summer conditions:

Heat cramps are painful muscle spasms in the legs or abdomen accompanied by heavy sweating. Although they are a mild symptom, they serve as the body’s first major warning sign that you are at risk of severe dehydration or heatstroke if you do not cool down and hydrate immediately.

Heat exhaustion occurs due to excessive loss of salt and water from the body, a dangerous form of dehydration, especially for older adults and babies. Symptoms may include weakness, fatigue, heavy sweating, cold, pale, and clammy skin, severe headache, and even fainting.

Heatstroke is the most serious form of heat-related illness. If left untreated, it can be fatal and occurs when the body can no longer regulate its temperature and begins to overheat. Heatstroke requires immediate medical attention.

Some symptoms include a throbbing headache, nausea, confusion, dizziness, hot, red, dry or damp skin, a rapid and strong pulse, fainting, or loss of consciousness. A body temperature of 40 degrees Celsius or higher often accompanies heatstroke.

News Reference

IPCC, April 2020. Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), United Nations body.

Where should we look to uncover the origins of the Solar System? To draw an analogy with archaeology, the "excavations" would undoubtedly have to take place within the asteroid belt, located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

It is there that we find the oldest artifacts of the Solar System: specimens that preserve their primordial chemical composition, as well as invaluable information about the gravitational dynamics that led to the formation of the planets, particularly the rocky ones.

An Ancient Population of Asteroids Trapped Between Mars and Jupiter

The region of space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter is populated by millions of rocky bodies. This area is known as the "Main Asteroid Belt."

Asteroids, rocky bodies whose diameter can reach several dozen kilometers, act as a kind of time capsule. They are fossils that preserve invaluable information about the primordial Solar System.

Although their surfaces, exposed to the effects of the solar wind and radiation, may have undergone chemical transformations, their interiors remain exactly as they were billions of years ago. The analysis of the chemical composition of the material inside an asteroid opens a window into a very distant past.

Hypotheses About the Origin of the Asteroid Belt

Hypotheses about the origin of this belt have evolved over time. Although the intriguing idea initially prevailed that it was made up of fragments of a rocky planet that once orbited between Mars and Jupiter before being pulverized by an impact, the most widely accepted hypothesis today holds that these bodies instead represent a "failed planet."

Rocky planets form through a process called "accretion."

Dust grains present in the protoplanetary disk surrounding the Sun joined together to form larger granules; this process continued, gradually giving rise to rocky bodies of increasing size: the so-called planetesimals.

As these bodies collided, they merged to form even larger rocky masses, eventually reaching enough mass to gravitationally attract other rocks and, ultimately, form a fully developed rocky planet.

However, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, something went wrong, causing this accretion process, which most likely would have led to the formation of a rocky planet, to fail.

Jupiter is believed to be responsible for this failure. With its immense gravitational pull, this giant planet hindered the accretion process. By increasing the kinetic energy of the asteroids, acting as a kind of gravitational slingshot, it encouraged destructive collisions rather than those that would have led to aggregation, thus preventing the formation of rocky bodies of sufficient size.

Various studies and dynamical simulations suggest that, while some of these asteroids formed exactly where we observe them today, others migrated there and became gravitationally trapped from both inner and outer regions of the Solar System. Their origin in such diverse regions of the Solar System explains why they have such varied chemical compositions.

Archaeological Excavations Are Already Underway

Returning to the archaeology analogy: the "excavations" carried out by astronomers have already begun.

The asteroid Bennu, for example, was visited by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which collected material from the asteroid’s surface and brought valuable rock samples back to Earth.

Analyses carried out on Earth revealed the presence of organic compounds and even dust grains older than the Solar System itself: those interstellar dust grains from which the Sun would eventually be born.

Studies of Ceres suggest that, in the past, this dwarf planet may have harbored liquid water and subsurface hydrothermal activity, creating favorable conditions for the development of prebiotic molecules.

The metallic asteroid 16 Psyche will be the next object of study through NASA’s Psyche mission. As a result of an impact, this asteroid has its core exposed, a feature that will make it easier to study its chemical composition and internal structure.

The asteroid belt remains subject to continuous collisions and gravitational effects driven by Jupiter’s influence. Recent studies indicate that the belt is progressively losing mass due to mutual impacts.

On one hand, these impacts pulverize asteroids, dispersing their dust into interplanetary space; on the other, the fragments generated during collisions can be deflected toward the inner Solar System, eventually becoming meteorites or near-Earth asteroids. Understanding this dynamic is also crucial for planetary defense.

The study of the main asteroid belt is also significant for exoplanetary science, as it offers information on how planetary systems around other stars may form.

