Science & Earth

The Colorado River sharing agreement expires Oct. 1, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will set a new policy after states and Mexico did not reach a replacement deal.

A Nature NPJ Climate Action paper from Georgia Tech and Yale researchers says carbon removal can help reduce greenhouse gases but the industry is largely unregulated and needs greater transparency and oversight.

The FDA released draft guidance encouraging New Approach Methodologies and the NIH announced $150 million to develop animal-testing alternatives; experts say current technologies cannot yet answer all research questions.

Masaya, a 15-year-old roloway at Chester Zoo, gave birth to a baby named Lagertha less than a year after surgery in 2025 removed a large mass and preserved most of her foot; the zoo says Masaya is active and using the limb well. According to the IUCN, fewer than 2,000 roloway monkeys remain in the wild.

The Sunday Times Best Places To Live 2026 guide names Norwich the national winner, praising its mix of historic character, cultural amenities and nearby green spaces.

Two white rhinos bred at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary were reintroduced to Kidepo Valley National Park on March 17 as part of a plan to eventually release eight animals; the species had been absent from the park since the last white rhino was killed by poachers in 1983.

Harvard researchers added nitrogen-vacancy quantum sensors to diamond anvil cells to map micron-scale superconducting regions in nickelate samples under high pressure, and they report that superconductivity can appear in localized pockets and be suppressed by shear stress.

Researchers tested 110 pairs of mate-attraction sounds from 16 species with over 4,000 human listeners and found people tended to prefer the same versions animals did; agreement was stronger when animals showed clearer preferences and often favored added flourishes or 'adornments'.

A Science Advances study estimates more than 155,000 additional out-of-hospital COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. from March 2020 to December 2021, raising the likely total to over 995,000.

Crude prices have climbed above $100 a barrel and U.S. gasoline averages near $3.88 a gallon, and experts say a U.S. policy shift away from renewables has left fewer alternative energy sources, increasing exposure to supply shocks from the Iran war.

A team led by engineering researchers found that chitin nanofiber films extracted from food waste unexpectedly blocked oxygen, and later combined chitin, cellulose and food-derived additives to make a biodegradable film that resists both oxygen and moisture.

Micro-CT scans uncovered a juvenile dinosaur fossil on Aphae Island that researchers named Doolysaurus huhmini; the specimen preserved skull bones and gastroliths and was described in Fossil Record on March 19.

A study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society lists 45 rocky exoplanets that orbit within their stars' habitable zones and highlights 24 candidates in a narrower three-dimensional habitable zone; the selection used data from the ESA Gaia mission and the NASA Exoplanet Archive and includes Proxima Centauri b and TRAPPIST-1f.

After a 7-ton asteroid exploded over the Cleveland area, NASA identified a likely debris swath across parts of Medina and Wayne counties. Experts say many small fragments may have fallen and described typical appearances and where fragments are most likely to be noticed.

Researchers from the University of Tübingen and Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities recovered over 43,000 ostraca at Athribis, containing everyday texts such as receipts, schoolwork and horoscopes that date from the Ptolemaic period through the 9th–11th centuries.

Research using data from a full-scale U.S. wastewater treatment plant found that routing food waste to treatment plants can produce net-negative greenhouse gas emissions compared with landfilling and allow recovery of energy and nutrients.

Gerd Faltings of Germany has been awarded the 2026 Abel Prize for work that proved a long‑unsolved conjecture, showing a class of Diophantine equations has only finitely many solutions.

Natural England marks the official launch of the 2,700-mile King Charles III England Coast Path on March 19; about 2,100 miles are currently open and all route proposals have been submitted to the Secretary of State.

NASA reports atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased markedly compared with pre‑industrial levels, with ground and satellite records and Antarctic ice cores showing a long-term rise linked to emissions from fossil fuels and other sources.

Urban surfaces and less tree cover make some city neighborhoods several degrees hotter, and research finds access to cooled public spaces is linked to fewer heat-related deaths while fans can be ineffective above about 95°F.

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Chris Williams spent 7 hours and 2 minutes on a March 18 spacewalk to install a bracket on the ISS for a future roll-out solar array; it was the first U.S. EVA in nearly a year.

A June 2024 review by the Miguel Lillo Foundation suggests long-term consumption of psilocybin-containing mushrooms could have played a role in shaping human cognition and cultural practices. The paper also notes researchers are exploring psilocybin in controlled therapeutic settings for conditions such as severe addiction.

Artemis 2 is on track for an April 1 flyby, and NASA is revising its lunar plans to allow more flexible early landing designs and expanded robotic precursor missions ahead of planned crewed landings.

Rob Dunn argues in The Call of the Honeyguide that the human–cat relationship challenges traditional ideas of mutualism; domestic cats descended from African wildcats and spread alongside early farming, initially helping control rodents.

NOAA forecasts a moderate geomagnetic storm from a March 16 coronal mass ejection that could make the northern lights visible across roughly 18 U.S. states, with peak activity expected Thursday morning and best viewing hours around 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Artelo Biosciences secured a fully funded investigator‑sponsored trial of ART27.13 for glaucoma with ethics and regulatory approval, and first patient enrollment is expected in the second quarter of 2026.

Blue Origin and researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech are studying the NEO Hunter concept, which would use the Blue Ring spacecraft with cubesats, an ion beam, and a possible kinetic impact phase to detect, characterize and alter potentially hazardous asteroids.

Many North American songbirds, including American robins, red-winged blackbirds and song sparrows, often return or become more vocal in March as they seek food, claim territory and attract mates.

A bipartisan group of Oregon lawmakers approved $2.1 million to buy Abiqua Falls and surrounding land after the property was placed for open auction; the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department must complete environmental and archaeological due diligence before the purchase can proceed.

Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard are the latest recipients of the ACM A.M. Turing Award for work that helped create quantum information theory beginning with their 1979 collaboration, including the BB84 protocol.