Huge range of objects little seen for decades will be exhibited in facility near Swindon from 2023A site under development by the Science Museum will give the public a chance to see hundreds of thousands of items that have been in storage for decades.Among highlights is a 1947 passenger aircraft that was used as an Australia and Asia tour plane by the Rolling Stones in 1973 and a year later was transporting cattle to Libya. Continue reading...

New research shows affected areas are losing ice five times faster than in the 1990s, with more than 100m of thickness gone in some placesIce losses are rapidly spreading deep into the interior of the Antarctic, new analysis of satellite data shows.The warming of the Southern Ocean is resulting in glaciers sliding into the sea increasingly rapidly, with ice now being lost five times faster than in the 1990s. The West Antarctic ice sheet was stable in 1992 but up to a quarter of its expanse is now thinning. More than 100 metres of ice thickness has been lost in the worst-hit places. Continue reading...

Lilium says electric jet-powered five-seater aircraft could be in service by 2025A new “flying taxi” has been unveiled by German start-up Lilium, which claims the vertical take-off craft could be the basis for an on-demand air service within six years.The electric jet-powered five-seater aircraft is designed to travel up to 300km, a journey that would take it an hour at top speed. Continue reading...

Scientists say antivenom exists for only 60% of all the snakes in the worldNew drugs for snakebite are desperately needed, say scientists, to replace the current 100-year-old treatment made by injecting snake’s venom into a horse and harvesting antibodies – which is very expensive, may not work and can cause lethal allergic reactions.Snakebite, says the Wellcome Trust, is the cause of the world’s biggest hidden health crisis – and it is investing £80m in the hope of solving it. The World Health Organization will this month also launch a snakebite strategy aiming to halve deaths by 2030. Every five minutes, on average, 50 people are bitten by a snake. Between 81,000 and 138,000 people die from snakebite every year and about 400,000 are permanently disabled. Continue reading...

Scientists want to ‘take away the fear’ by halting mutation of cells, even in advanced casesLeading scientists are embarking on a new war against cancer, aimed not necessarily at curing it but at turning it into a condition that people can live with.The world-renowned Institute of Cancer Research is launching what it calls the first-ever “Darwinian” cancer programme. Just as with antibiotics, they say, cancers can evolve to become resistant to the drugs used to treat them. Cancer cells that are not killed off by chemotherapy or even immunotherapy will eventually mutate and adapt to form new tumours. The cancer returns in metastatic or advanced form, often elsewhere in the body, and is usually fatal. Continue reading...

Researcher claims to have solved mystery of 15th-century text but others are scepticalSome say it is a medieval medical manual written in abbreviated Latin and aimed at well-to-do women. Not true, say others: it was written in Hebrew by an Italian physician and clearly shows Jewish women having ritual baths.Nonsense, others believe: the text was written in Old Turkish, in a poetic style. Or it may have origins in Old Cornish. Or in the Aztec language of Nahuatl, or in Manchu. Continue reading...

Development could transform ability of hearing-impaired to cope with noisy environmentsA mind-controlled hearing aid that allows the wearer to focus on particular voices has been created by scientists, who say it could transform the ability of those with hearing impairments to cope with noisy environments.The device mimics the brain’s natural ability to single out and amplify one voice against background conversation. Until now, even the most advanced hearing aids work by boosting all voices at once, which can be experienced as a cacophony of sound for the wearer, especially in crowded environments. Continue reading...

Researchers create altered synthetic genome, in move with potential medical benefitsScientists have created the world’s first living organism that has a fully synthetic and radically altered DNA code.The lab-made microbe, a strain of bacteria that is normally found in soil and the human gut, is similar to its natural cousins but survives on a smaller set of genetic instructions. Continue reading...