Leaving behind the negative connotation of being a "failed planet" located between Mars and Jupiter, the asteroid belt acts as an archive capable of revealing a vast amount of information about the history of the Solar System’s formation.

Computers have run on electrons since the 1940s, but AI is pushing that approach towards hard limits – electrons generate heat and waste energy as they move through chips, and the problem gets worse the more data you throw at them.

Light doesn't have those issues because photons are charge-neutral and carry information fast with minimal loss. The trouble is that the same neutrality that makes them efficient means they barely interact with anything, which makes them useless for the switching logic computing depends on.

A group led by Penn physicist Bo Zhen has found a way around that by creating something called an exciton-polariton, a hybrid particle that forms when photons get strongly linked with electrons inside an atomically thin semiconductor.

How the team got light to switch

Zhen's coupling gives light the ability to interact with its environment in a way normal photons can't, making it capable of performing the switching operations computers need.

The energy involved is extremely small. The team demonstrated all-light switching using about 4 quadrillionths of a joule, which is far less than it would take to briefly power a tiny LED.

"Because they are charge-neutral and have zero rest mass, photons can carry information quickly over long distances with minimal loss," said Li He, co-first author of the study published in Physical Review Letters and a former postdoctoral researcher in Zhen's lab.

"But that neutrality means they barely interact with their environment, making them bad at the sort of signal-switching logic that computers depend on."

The exciton-polariton approach gets around that limitation without giving up the speed and efficiency advantages that make light attractive in the first place.

What it could mean for AI hardware in the future

Some experimental photonic AI chips already use light for certain calculations, but whenever they need to do nonlinear operations – the decision-making steps in AI processing – they have to convert light signals back into electronic ones, which slows everything down and burns energy. If exciton-polaritons can handle those steps without converting back to electrons, it would remove one of the biggest bottlenecks in photonic computing.

Scaling the technology up is the biggest challenge here, though. But if it works, it could lead to chips that process visual information directly from cameras without bouncing between light and electricity, cut the energy demands of large AI systems, and potentially even support basic quantum computing functions down the line.

News reference:

Forget electrons, this breakthrough uses light-matter particles to power AI, published by University of Pennsylvania, May 2026.

It is hard not to have come across it at least once: at first, it is recognized by its vibrant yellow flowers that dot meadows, trail edges, and the lawns of urban parks, before transforming into fluffy white spheres that the wind — or our own breath — scatters in a thousand directions.

We are talking about the dandelion, whose scientific name is Taraxacum officinale, a member of the Composite family — now better known as Asteraceae — and one of the most common wild plants found in fields and meadows during the spring and summer months.

Also known as dandelion, its most popular nickname is perhaps Soffione (“blowball”), precisely because of its unique ability to be blown, releasing its tiny seeds into the environment.

The Secret of the Soffione

The dandelion is a resilient plant that grows as both an annual and a perennial, capable of reaching up to 40 centimeters in height, although it usually ranges between 10 and 30 cm. Its flowers are yellow and clustered in solitary flower heads measuring between 15 and 30 millimeters in diameter.

Flowering takes place between March and September. During this phase, the plant may go unnoticed by the untrained eye, since the feature that makes it most fascinating — and gives it the name soffione — appears later.

Indeed, once the flowering period ends, from spring through late summer, the dandelion produces its most famous fruit: a small dark-colored seed equipped with a silky pappus that acts like a miniature parachute.

However, dandelion dispersal does not depend only on the wind. Some populations display an even more extraordinary reproductive mechanism: apomixis. In these lineages, the plant is able to produce seeds without receiving pollen, generating individuals genetically identical to the mother plant. This evolutionary strategy allows the dandelion to survive difficult conditions and establish itself quickly in new environments.

Where Does It Live?

The dandelion is widespread across many parts of the world, found in forests, meadows, and uncultivated land. In Mexico, it is extremely common; it can be found in fields, along roadsides, and in open grasslands, from plains to mountainous elevations. It also grows on the lawns of urban parks and gardens, or in cracks in asphalt and sidewalks, making it a truly ubiquitous wild plant.

A Useful Plant Since Ancient Times

What is surprising about the dandelion is not only its resilience, but also the many uses humans have found for it throughout history. Young leaves collected before the plant flowers are edible and have traditionally been used in salads; they have a slightly bitter flavor, similar to chicory, and are rich in vitamins and minerals.

From a medicinal point of view, the dandelion is known mainly for its diuretic properties, which make it beneficial for kidney and gallbladder health.

It also acts as a digestive tonic and, when applied topically, can help cleanse the skin of impurities and toxins. Last but not least, it is considered one of the most important plant species for bees, thanks to the abundance of nectar and pollen it provides for much of the year.

