Britain is one heatwave away from towns at risk of running out of tap water

The ocean waters around the Galápagos Islands are hot. Very hot. Observed for centuries in the Pacific by fishers, the El Niño weather phenomenon begins when the prevailing trade winds slow, allowing warm water to spread east along the coast of South America. Right now, the pattern is in full flow and will build from…

Most snake fossils are two-dimensional. Sandwiched within rocks, the pressure of millions of years flattens them like a pancake. But in 2020, scientists uncovered a uniquely well-preserved snake fossil in southeastern Brazil. The snake’s tiny skull — only 20 millimeters in length — was 3-D, with its braincase still intact.   The fossil’s well-preserved skull has…

Every so often, a piece of space news comes along that makes you raise an eyebrow and this is one of those moments. A team of astronomers have, for the first time, confirmed an atmosphere around a rocky planet sitting in another star’s habitable zone, the region where conditions might just be right for liquid…

When Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) fashioned a small army of dragonriders out of Targaryen bastards in House of the Dragon Season 2, one particular “Dragonseed” was missing in action. Some fans took umbrage with the absence of Nettles, a favorite from George R. R. Martin’s original book, Fire & Blood, and a crucial cog in…

Back to Pic of the Day List Gianni Tumino, taken from Aci Trezza, Sicily, Italy Since antiquity, the land of the Cyclops in Homer’s Odyssey has been linked to the real-world location of Sicily, near Mount Etna. Local legend has it that the small Cyclopean Isles, located just offshore, are the stones thrown by the…

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT 24 July 2026 Switching off one copy of a gene also enabled one of the children to walk independently for the first time.