Clive Stafford Smith says Sats are irrelevant to his son’s life and Mary Bousted defends Labour’s proposed assessment reforms, while Ann Moore and Richard Wetherell highlight the negative effects of testsAmanda Spielman may be warning the wrong people about exam anxiety, certainly as far as younger kids are concerned (Ofsted chief says teachers can cause ‘subliminal’ exam anxiety, May 14). My 10-year-old is not worried because I have told him Sats are irrelevant to his life. His secondary school will determine how best he will fit in, based on its own testing, when he gets there in September. I did ask him to do his best in sympathy with the people who are sweating it out this week: his excellent teachers, whose lives – and the rating of the school – depend on how he does at rote nonsense.Meanwhile, the true quality of his education is illustrated by the year 6 leavers’ scrapbook year after year, which always tells the same story: the stellar moments each child remembers are extracurricular experiences such as acting in plays, spending a week together on Exmoor or learning about Mary Anning in Lyme Regis. We parents can also play our part – as a lawyer, I have supervised the trial of three teachers for “murdering” the headteacher, with the local police arriving to oversee the investigation. (They were all acquitted by exemplary 10-year-old jurors, I am glad to say.) Continue reading...

Progress rate ‘disheartening’, says expert as 2014-17 figure is small improvement on 2006-09Women are listed as authors of just 30% of academic research from British universities, according to a major new ranking of higher education institutions.Although the number of women named as authors is gradually increasing, the slow pace was described by one expert as “disheartening”. The 30% figure is for studies published between 2014 and 2017, which is an improvement from an average of just under 26% between 2006 and 2009. Continue reading...

Spinraza to be made available to spinal muscular atrophy patientsA drug that could prolong the lives of children with a rare muscle-wasting disease has been approved by the NHS in England after lengthy negotiations with the manufacturer over the high price.Spinraza could help between 600 and 1,200 children and adults in England and Wales who have the genetic condition spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). It affects the nerves in the spinal cord, making muscles weaker and causing problems with movement, breathing and swallowing. It can shorten the life expectancy of babies and toddlers. Continue reading...

People increasingly see the environmental crisis as a national priority. This is an opportunity for bold action from governmentLast week a small campaign group in the staunchly conservative town of Shrewsbury called a public meeting about climate change. The organisers were delighted when 150 people turned up. Even they were surprised, though, when people unanimously said they were prepared to give up flying, change their boilers and cars, eat less meat and even overthrow capitalism to get a grip on climate change.But this was just a straw in the political wind whipping through middle England. Shrewsbury joins more than 100 other councils across the country in declaring a climate emergency, and has pledged that it will be carbon-neutral within 11 years, with more following every week. Continue reading...

Peruvian archaeologists decry new airport that would carry tourists directly to already fragile Inca citadelAmong the Inca archeological sites that abound in Peru, none draw nearly as many tourists as the famed citadel of Machu Picchu. There were more than 1.5 million visitors in 2017, almost double the limit recommended by Unesco, putting a huge strain on the fragile ruins and local ecology.Now, in a move that has drawn a mixture of horror and outrage from archaeologists, historians and locals, work has begun on clearing ground for a multibillion-dollar international airport, intended to jet tourists much closer to Machu Picchu . Continue reading...

Algae milk, insect protein and nutrients consumed through a patch or pill may become norm, report saysThe food of the future could come in the form of stick-on patches and pills or be delivered by intravenous drip, according to a report that predicts what and how we could be eating as far ahead as 150 years from now.Jellyfish suppers washed down with algae milk and bread made from insect protein may eventually become the norm, while shoppers will be able to pick up “lab-grown” meat kits from dedicated supermarket aisles – or get them delivered by drone. Continue reading...

Rightwing populists to launch attack on climate science in vote drive before EU electionsGermany’s rightwing populists are embracing climate change denial as the latest topic with which to boost their electoral support, teaming up with scientists who claim hysteria is driving the global warming debate and ridiculing the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg as “mentally challenged” and a fraud.The Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD) is expected to launch its biggest attack yet on mainstream climate science at a symposium in parliament on Tuesday supported by a prominent climate change denial body linked by researchers to prominent conservative groups in the US. Continue reading...

