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Eunice Newton Foote: The woman who discovered the greenhouse effect

17 July 2023

In research presented in 1856, Eunice Newton Foote described how tubes of gas heated when exposed to sunlight, but the significance of her work was not appreciated

Microplastics found in the soil on farms used to grow crops

12 July 2023

Plastic is commonly used on farms in irrigation pipes or sheets to cover crops, but can reduce soil quality

The future of food: How to farm insects for a growing population

13 January 2023

Will we be eating insects in the future? New Scientist's Alex Wilkins recently took a look inside a huge vertical insect farm in France to see what the future of food might look like and taste like.

Alex Wilkins inside Ynsect's research and development lab in Evry, Paris, France

Inside an insect farm: Are mealworms a sustainable meat alternative?

11 January 2023

The French biotech company Ÿnsect plans to open 15 mealworm factories by 2030. We looked inside their pilot plant to see what the future of food might look like

Feeding cows hemp makes them ‘high’ and their milk could be unsafe

14 November 2022

Cows fed waste hemp from the cannabis industry produce the psychoactive compound THC in their milk and have altered breathing and heart rate and stand still for ages yawning

Ships release invisible contrails that slightly cool the climate

5 October 2022

The effect of aerosol pollution from shipping and other sources on clouds has been underestimated and may need to be factored into future climate models

NEAR ALTAMIRA, BRAZIL - JUNE 15: Construction continues at the Belo Monte dam complex in the Amazon basin on June 15, 2012 near Altamira, Brazil. Belo Monte will be the world???s third-largest hydroelectric project and will displace up to 20,000 people while diverting the Xingu River and flooding as much as 230 square miles of rainforest. The controversial project is one of around 60 hydroelectric projects Brazil has planned in the Amazon to generate electricity for its rapidly expanding economy. While environmentalists and indigenous groups oppose the dam, many Brazilians support the project. The Brazilian Amazon, home to 60 percent of the world???s largest forest and 20 percent of the Earth???s oxygen, remains threatened by the rapid development of the country. The area is currently populated by over 20 million people and is challenged by deforestation, agriculture, mining, a governmental dam building spree, illegal land speculation including the occupation of forest reserves and indigenous land and other issues. Over 100 heads of state and tens of thousands of participants and protesters will descend on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, later this month for the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development or ???Earth Summit???. Host Brazil is caught up in its own dilemma between accelerated growth and environmental preservation. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Early warning system for Amazon forest losses seen in climate models

12 April 2022

As plants in the Amazon rainforest die off, huge amounts of carbon are released – a key signal that these losses may happen is temperature swings between seasons