Fun for Children and Adults Alike

Blowing the seeds of a dandelion is perhaps the most spontaneous and universal gesture spring offers us. Children do it for fun; farmers once did it to make a wish; and deep down, we all do it at least once, giving in to that irresistible impulse to watch those tiny white parachutes dissolve into the air.

From a botanical point of view, we are also taking part in the dispersal of its seeds, which remain viable for more than nine years.

A weather reanalysis is a detailed reconstruction of the past state of the atmosphere, created by combining millions of real observations, from weather stations, satellites, weather balloons and ships, with numerical models.

The result is a coherent and continuous “movie” of how the atmosphere evolved in the past, useful for studying extreme events, climate trends and environmental changes, even in regions or periods with limited direct data.

There are many reanalyses available today; one of them is from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), called ERA5. ERA5 is one of the most widely used reanalyses in climate studies, as it allows countless variables to be analyzed from 1940 onward, with a temporal resolution of 1 hour and a spatial resolution of about 25 km.

A Window Into the Past

Reanalyses allow us to look into the past with incredible precision. With them, it is possible to know the position of tropical cyclones or frontal systems at any given moment, or how intense an atmospheric river was, among other weather phenomena.

It is also possible to know, although with some degree of uncertainty, what the temperature was at a given time and how much precipitation fell on any given day.

But working with reanalysis data is not an easy task. You need to know quite a bit of data science to avoid getting lost in those massive datasets. That means the window into the past has not been open to everyone… until now!

Weather Replay, Copernicus’ ‘DeLorean’

A few weeks ago, the Copernicus Climate Change Service launched a new platform that allows users to travel into the past. Not like Doc Brown’s DeLorean in Back to the Future, but virtually, using ERA5 reanalysis data.

It is an excellent tool for climate analysis and, at the same time, a major democratizer of available information. That is because it allows users to view past events, compare different periods and analyze data easily, without needing to write hundreds of lines of code.

In Weather Replay, it is possible to view common meteorological variables, such as precipitation, temperature or atmospheric pressure, as well as more advanced ones, such as geopotential height.

It is a great educational tool that considerably simplifies answering questions ranging from "what were the extreme events that affected my country during the last major El Niño event like" to "what was the weather like in my city on the day I was born."

News Reference:

Copernicus: Weather Replay: your time machine to revisit past weather.

The Mediterranean isn't the first place you'd think of when wondering where the next tsunami risk could be. But what many people don't know is the basin actually has the second highest number of recorded historical tsunamis after the Pacific.

Along the French Riviera alone there have been around twenty documented incidents since the 16th century, and the waves often topped two metres.

Even more shocking is that UNESCO has said that there is a 100% chance of a tsunami at least one metre high somewhere in the Mediterranean within the next 30 years. The Côte d'Azur sits in one of western Europe's most seismically active zones, which makes it more exposed than most stretches of Mediterranean coast.

Why Nice has started planning evacuations

The real difficulty with tsunamis in the Mediterranean is time. An underwater landslide or earthquake in the Ligurian Sea could put waves on the French Riviera in under ten minutes. Even a more distant quake off the Algerian coast – like the one at Boumerdès in 2003 that dropped sea levels by up to 1.5 metres and wrecked boats in eight Riviera marinas – took only about 75 minutes to arrive.

Nice already knows what a local tsunami looks like. In 1979 part of a port construction site collapsed underwater and set off waves that killed eight people, with damage reported from Antibes to Cannes. It was over in about 30 minutes and nobody got any warning.

France does have a national alert system through the Centre d'alerte aux tsunamis, running since 2012, but it covers distant earthquakes. For anything local where the wave beats the warning, it's not much use. Nice has the added complication of dense waterfront development, year-round tourism, and beaches that hold up to 87,000 people in peak season.

Mapping escape routes before they're needed

Because warning systems can't cover the fastest scenarios, researchers at the University of Montpellier have spent years working on a different approach related to getting people out quickly. They've mapped nearly a hundred refuge sites across the Nice area with walking routes worked out using algorithms that account for slopes, obstacles, crowd density and travel speed.

The first tsunami signposts went up in Nice in February 2026 and there's now an online platform where anyone can look up evacuation zones and routes. The city is also going through UNESCO's Tsunami Ready programme, which certifies places that can anticipate and respond to tsunami risk. Cannes already has the label.

Japan's 2011 tsunami showed that good evacuation planning saved 96% of people along the Tōhoku coast. Researchers involved in the Nice project say that kind of evidence is exactly why preparation matters even when the risk feels distant – because the whole point of a tsunami is that by the time it doesn't feel distant any more, there's almost no time left to react.