Thousands of women could be spared pain and long-term health problems, trial suggests

Ambassador for amphibians who warned of global declineThe recent shocking UN report on the threatened extinction of one million species has focused global attention on the crucial role of biodiversity in the health of the planet. Almost exactly 30 years ago, the first warning sounded that amphibian species were already in potentially catastrophic freefall. Tim Halliday, who has died aged 73, was one of the leading figures in a worldwide initiative to raise the alarm, and to understand the reasons for the decline. The current chief scientist of the Amphibian Survival Alliance, Phil Bishop, called him “the leading champion and ambassador for all things amphibian”.In 1989 Halliday was one of the prime movers in organising the First World Congress of Herpetology (herpetology is the study of amphibians and reptiles) at the University of Kent, Canterbury. While studying the courtship and mating of British newts in the wild, he had noticed over the years that the numbers in his study ponds had been falling. As participants at the congress compared notes, they realised that the same was happening all over the world. Many of these declines were described as “enigmatic”, because frogs, toads, newts and salamanders were dying in supposedly protected habitats. Continue reading...

There’s a long history of phrases being garbled as they cross from one language to another – and some of them stickGame of Thrones is known for its linguistic inventiveness. The TV adaptation of George RR Martin’s fantasy cycle has gone way further than the original novels ever did, with linguist David J Peterson fleshing out the languages of Essos and Westeros, Dothraki and Valyrian, from one or two phrases into grammatically coherent “conlangs” or constructed languages.The latest piece of vocabulary to come out of the show has nothing to do with him, however. In fact, it wasn’t purposely designed by anyone. I’m tempted, because of the genre we’re dealing with, to call it an epic fail. But it’s probably not as bad as leaving a Starbucks cup in shot. And it’s actually pretty fascinating. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison says government took reef ‘off the endangered list’ – despite no such list existingScott Morrison has credited his government with having “saved” the Great Barrier Reef, a claim rejected as “ridiculous” by scientists, environmental groups and the Queensland government.At the Liberal party’s campaign launch in Melbourne on Sunday, Morrison thanked the former environment ministers Greg Hunt and Josh Frydenberg for their work on reef issues. Continue reading...

The full moon on Saturday gives an opportunity (weather permitting) to study the “seas” that form the dark markings on the moon’s surfaceThe moon will reach full on 18 May. This is a good opportunity to take the time to really look at its bright disc. The dark markings are called lunar maria, named after the Latin word for seas because early astronomers thought they were seeing bodies of water. We now know that the moon is largely dry and the maria are actually solidified lava plains, deposited in volcanic eruptions on the moon some 3–3.5 billion years ago. The maria are not uniformly distributed across the lunar surface; they cover more of the west than the east, and that’s not the only difference. Mare Imbrium (sea of rain) and Oceanus Procellarum (ocean of storms) are slightly lighter in colour than the eastern maria because of differences in their chemical composition. This month’s full moon is a seasonal blue moon, meaning that it is the third out of four full moons to happen in an astronomical season, counted between equinox and solstice. There are usually only three full moons per season. Continue reading...

Proposal calls for wilderness protection as startup space miners look to the starsGreat swathes of the solar system should be preserved as official “space wilderness” to protect planets, moons and other heavenly bodies from rampant mining and other forms of industrial exploitation, scientists say.The proposal calls for more than 85% of the solar system to be placed off-limits to human development, leaving little more than an eighth for space firms to mine for precious metals, minerals and other valuable materials. Continue reading...

Brexit party leader defends ‘breaking point’ poster and remarks about global warmingNigel Farage has said private health companies should “relieve the burden” on the NHS, the UK ought to limit efforts to curb global warming, and defended anti-immigrant posters, as the rapid rise of his Brexit party led to his personal beliefs being scrutinised.In an often testy BBC interview, Farage also tried to justify his decision to shift from praising Norway-type deals before the EU referendum to advocating a no-deal departure, saying this was needed because Theresa May had botched the process. Continue reading...

A psychotherapist explains the sense of danger she felt growing up as the daughter of war-traumatised parentsIn the spring of 2016, I sat on the beach on the far east side of the island of Cyprus not far from where my father lives, and looked across to Syria. I imagined, in that moment, that I had lost my home, that everything was lost. It was quiet on the shore, just a few miles from the border that divides the island. There were few tourists at that time of year and the seascape before me was a shimmering, turquoise paradise. A mere boat ride away, bombs were falling and people dying. The level of destruction was, and is, incomprehensible: devastation and damage so absolute that beautiful towns and cities no longer exist.I felt compelled to help in any way I could. I couldn’t go to Syria, of course, so I decided to volunteer at the Hope Centre in Athens, a place of safety for women and children, that offered a play area, showers, a sofa where new mothers could nurse their babies and, in the absence of a food licence, have tea and biscuits. Each day, about a hundred refugees would come in from the camps. Continue reading...

