Only nine such butterflies were found in US in 2022; 3 years later, over 1,300 were released

Researchers in Michigan have helped bring the Poweshiek skipperling butterfly back from the brink of extinction after its US wild population fell to just nine in 2022. Through captive breeding, habitat restoration and carefully planned releases, more than 1,300 butterflies were released in 2025. The recovery effort has now expanded to other endangered butterflies, while…

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San Diego’s Leanne Fan, 18, built a device to simulate microgravity and tested red light on injured flatworms; tissue regeneration sped up by 95.2%, helping her win $80,000

Fan built her own $200 device instead of using NASA’s $50,000 clinostat. (Society for science photo) Leanne Fan, an 18-year-old student from San Diego, has been named a finalist in the 2026 Regeneron Science Talent Search for her research into wound healing in space. Her project looks at whether red light therapy can help wounds…

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A rare Australian plant last recorded in 1967 has been found alive in remote Queensland after nearly six decades

A rare Australian plant last recorded in 1967 has been found alive in remote Queensland after nearly six decades (Image: AI Generated) A small Australian shrub that had effectively disappeared from the scientific record for nearly six decades has been found alive in a remote part of northern Queensland. Ptilotus senarius, a species known from…

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University of Texas researchers turn everyday biomass into a machine that makes water from air

What if food scraps, discarded branches and seashells could help produce drinking water from the air? Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a new class of biomass-based hydrogels that can capture atmospheric moisture and release it as clean water using relatively mild heat. The approach, described in the peer-reviewed journal Advanced…

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In 1948, scientists left a giant fossil on an Arctic island because they could not carry it; 78 years later it became a record-size new predator

The fossil of Arctobatrachus urdensis as documented in 1948 (A–C), its skull as it appears today (D), and a reconstructed illustration (E). Scale bar: 10 cm. Credit: Schoch et al., 2026. Nearly 80 years ago, a British expedition discovered the battered remains of a giant fossil on the peak of an Arctic island. Unable to…

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A skeleton found beneath Scotland’s Stirling Castle had more than 160 fractures; researchers say it is the first confirmed death from a trebuchet

The 14th century warrior’s skull was broken in 61 places. (University of Bradford photo) A skeleton uncovered beneath Scotland’s Stirling Castle may be the first confirmed archaeological evidence of a person killed by a trebuchet. Known to archaeologists as Skeleton 150, the remains belong to a defender who appears to have been killed during a…

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In 1987, a British naturalist became the first professional warden of a remote Seychelles island; a year later 29 endangered warblers were moved there and established a new population

In 1987, a British naturalist became the first professional warden of a remote Seychelles island In 1987, British naturalist Ian Bullock arrived on remote Aride Island in the Seychelles to become its first professional warden. Just one year later, the groundwork he established helped make possible an important conservation project: 29 endangered Seychelles warblers were…

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World’s first seaweed harvest between 139 offshore wind turbines in the Netherlands can serve two purposes at once

Representative Image of floating seaweed farms operating alongside offshore wind turbines in the North Sea (AI-generated image) A vessel recently sailed through the Hollandse Kust Zuid wind farm off the Dutch coast to collect the first-ever harvest of seaweed grown between operating turbines, marking a milestone for a project testing whether offshore wind farms can…

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Commercial whaling killed 350,000 blue whales and 725,000 fin whales; more than 40 years later, the giants are slowly returning to the southeast Atlantic

After commercial whaling nearly erased them, blue and fin whales are slowly reclaiming the southeast Atlantic Commercial whaling killed an estimated 350,000 blue whales and 725,000 fin whales during the 20th century. More than 40 years after commercial whaling ended, however, the two largest whale species are slowly returning to parts of their former range…

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