News reference:

Tsunami risk in the Mediterranean: why Nice should prepare an evacuation plan, published by The Conversation, May 2026.

Several months before El Niño develops, waves of warmer and higher sea water move eastwards across the Pacific Ocean. Several of these have appeared in satellite data during 2026.

Sea-level data collected by a satellite launched by NASA and its European partners show that a mass of warm water hundreds of kilometres wide has reached the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America. This indicates that the El Niño phenomenon is likely to emerge towards the end of the year. Because water expands as it warms, an increase in the elevation of an area of ocean indicates an increase in ocean temperature.

Detecting signs of the future El Niño in sea-level anomalies

The El Niño phenomenon can bring heavy rainfall to some regions and deficits to others, influencing everyday life and trade around the world.

Launched in 2020 by NASA and led by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the EU’s Copernicus programme, the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite measures and maps water height across the entire ocean every 10 days with an accuracy of fractions of an inch. In the case of El Niño, the satellite tracks what are known as warm Kelvin waves.

These waves typically form after brief periods when winds over the western equatorial Pacific shift from the prevailing easterly winds — which blow from east to west — to westerly winds.

This effect, combined with a general weakening of the easterly winds along the equator, causes waters in the western tropical Pacific to warm and sea level to rise. The resulting wave then propagates eastwards over several weeks, eventually reaching South America and causing coastal waters to warm and rise. El Niño develops when multiple Kelvin waves appear over several months and warm water accumulates off the coasts of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

“Although this year’s event began a little later than the major El Niño events of 2015 and 1997, it is beginning to catch up with them,” said Josh Willis, a sea-level researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich project scientist. “We’ll see how large it becomes.”

Measurements from the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite show that a small Kelvin wave formed around Micronesia in late January and dissipated by mid-February.

A new wave emerged in early March and then moved eastwards. By mid-May, sea levels around Peru were more than 15 centimetres above the long-term average.

“NASA uses sea-level measuring satellites such as Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich to track enormous Kelvin waves as they move across the Pacific, record changes in ocean thermodynamics, improve forecasts of extreme weather events and help communities prepare for potential coastal hazards,” said Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, programme scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Stay tuned, as more ocean stories will continue to unfold.”

Tracking El Niño

Seventeenth-century fishermen coined the name El Niño — in reference to the birth of the Christ Child — because it tended to intensify around Christmas. Warmer waters meant they would catch fewer fish.

The rise in sea-surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific affects atmospheric circulation patterns worldwide by altering the jet stream, which influences the paths of storms. This can bring heavy rain and snowfall to some areas, and unusual heat and drought to others. The scale of these effects depends on the strength of El Niño.

In more moderate events, such as those that began in 2018 and 2023, impacts such as drought and flooding were observed mainly in and around the tropical Pacific. Major El Niño events, such as that of 2015–2016, have a much wider reach, causing droughts in Africa and flooding in California.

The El Niño phenomenon usually reaches its peak between November and January, so it will be several months before its most significant impacts become evident.

“Every El Niño event is different,” said Severine Fournier, a sea-level researcher at JPL and deputy project scientist for Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich. “But they almost always bring a hot year and major changes in rainfall in some parts of the world.”

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is currently the official reference satellite for global sea-level measurements. Launched in 2020, it continues the legacy that began in 1992 with the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite. Since then, a series of successor missions have taken over, with the latest, Sentinel-6B, launched in November 2025, set to replace its predecessor by the end of 2026.

Source: NASA

Plants maintain a complex communication network that is far more sophisticated than previously believed.

The work, published in the Journal of Experimental Botany, identified that this communication occurs through so-called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), chemicals that plants constantly release and that can be detected by nearby specimens.

Until now, most studies had focused on how damaged plants emit alarm signals to warn of herbivorous insect attacks or stressful situations. However, the new research reveals that even completely healthy plants exchange information relevant to their survival and development.

How Plants Interpret Their Competitors

Volatile organic compounds are carbon-based molecules that evaporate easily and disperse into the environment. In addition to fulfilling ecological functions, they are responsible for many of the aromas found in flowers, fruits and leaves, and have applications in industries such as perfumery, cosmetics and food.

“Healthy plants constantly emit their own chemical fingerprint into the air, and neighboring plants use that information to adjust not only their defenses, but also their entire growth strategy,” the scientist said. For researchers, this process works like an ongoing conversation between plants sharing the same space.

Experiments With Different Barley Varieties

To analyze this phenomenon, the team worked with three barley cultivars (Hordeum vulgare) with different growth rates: Fairytale, a slow-growing variety; Luhkas, with intermediate growth; and Salome, characterized by rapid growth.