What purpose does anger serve? Are men angrier than women? Can it affect our mental wellbeing? Science is beginning to uncover some of the answersAnger is the flash of fire that sparks in your brain when you feel you have been shortchanged. Perhaps a stranger has nipped into the parking space that you had been about to occupy, or a lazy work colleague has landed you with a thankless task. Or maybe you have been confronted with a deep, hurtful betrayal by someone you love.Anger is one of the most primitive emotions we experience – animals are equipped with the same basic neural circuitry. It operates on a spectrum from mild frustration to absolute fury, and the intensity with which we feel anger and how we act on it is very personal. Science is beginning to provide new explanations about the ways that personality, age, gender and life experiences shape the way we feel this emotion. Continue reading...

Arthur Eddington’s photograph of the 1919 solar eclipse proved Einstein right and ushered in a century where gravity was kingA hundred years ago this month, the British astronomer Arthur Eddington arrived at the remote west African island of Príncipe. He was there to witness and record one of the most spectacular events to occur in our heavens: a total solar eclipse that would pass over the little equatorial island on 29 May 1919.Observing such events is a straightforward business today, but a century ago the world was still recovering from the first world war. Scientific resources were meagre, photographic technology was relatively primitive, and the hot steamy weather would have made it difficult to focus instruments. For good measure, there was always a threat that clouds would blot out the eclipse. Continue reading...

It is possible to provide both compassion and justiceAs someone closely involved in parliamentary campaigning to secure the infected blood inquiry for the Labour MP Diana Johnson, I read Kieran Walshe’s article with interest (“The infected blood inquiry reminds us we need a less painful way to deal with health failures”, Comment).I agree with his concerns and would like to offer my thoughts on some further reforms: whenever inquiries are set up, they fall under the sponsorship of implicated parties. In the case of infected blood, this was the Department of Health. It took campaigners 18-plus months to get responsibility transferred to the Cabinet Office. Future inquires need to be sponsored and funded independently. Continue reading...

In her new book, the scientist examines the role of fate in our lives, how our politics are formed and sniffing out Mr RightDr Hannah Critchlow is a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge. Her debut book, The Science of Fate, examines how much of our life is predetermined at birth and to what extent we are in control of our destiny.How has the slow march of scientific research affected our concept of fate? On one hand, we know more about how genetics drives our lives, yet we also have more good evidence for things that we can do to shape our own outcomes.

Doctors hope to trial gene therapy on people with rare disorder in next three years

Single jab could reduce risk of heart attack for some but wider benefit is yet to be proven

The GM virus treatment that saved Isabelle Holdaway is a start, at least, in the fight against drug resistanceThe first antibiotic was discovered by Paul Ehrlich in 1909 and cured syphilis-infected rabbits. At that time about 10% of the population of London were infected with syphilis and there were no effective treatments. Despite the tedious injection procedure and side effects, Salvarsan, together with the less toxic derivative Neosalvarsan, enjoyed the status of the most frequently prescribed drug until its replacement by penicillin in the 1940s. The postwar period was the beginning of a 20-year golden age of antibiotic discovery, with a large number of effective new antibiotics entering into clinical use.But the problem of antibiotic resistance has been increasingly recognised over the past 30 years, with the chief medical officer of England, Dame Sally Davies, in 2018 repeating her warning of the post-antibiotic apocalypse facing modern medicine as we run out of effective antibiotics to treat life-threatening infections. The recent success in treating 17-year-old Isabelle Holdaway – who was left with an infection that could not be cleared by antibiotics after a lung transplant – with bacteria-killing viruses offers some hope. But it also raises the question as to how this therapy works and whether it can help to overcome the problem of antibiotic resistance. Continue reading...

