Topic description and stories

How a drought led to the rise of skateboarding in 1970s California

12 Dec 2023

Why did professional skateboarding arise in southern California in the 1970s? Was it a coincidence, or was it a perfect storm of multiple factors?

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Pile of yew trunks at the edge of an agricultural field

̽»¨Ö±²¥Fens of eastern England once held vast woodlands

24 Nov 2023

̽»¨Ö±²¥Fens of eastern England, a low-lying, extremely flat landscape dominated by agricultural fields, was once a vast woodland filled with huge yew...

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Device for making solar fuels on the River Cam near the Bridge of Sighs

Solar-powered device produces clean water and clean fuel at the same time

13 Nov 2023

A floating, solar-powered device that can turn contaminated water or seawater into clean hydrogen fuel and purified water, anywhere in the world, has...

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Polar Stratospheric Clouds, also called mother of pearl clouds

Why do climate models underestimate polar warming? ‘Invisible clouds’ could be the answer

08 Nov 2023

Stratospheric clouds over the Arctic may explain the differences seen between the polar warming calculated by climate models and actual recordings...

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Digital generated image of multi coloured glowing data over landscape.

Machine learning models can produce reliable results even with limited training data

19 Sep 2023

Researchers have determined how to build reliable machine learning models that can understand complex equations in real-world situations while using...

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glacier cave on Svalbard

Shrinking Arctic glaciers are unearthing a new source of methane

06 Jul 2023

As the Arctic warms, shrinking glaciers are exposing bubbling groundwater springs which could provide an underestimated source of the potent...

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Volcano erupting near El Paso, La Palma, Spain

Effect of volcanic eruptions significantly underestimated in climate projections

23 Jun 2023

Researchers have found that the cooling effect that volcanic eruptions have on Earth's surface temperature is likely underestimated by a factor of...

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Killer heatwaves endanger India's development

19 Apr 2023

Heatwaves could slow or reverse India’s progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) without heat impact assessments.

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Sentinel-1 image composite depicting the highly fractured and fast-flowing frontal margin of the Thwaites and Crosson ice shelves

Ice sheets can collapse faster than previously thought possible

05 Apr 2023

Ice sheets can retreat up to 600 metres a day during periods of climate warming, 20 times faster than the highest rate of retreat previously measured...

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An illuminated manuscript from the late 14th to the early 15th century, depicting two individuals observing a lunar eclipse

Medieval monks accidentally recorded some of history’s biggest volcanic eruptions

05 Apr 2023

By observing the night sky, medieval monks unwittingly recorded some of history’s largest volcanic eruptions, according to a new analysis of 12th and...

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Seeking climate justice at the 'world court'

29 Mar 2023

How a Cambridge professor helped the climate-embattled nation of Vanuatu put the question of global warming to the International Court of Justice for...

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Maureen and her repaired toaster

Let's get fixable: why we need the right to repair

14 Mar 2023

From toasters that won’t pop to farmers hacking their own tractors, we ask why the right to repair is important for people and for the planet – and...

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