Under controlled laboratory conditions, the plants were exposed to the chemical emissions of each of these varieties. After 25 days of observation, the scientists evaluated physical changes in leaves, stems and roots, as well as studying changes in gene expression.

The results showed a clear pattern. Plants exposed to signals from fast-growing varieties increased their own development, while those that detected emissions from slow-growing plants reduced their growth rate.

What is striking is that this adjustment was not limited to one specific part of the plant. The effect was observed uniformly throughout its entire structure, indicating an integrated response to the information received from the environment.

Genetic Changes and Survival Strategies

Molecular analysis revealed that the observed changes were directly related to changes in the activity of numerous genes.

When plants perceived the chemical signals from Fairytale, the slow-growing variety, genes associated with stress responses and defense mechanisms against herbivores were activated. At the same time, the activity of genes linked to cellular transport and DNA replication decreased.

In contrast, exposure to compounds emitted by Salome, the fast-growing variety, generated the opposite effect: processes related to growth and development were favored.

Among the most relevant molecules identified by the researchers are benzyl nitrile, linalool and octanal. These compounds are associated with floral and citrus fragrances, as well as certain earthy or metallic aromas that form part of the complex chemistry of plants.

A Phenomenon That Could Be Widespread Throughout the Plant Kingdom

The authors believe that this ability to interpret environmental chemical signals could be much more common than previously thought.

“Plants naturally release mixtures of volatile compounds, and it makes sense that they would have developed the ability to detect these signals after millions of years of coexistence,” Ninkovic said. According to the researcher, this type of interaction is probably widely distributed throughout the plant kingdom, although with different intensities depending on the species.

The discovery opens new lines of research into how plants make decisions, compete for resources and adapt their growth strategies. It could also have future applications in agriculture, allowing crops to be optimized through the management of natural chemical signals that influence plant development.

News Reference

André Åbonde, Merlin Rensing, Jannicke Gallinger, Vasti Thamara Juárez-González, Iris Dahlin, Dimitrije Markovic, German Martinez, Velemir Ninkovic, Volatiles Released by Undamaged Plants Mediate the Adaptive Growth Strategies in Neighbors, Journal of Experimental Botany, 2026;, erag252, https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erag252

The scene seems straight out of a science fiction movie: astronauts living on Mars, growing vegetables in massive pressurized greenhouses while a human colony begins to take root far from Earth. Although such a scenario is still decades away, science is already tackling one of the greatest challenges of any extraterrestrial settlement: how to produce food on a planet where fertile soil does not exist.

An international team of researchers from the United States and Brazil has now presented a proposal that could bring that goal closer. According to a study published in the journal Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, certain types of “beneficial” fungi could transform lunar and Martian regolith—the dust and rocks that cover the surfaces of both worlds—into a substrate suitable for growing plants.

The Problem With Martian “Soil”

Unlike Earth, Mars and the Moon do not have nutrient-rich soil or microorganisms capable of supporting plant life. The regolith found in both environments is extremely poor in essential elements for crop growth, particularly nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

Faced with these challenges, scientists believe that certain fungi could become essential allies.

The Fungi That Could Help Feed Astronauts

The research focuses on a category known as “beneficial fungi,” organisms capable of improving nutrient absorption and promoting plant growth even in extreme environments.

Among them are arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), which have been used in botany since the 19th century. These organisms function as a microscopic extension of plant root systems, helping them absorb water and nutrients much more efficiently.

The researchers explain that, in practice, these fungi could partially transform Martian and lunar regolith into a more biologically friendly environment. They also mention species from the Trichoderma genus, known for their ability to reduce environmental stress and improve the physical properties of soil.

“The use of plant growth-promoting fungi in agricultural systems based on lunar or Martian regolith would represent a strategic improvement for food production in space and for establishing human settlements beyond Earth,” the study states.

Living “Off the Land” Beyond Earth

The idea is part of a concept known as ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization), a strategy aimed at using resources available on other worlds instead of transporting everything from Earth.

The logic is compelling: sending tons of fertile soil, fertilizers, and food from Earth would be extraordinarily expensive and complex. If future astronauts could grow their own crops using materials available on Mars or the Moon, space missions would become far more viable from both an economic and logistical perspective.

NASA already considers this approach as part of its Moon to Mars Architecture program, which is focused on future long-duration crewed missions.

A Journey Just Beginning

The researchers themselves acknowledge that significant knowledge gaps remain. Most of the experiments were conducted using regolith simulants rather than actual material from Mars or the Moon.

Even so, recent advances are fueling optimism. In another recent experiment, scientists managed to produce 27 grams of duckweed using just one gram of cyanobacteria combined with a Martian soil simulant.

