In remote Australia, First Nations communities battle extreme heat each summer. In January 2026 alone, the town of Alice Springs (Mparntwe) endured 20 days of temperatures above 40°C (104°F). This prolonged heat wave—defined as a period of unusually hot weather—can have long-lasting effects on human health, infrastructure and the environment.
Regenerative agriculture can deliver both economic and environmental benefits for European farmers, Wageningen University & Research (WUR) concludes in the research project Regenomics. Whether these benefits are actually present depends strongly on regional conditions, such as the availability of water and livestock manure. As a result, the transition to regenerative agriculture requires tailored, farm-specific approaches.
The two powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela's northern coast, killing more than 180 people, were an event known as a "doublet."
A research team has developed a new strategy to simultaneously control the electronic and magnetic properties of oxide thin films through a process known as exsolution. The team was led by Professor Hyeon Han and Professor Donghwa Lee from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), together with Professor Sang Ho Oh's group at Korea Institute of Energy Technology (KENTECH). The findings are published in the journal Advanced Materials.
Public debt is higher today and growing at a faster rate than before the pandemic in 80% of the world's economies. According to the latest fiscal report from the International Monetary Fund, global public debt could rise to 100% of GDP by the end of this decade if it continues to increase at the current rate. The increase in public debt also comes against a backdrop of great geopolitical and economic uncertainty, which could seriously jeopardize global financial resilience.
A research team led by Prof. Zhang Jinglei from Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, found that the trilayer nickelate La4Ni3O10-δ exhibits a nearly isotropic upper critical field under high pressure. This finding provides important experimental insight into the superconducting mechanism of nickel-based materials.
Training in computational thinking can improve a student's ability to tackle complex problems, according to research in the International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, which examined both students' perceptions of their own skills and their demonstrated performance. The findings come at a time when higher education faces increased pressure to equip students with transferable skills for a changing workplace.
The Gaia mission has allowed researchers to understand the motions of stars like never before, even revealing possible interactions between our solar system and nearby stars. Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Nathan Kaib and collaborator Sean Raymond (Universite de Bordeaux) have found that a recent stellar passage likely triggered a huge increase in comet formation as the star's gravity altered Oort cloud objects' orbits, sending them cascading into the inner solar system. We may even still be feeling the effects of this passage today. This work is being presented at the American Astronomical Society Division on Dynamical Astronomy.
It's no secret that U.S. housing has gotten less affordable. From 2019 to 2025, average home prices rose 60%, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Researchers have developed light-transmitting hydrogel fibers that are just hundreds of micrometers in diameter. With further development, these soft fibers could one day make it possible to use imaging techniques to detect early breast cancer hidden inside very small breast ducts.