Access to help for sexual problems is patchy and many fear the consequences of cuts to sexual health services could be profound. Nicola Davis investigates

Allendale, Northumberland: Less than a minute from setting out the lure, there’s a rustling like crumpled dry paper and a blur of wingsThe sun-warmed heather of Dryburn Moor stretches away, rust-coloured and hummocky, to a soft horizon of uplands, woods and fields. There’s little breeze and clouds barely move in a hazy sky. The right conditions for seeing emperor moths.Related: Hunting for moths in the night garden Continue reading...

The Amazon CEO’s aerospace company is developing rockets for short space tourism trips and satellite launch contractsThe tech billionaires’ space race is heating up.Jeff Bezos’s aerospace company, Blue Origin, aims to take people to the moon by 2024, he announced on Thursday. Continue reading...

Western scientists ignored the progress being made in the Soviet east, argues David HankePhage therapy (Girl is first patient saved by GM virus treatment, 9 May) has a long history, predating antibiotics, but has been largely confined to the (former) USSR since the 30s. As early as 1896, British bacteriologist Ernest Hankin discovered filterable antibacterial activity killing cholera in Ganges water and suggested the agent was responsible for limiting cholera epidemics; Félix d’Herelle realised in 1916 that the activity was a bacteria-killing virus. However, two commissioned reviews from the US contradicted d’Herelle – wrongly – and research in the west was largely abandoned, especially as antibiotics arrived. In the Soviet east, progress on phage therapy continued – after all, you can collect new strains in a jamjar on a piece of string dipped in the Moscow river – published in Russian, but many western scientists didn’t read the research and wouldn’t trust it if they did. Honourable exceptions include successful preclinical studies on animals in the 80s in the UK, but the overall conclusion is that politics interfered to hamper the development of life-saving new therapies.

The party of moderation has found a novel, if slightly risky, way to tap into how remainers feel about Brexit“When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer,” wrote George Orwell in his famous essay, Politics and the English Language, just after the second world war. Things are bad, and our language is getting worse.The Liberal Democrats have adopted the slogan “Bollocks to Brexit” in their campaign for the on again, never really off European elections on 23 May. This has certainly won them some attention. Critics were quick to denounce what they saw as a sorry decline in standards of taste and decency. James Forsyth, political editor of the Spectator – and a columnist for the Sun – tweeted that the slogan “does nothing for civility and makes the public square a less pleasant place”. He acknowledged there was a chance he might sound a bit prim in offering this view. Continue reading...

Fertility treatment in other parts of Britain is far better supported, new data showsThe proportion of IVF treatments funded by the NHS in England has slumped to the lowest level ever recorded by Britain’s fertility regulator, new figures reveal.The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said the NHS funded only 35% of IVF cycles in England in 2017, the lowest rate since data collection began in 2009. The figure represents a fall from a peak of more than 40% in 2010. Continue reading...

Environment Agency calls for urgent action to protect country from river and coastal floodsEntire communities might need to be moved away from coasts and rivers as the UK takes urgent action to prepare for an average global temperature rise of 4C, the Environment Agency warned.The agency said on Thursday that difficult decisions would have to be taken in the coming years to make sure the UK was resilient amid flooding that would not be held back by higher land defences. Continue reading...

Hope for sufferers of rare form of disease as manufacturers of Ocrevus cave in to NHS EnglandPeople with a rare form of multiple sclerosis will finally get access to a drug that can slow the disease’s progress after NHS bosses pressured its maker to lower the price.The National Institute for health and Care Excellence (NICE) has approved the drug, ocrelizumab, after negotiations between NHS England and Roche, which manufactures it under the name Ocrevus. Continue reading...