It may seem like a modest result, but in the context of space exploration, it represents a promising sign: the possibility of creating self-sustaining agricultural ecosystems beyond Earth no longer belongs solely to the realm of science fiction.

As space agencies prepare for humanity’s return to the Moon and dream of establishing the first bases on Mars, tiny organisms invisible to the naked eye could become key to the survival of future generations of astronauts.

News Reference

Selection of beneficial fungi for plants with the potential to metabolize lunar and Martian regolith. 17 April 2026. Jéssica Carneiro Oliveira et al.

Rose blooms may be the stars of the garden, but much of the real work happens behind the scenes. What often goes unnoticed is the care that supports healthy growth season after season.

Thanks to this protective layer, soil tends to stay in better condition for longer, particularly during hot weather. Although it often goes unnoticed, mulch plays an important role in the growth and long-term health of rose bushes.

How to Apply Mulch to Roses Correctly

Choosing the right material is only part of the process; how it is distributed around the plant also matters. Weeds, fallen leaves, and other debris that accumulate around the base of the plant are typically removed before a fresh layer of mulch is applied.

Neither a layer that is too thin nor one that is excessively thick tends to produce the best results. For this reason, mulch is generally maintained at a depth of 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters).

The mulch layer should not extend all the way to the stem, but instead leave a small open space around it. When the stem remains free of mulch, moisture is less likely to accumulate in that area.

As the season progresses, mulch may become thinner in some areas or shift in others. Like other natural materials, it gradually changes in appearance and volume over time.

When Is the Best Time to Apply Mulch to Roses?

The effectiveness of mulch can vary depending on the time of year it is added to the garden. As temperatures rise and days grow longer, rose bushes begin to wake up and produce new growth. The first buds and blooms mark one of the most active stages in a rose's development.

As the season continues, mulch naturally loses some of its volume. This wear becomes more noticeable during the hottest months, when some of the material breaks down or shifts. During periods of intense heat, mulch helps create a more stable environment around the roots.

Benefits of Mulch for Roses

The benefits of mulch go far beyond improving the appearance of the garden. One of the most important is moisture retention, as it reduces evaporation and allows the soil to stay moist for longer periods.

The difference can also be seen at ground level, where weeds tend to appear less frequently. Areas covered with mulch generally experience fewer competing weeds throughout the growing season.

In addition, this protective layer helps maintain a more stable temperature around the roots. During summer it limits excessive soil heating, while in winter it offers some protection from the cold. Unlike other types of ground cover, organic mulches gradually break down and eventually become part of the soil itself.

News Reference:

When and How to Mulch Roses for More Blooms and Fewer Weeds. May 24, 2026. Samantha Johnson.

Feeling the summer heat? Was winter too cold and too wet? The impact of human-induced climate change is being felt right in our homes now. It's no longer just an extreme weather event, but extreme weather that keeps returning more regularly than ever before. But it is not just the UK facing this; even the greenest parts of the planet, the Amazon, are seeing the impact of climate change.

Scientists at the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA) in Brazil, along with those from universities in the UK, sought to understand this impact by examining growth rings in forest trees.

Busting the myth first

You might remember reading in your school textbooks that growth rings are seen in trees in temperature zones, where trees stop growing in the winter and seasonal temperatures are highly predictable. By this logic, dendrochronology - studying trees using growth rings should not work in the tropics.

However, research has now shown that tropical trees too face seasonal challenges such as water shortage or extreme flooding, which stops their growth, making growth rings a valuable tool to study trees in the tropics too.

Bruno CIntra, a biologist at the University of Birmingham, along with Jochen Schöngart, a researcher at INPA, used dendrochronology to study trees in the Amazonian rainforest and found that the story is similar to that of the UK.

Is the Amazon basin drying up?

The recent droughts in the successive years of 2023 and 2024, when water levels dropped to their lowest in a century, and temperatures spiked, killing river dolphins, left scientists wondering whether the Amazon was indeed drying up.

Using tree-ring samples from different trees, the researchers found that rainfall seasonality has undergone extreme variations over the past four decades. The hydrological cycle in the region has been significantly disrupted, with rainy seasons becoming wetter and dry seasons more severe.

The researchers found that Amazon is not drying up overall. On the contrary, rainfall in wet seasons has increased by 15-22 percent since the 1980s. However, it has decreased by up to 13.5 percent in the dry season.

Although the Amazon region experienced droughts in 2024, 2023, and 2010, it was also hit by four intense floods in 2022, 2021, 2012, and 2009. While the northern Amazon has seen a wetter rainy season, the southern Amazon has seen a longer drier season, while the central Amazon faces the extremes of both simultaneously.

