Science & Earth

Amanda Burrows is proposing a retrofit program to install electric heat pumps in low-rise apartments, co-ops and non-market housing to keep indoor temperatures below 26°C. She said she would work with BC Hydro and provincial and federal governments to coordinate rebates, capital funding and grid planning.

A new paper reports that parts of Jezero crater's Margin Unit include a beach-like Eastern Margin Unit with cross-stratified, rounded grains consistent with wave action, while the Western Margin Unit shows igneous alteration; samples mentioned in the study remain on Mars after the Mars Sample Return program was cancelled.

Researchers report that organisms from permafrost, deserts and hibernating mammals can enter reversible dormant states and later revive, and some studies find learned behaviours and biological information persist through long dormancy.

Rocket Lab launched a Korean earth‑imaging satellite, marking its second Electron launch in eight days. The company provides launch services, spacecraft and satellite components for commercial and government customers.

Dzawada'enuxw First Nation filed a B.C. Supreme Court suit on Jan. 26 seeking a declaration that roughly five square kilometres at the head of Kingcome Inlet were 'Indian Settlement Lands', naming Interfor, the Nature Trust of B.C., the province and Canada.

A UBC Okanagan-led team used the DRAO 15‑metre telescope to produce DRAGONS, the first broadband Faraday rotation map of the northern sky, and found that more than half the sky shows complex magnetic structures.

Environment and Climate Change Canada is funding an Indigenous-led program at the Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre to continue monitoring western rattlesnakes and study the effects of wildfire, climate change and habitat loss; the funding supports work through spring 2028.

Brampton has opened registration for the 2026 Backyard Garden Program, which provides free soil and sampler seed packs and requires attendance at one workshop. The program aims to help residents grow fruits and vegetables and has donated more than 20,000 pounds of produce to local food banks since its launch.

A young harbour seal named Annette was rescued in West Vancouver after a gillnet became embedded around her neck; she is receiving veterinary treatment and is showing improvement.

Researchers report that a Barents Sea polar bear subpopulation maintained or regained body condition over 1995–2019 despite longer ice-free periods; scientists caution this local resilience may not hold as sea ice continues to decline.

A third archaeological field school is planned this spring and summer at the Tse'k'wa National Historic Site near Fort St. John, B.C.; the cave records about 12,500 years of human settlement and is sacred to Doig River, Prophet River and West Moberly First Nations.

Gillian Deacon describes learning mah-jong at a community centre as an example of how seeking unfamiliar experiences can increase neural plasticity and produce dopamine-linked surprise, helping to build tolerance for uncertainty.

The Dark Energy Survey released results from its six-year sky survey that combine four measurement methods and deliver constraints on cosmological parameters more than twice as precise as earlier DES analyses.

Starting next week, residents in Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon can place unlimited household trash at the curb for collection on their scheduled garbage day; some items such as electronics are excluded and Peel Region’s waste sorter and online collection calendar provide details.

NordSpace, founded by PhD candidate Rahul Goel, is preparing the Taiga suborbital flight that would be the first Canadian commercial rocket launched from a Canadian commercial spaceport; an earlier attempt was postponed in September over a cryogenic propellant technical issue.

On Jan. 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded during launch and President Ronald Reagan delivered a national address that evening, pausing the State of the Union and honoring the seven crew members, including teacher Christa McAuliffe.

A total lunar eclipse will occur early on March 3, 2026, turning the full Moon a dusky red for up to an hour; visibility and exact clock times will vary across Canada, and Atlantic regions may only see early phases before the Moon sets.

NASA’s 98-metre Space Launch System was moved into position at Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 17 as technicians prepare tests ahead of a possible Feb. 6 Artemis II launch; the mission will carry four astronauts on a roughly 10-day trip around the moon.

Canopy Venao, led by Caroline Howell with Momentis Family Office, uses sensor-informed siting and ecological restoration at Playa Venao, including more than 40,000 native trees planted and year-long environmental monitoring to guide design.

A University of Toronto team used fractal-patterned surfaces to encourage podocytes to develop more branched, mature features; the study was published in Nature Communications.

Researchers report a quasar, ID830 at z = 3.4351, accreting around 15 times the Eddington limit while showing unusually strong X-ray and radio emission; this combination is unexpected under standard super-Eddington scenarios.

A new pre-print from the HWO Technology Maturation Project Office says the Habitable Worlds Observatory has advanced from Concept Maturity Level 2 to 3 and highlights that components will need stability at the picometer scale—about 1,000 times better than James Webb—to directly image Earth-like planets.

Parks Canada incident commander Dean MacDonald led the response to the Jasper Wildfire Complex in 2024, a lightning-started series of fires that burned more than 33,500 hectares and was brought under control after 47 days.

CHORD is installing hundreds of six‑metre radio dishes near Penticton, B.C.; 37 are in place and the project aims for 512 by next year.

JWST observations of the periodically bursting protostar EC 53 detected crystalline silicates (forsterite and enstatite) appearing during accretion outbursts. The team reports that thermal annealing in the hot inner disk and layered magnetohydrodynamic winds could carry those crystals outward toward comet-forming zones.

Pope Leo XIV met senior mining and energy executives at the Vatican to press for more ethical approaches to resource extraction, and the meeting was part of the Vatican's Building Bridges Initiative focusing on social and environmental justice.

Researchers used networks of seismometers to record sonic shock waves from the Shenzhou-15 orbital module's 2024 reentry and reconstructed its path, finding the seismic trajectory about 40 kilometres north of the official prediction.

A University of Strathclyde study led by Dr Vassilis Inglezakis compares technologies for recovering Martian water and reports subsurface ice as the most promising long-term source, while soil heating and atmospheric harvesting have higher energy or time costs.

A St. Stephen resident says rising electricity bills have doubled his home costs and put his reptiles' heat-dependent habitats at risk; N.B. Power has asked regulators for a 4.75% rate increase and says colder weather raises customer bills.

A January 2026 white paper proposes a new integrated water regulator, preventative regulation and other changes to oversight; environmental groups, industry and scientific bodies have offered differing responses.