science wire

Nitrous oxide used for sedating patients during dental appointments has a significant environmental impact, with wide variation in use and wastage across the UK, according to a new study by UCL researchers. Inhalation sedation uses a dose of nitrous oxide, otherwise known as laughing gas, and is an established technique for managing dental anxiety in children and adults.

Access to trees and greenspaces is consistently low across English cities according to a new study led by the University. Researchers used a recognised three-part framework for measuring tree and greenspace access in urban neighbourhoods in Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, York, Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent and Plymouth, and found that at best, only 2% of buildings in any city region met all three components of the rule.

Babies and very young sauropods - the long-necked, long-tailed plant-eaters that in adulthood were the largest animals to have ever walked on land - were a key food sustaining predators in the Late Jurassic, according to a new study led by a UCL researcher. The study, published in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin , used data from fossils laid down 150 million years ago in the Morrison Formation*, in the United States, to map out a "food web" of the time - a gigantic network of who ate what and who ate whom.

A new study finds that Canada could remove at least five times its annual carbon emissions with strategic planting of more than six million trees along the northern edge of the boreal forest.

Recent research into the biology of the extinct Otodus megalodon , the largest predatory shark that ever lived, had suggested that Mediterranean populations reached significantly smaller sizes than those from other parts of the planet, giving rise to the term -Mediterranean dwarfism-.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the United Nations Agreement on the High Seas (BBNJ) and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) have demonstrated strong commitment by governme

Large-scale m'elting of the   Greenland Ice Sheet is irreversible and happening  at a rapid rate, and  now a new  international study is the first  to understand why.

Many characteristics of workwear are conducive to a textile circular economy: it is relatively uniform, traceable and comes from a single source.

Cattle herds are driving lions and other wildlife away from their habitats in Kenya, even though herders enclose their livestock at night when predators are most active.

Climate protests and civil disobedience actions are increasingly repressed, and often seen as incompatible with public consultation, the classic form of participation in environmental decision-making.

As the world seeks sustainable energy solutions, the potential of microalgae to produce renewable biofuels is gaining significant attention.

Avalanche bulletin and snow situation With global trade not only products travel around the world, but sometimes also uninvited guests - such as fungi that can cause disease in trees.

Plastic pollution is everywhere - including where you would least expect it, especially when it's in tiny particle form. Today, scientists are working to measure the consequences of this contamination. There's the pollution you can see - on the beach, on the roadside and in open-air landfills. And then there's the pollution you can't - on the peak of Mount Everest, deep inside the Mariana Trench, in clouds, in buildings, and in our water supply, food, blood and brain.

A new initiative will harness the latest advances in artificial intelligence for weather prediction, with a goal of improving climate resilience and food security in West Africa.

Mangroves, typical of tropical and subtropical latitudes, have become veritable natural traps for landand sea-based waste.

Researchers are harnessing the latest advances in artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance weather prediction and improve climate resilience and food security in West Africa.

During the last ice age, the Atlantic Ocean's powerful current system remained active and continued to transport warm, salty water from the tropics to the North Atlantic despite extensive ice cover across much of the Northern Hemisphere, finds new research led by UCL scientists. The findings, published in  Nature , show that despite the Earth being in an ice age, part of the ocean's interior - known as North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) - was only about 1.8°C colder than today, far from the near-freezing conditions previously assumed.

Study reveals changes International Olympic and Paralympic Committees could implement to keep Games viable and safer for athletes New research into the impact of climate change on snow sports provides recommendations to increase the climate-resilience of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Cities across Europe are getting hotter, and schools are among the places where heat stress is rising fastest.

How can a disease that we thought had been eradicated come knocking on Europe's door again, shifting from a historical memory into an imminent threat?

Press release Agroscope-s 2026-2029 Work Programme addresses the most important challenges facing the Swiss agriculture and food sector, and agricultural practitioners in particular.

Very few know of them, fewer still have seen them in their natural environment, not least because today only one species of the spiny dormouse survives, in southern India.

Researchers from the Universities of Würzburg and Braunschweig have provided empirical evidence for the first time: Maths lessons are a suitable place to promote skills for sustainable development. Although education for sustainable development (ESD) is a core objective in the German school system, its implementation remains a challenge - especially in a subject that is often considered abstract: maths.