When researchers studied samples from 256 years ago, they found an 18-year period during which the northeast Amazonian basin experienced extreme droughts. Today, this region shows increased rainfall. So, the extremes of drought and floods observed in recent decades are unprecedented.

For scientists, it is difficult to pinpoint which of these is seasonal variability and which is human-induced climate change. Extreme temperatures in the southern Amazon are linked to higher ocean surface temperatures, mainly in the northern tropical Atlantic, which has experienced large-scale deforestation, forest degradation, fragmentation, and even forest fires. But these systems are complex mechanisms, and no single cause can be singled out.

Nevertheless, the proof that we are seeing extreme weather is out there to see and is being recorded in our trees every year. Will future generations look back at this and wonder why we did not make any effort to rein in climate change?

Back in 2019, the WHO confirmed in a report the positive effects of art on mental and physical health. While several studies have since supported that report, a new British study published in the journal Innovation in Aging suggests that weekly artistic or cultural activity could slow the pace of aging, with the same effectiveness as weekly physical activity.

A Study Conducted With More Than 3,500 People

To reach their conclusions, researchers analyzed health data from more than 3,500 adults in the United Kingdom, while also measuring how often they participated in artistic or cultural activities, such as visiting a museum, an art exhibition or a library, or attending a workshop focused on crafts, singing or painting.

They then used “epigenetic clocks,” biochemical tests that measure the accumulation of methyl groups in DNA, to determine the biological age of these individuals. Overall, study participants who took part in one of the aforementioned activities at least once a week showed less pronounced signs of aging than those with a less diverse cultural life.

An Average Slowdown of One Biological Year

According to the PhenoAge clock, their biological ages were, on average, one year lower than those of people who did not participate in artistic activities. The DunedinPACE clock, which measures the pace of aging, indicated a 4% slowdown associated with weekly participation.

The report notes that artistic activities reduce stress and inflammation, and lower the risk of cardiovascular disease; benefits similar to those derived from physical exercise.

"These results show that artistic and cultural engagement should be recognized as a health-promoting behavior, on par with physical exercise," emphasizes Daisy Fancourt, an epidemiologist and lead author of the study, who has spent nearly a decade researching the health benefits of the arts at UCL. Hence the need to integrate these activities into public health policies.

The “Museum on Prescription”

Over the past year, the department of Yvelines has been testing the “Museum on Prescription” initiative, a program that allows health professionals to offer their patients a free museum visit. “Museum prescriptions sit at the intersection of medical care and social support,” says the Yvelines department website.

"While it is not a curative tool, the initiative is part of a holistic approach to a person’s overall well-being." Originally developed in Quebec in 2018 by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, this concept is now expanding rapidly, especially in Belgium, Switzerland and France.

News Reference

Going to the Museum Every Week Could Slow Human Aging, According to Science, Jeanne Martin, May 18, 2026

The Milky Way has a complex structure composed of different components. Its galactic disc contains much of the young stars, gas and star-forming regions organised into spiral arms. At the centre of the galaxy lies a stellar bulge surrounding the supermassive black hole Sgr A*. Around the disc and the bulge is the galactic halo, made up of ancient stars, globular clusters and dark matter. The Solar System is located within the disc, orbiting the galactic centre at a distance of approximately 27,000 light-years.

To understand how the Milky Way acquired its current structure, it is necessary to reconstruct its evolutionary history and past gravitational interactions. During galactic formation, collisions and mergers with smaller galaxies played a role in redistributing stars, gas and angular momentum. These interactions can heat the stellar disc, alter its rotation and even destroy structures. One of the main goals of galactic models is to understand how the Milky Way’s thin disc managed to acquire the flattened shape and rotation observed today.

Recently, astronomers carried out numerical simulations and compared them with observational data to investigate how the structure of the Milky Way was shaped over time. The models analysed the impact of ancient galactic collisions on stellar discs similar to that of our galaxy. The results show that the Milky Way may have undergone a significant collision around 11 billion years ago. According to the study, this event could have destroyed a previous galactic disc, leading later to the formation of the current disc.

Structure of the Milky Way

The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy composed of different stellar and gravitational structures organised across multiple scales. In its central region lies the galactic bulge, which has a high concentration of older stars surrounding the supermassive black hole Sgr A*. Around this structure is the galactic disc, where spiral arms rich in interstellar gas, dust and active star-forming regions are located.

All of this structure is immersed in a halo gravitationally dominated by dark matter. The galactic halo of the Milky Way is an approximately spherical region surrounding the entire galaxy and containing ancient stars and globular clusters. Unlike the disc, the stars in the halo have inclined orbits and are distributed in a less organised way. The Milky Way is also surrounded by a much larger halo of dark matter, responsible for much of its gravitational mass.

Galactic disc

However, the best-known and most remembered structure is the Milky Way’s disc, which is a flattened structure made up of stars, gas and dust. It formed from the gravitational collapse of primordial gas at the beginning of the Galaxy’s evolution, preserving part of the angular momentum of the original system. Within the disc, spiral arms emerged, along with regions of intense star formation and dynamic structures associated with the Galaxy’s gravitational evolution.

One of the biggest questions involving the galactic disc is explaining the observed velocities of stars. According to visible matter alone, more distant stars should orbit more slowly, but observations show much higher velocities than expected. This behaviour is one of the main pieces of evidence for the presence of dark matter surrounding the galaxy in an invisible gravitational halo. In addition, there are still questions about how the disc managed to maintain its relatively stable structure.

Collision in the past

The Milky Way probably did not evolve in isolation, but underwent gravitational interactions throughout its lifetime. For decades, astronomers have suspected that collisions with smaller galaxies shaped the structure observed today. This hypothesis gained strength in 2018 with data from the Gaia mission, which found stars with unusual movements in the galactic halo. The orbits of these stars indicate that they originated in a smaller galaxy absorbed by the Milky Way around 10 billion years ago.

This event became known as the Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus merger. The collision probably redistributed stars, gas and angular momentum across much of the galaxy. New studies using simulations investigated how galactic discs form and evolve after collisions of this type. The results show that the disc observed today may have formed after the galaxy dynamically recovered from a collision that occurred around 11 billion years ago.

Starburst

The simulations also indicate that this collision coincided with a sudden increase in the formation of stellar clusters and new stars within the galaxy. During galactic collisions, large quantities of interstellar gas undergo gravitational compression and increase the density of gas in certain regions, favouring the collapse of molecular clouds. As a consequence, the rate of star formation rises rapidly over a relatively short period of time.

The models of the Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus event suggest that the collision produced a burst of star formation in the primitive Milky Way. The temporal coincidence between the galactic merger and the increase in clusters provides new evidence of the influence of these collisions on the galaxy’s evolution. According to the researchers, this is the first time that this connection between the Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus event and the burst of star formation has been established.

Reference

Orkney and Laporte 2026 Build-up and survival of the disc: from numerical models of galaxy formation to the Milky Way Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Watching your own seeds grow provides, among other things, a wonderful sense of satisfaction. To ensure the perfect start to vegetable growing and gardening, there are a few things worth keeping in mind.

The Right Location Is Invaluable

Vegetables thrive in a sunny spot that also offers some protection from the elements. In some cases, growing can be just as successful if raised beds are placed in partial shade, receiving direct sunlight for only about 5 or 6 hours a day.

Another essential requirement is good soil. Experts recommend moist, nutrient-rich loamy soil that is loose and crumbly. Compost or humus also provides an excellent foundation. The substrate used for raised beds should be peat-free and, ideally, organic quality.

Organic-Quality Soil Makes the Difference

For those vegetable varieties with high water requirements, it is advisable to add material to the substrate that helps retain more moisture; this ensures the plants stay hydrated for longer, even in the middle of summer.

Some vegetables are simply easy to grow. With minimal effort, for example, lettuce and spinach can be sown quickly and harvested repeatedly. A perennial favorite during spring and summer is so-called “cut-and-come-again” lettuce; this variety often allows for continuous harvesting. However, the situation is different with head lettuce.

Lettuce and Spinach Almost Always Thrive

Heads develop to full size in approximately 5 to 6 weeks, at which point they are ready to harvest.

Spinach behaves in a similar way; after a growth phase of 6 to 8 weeks, it usually needs to be sown again. Small, tender spinach leaves can be prepared and used in exactly the same way as lettuce.

Classics Like Zucchini and Radishes Need Good Soil

Other classic options, particularly suitable for raised beds, include radishes, chard, kohlrabi, beets and zucchini. When growing these vegetables, it is important to make sure each seed or individual plant has enough space. In some cases, it is advisable to keep plants approximately 15 to 20 centimeters apart.

Likewise, for those with more space in a home garden or on a rooftop terrace, growing potatoes, peas and beans is extremely simple.

Potatoes Are Very Hardy and Easy to Maintain

In general, potatoes are a crop that requires very little maintenance and grows without problems. However, it is crucial that seed potatoes have been pre-sprouted before planting.

Peas and beans, for their part, can be successfully transplanted as young seedlings even as late as May. Both varieties tend to grow vertically, so they should be guided using trellises or climbing supports.

News Reference:

Mein schöner Garten.de (2026). New to the Vegetable Bed? These 11 Vegetable Varieties Always Grow. Vegetable Garden. Topics.