Bacteria-killing viruses known as phages offer hope of solution to antibiotic resistance

Dams, levees, hydropower and habitat degradation behind fragmentation on huge scale, finds global assessmentOnly a third of the world’s great rivers remain free flowing, due to the impact of dams that are drastically reducing the benefits healthy rivers provide people and nature, according to a global analysis.Billions of people rely on rivers for water, food and irrigation, but from the Danube to the Yangtze most large rivers are fragmented and degraded. Untouched rivers are largely confined to remote places such as the Arctic and Amazonia. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Out of 23 big countries, only Saudi Arabia and Indonesia had higher proportion of doubtersThe US is a hotbed of climate science denial when compared with other countries, with international polling finding a significant number of Americans do not believe human-driven climate change is occurring.A total of 13% of Americans polled in a 23-country survey conducted by the YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project agreed with the statement that the climate is changing “but human activity is not responsible at all”. A further 5% said the climate was not changing. Continue reading...

Wim Hof claims cold-water immersion can help fight modern diseases. As outdoor swimming becomes ever more popular in the UK, photojournalist Jonny Weeks joined him for a weekend to experience it firsthand“Look at this beautiful tree. An oak, Quercus robur. It’s yelling at us, ‘Helloooo!’” says Wim Hof, the doyen of cold endurance stunts, as we head across Hampstead Heath, north London, for a swim in one of the ponds.Soon he’s catapulting himself into a gaping hole in its trunk, peeping out excitedly like a child. “Here I am, talking to the tree,” he beams. “I see the tree has personality. I go in. We are one. It’s alive. We are alive. Is that crazy? Bloody crazy! Yes I am.” Continue reading...

Research finds drop in sexual activity steepest for married and cohabiting couplesSex is on the decline in Britain, particularly among married and cohabiting couples, according to a major study that suggests the increasingly busy lives we lead and distractions of the internet may be partly to blame.The data comes from more than 34,000 people in the UK who took part in three waves of a large study called Natsal (national surveys of sexual attitudes and lifestyles). It shows a fall in sexual activity from 2001 to 2012 in all groups, with the steepest decline among the over-25s and those who are married or cohabiting. Continue reading...

A million plant and animal species are under threat. Humans are largely to blame – but we will pay the cost tooWe humans pride ourselves on our ability to look beyond immediate concerns and think on a grander scale. While other creatures preen for mates, hunt prey or build homes, only humans ponder the nature of time, explore our place in the universe or are troubled by the question of what wiped out the dinosaurs. Yet we are often poor at focusing on and understanding the things which really matter. A new mass extinction is under way, and this time we are mostly responsible. The new UN Global Assessment Report warns that a million plant and animal species are at risk of being wiped out.Most of us find it impossible to visualise such a large number. Focusing on individual cases is only partially helpful. Plenty of tears are shed for charismatic megafauna such as rhinos when they are driven to the brink. Fewer know or care that two in five amphibian species are under threat. Phytoplankton drifting in the ocean are barely noticed at all, but absorb carbon dioxide as well as being eaten by zooplankton, which in turn are eaten by larger creatures, in turn eaten by ourselves. Continue reading...

The Orbital Reflector should have been a celestial triumph. Until the US president and his government shutdown became involvedName: The Orbital Reflector.Age: Dead on arrival. Continue reading...

Report calls for change of priorities and culture to avert catastrophic biodiversity lossGovernments need to ramp up investment in nature restoration and raise the tax burden on companies that degrade wildlife, according to recommendations made to the G7 group of rich nations.The proposals are part of a growing debate on how to radically change humanity’s relationship with nature in the wake of a new UN mega-report that showed an alarming decline in the Earth’s life-support systems. Continue reading...

The science writer Philip Ball has always been fascinated by space. He looks at the latest missions to the moon and beyond. And: Carole Cadwalladr on why she used her TED talk to tell tech billionaires they had broken democracyPhilip Ball was a child when, in 1969, he watched Apollo 11 land the first two people on the moon. He has retained his fascination for space ever since and has been closely following the recent advancements in space exploration. At the start of this year, China became the first country to successfully land a robotic spacecraft on the far side of the moon, while in April, the first privately funded mission to the moon, the Israeli spacecraft Beresheet, crashed after the apparent failure of its main engine.Ball joins India Rakusen to discuss why so many countries are again embarking on missions to the moon and debates the value of private industry investing in space exploration. If humankind is unable to survive on Earth, which already has everything we need, what hope do we have of surviving on Mars? Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you three sandwich sudoku puzzles. It’s a new variant of Sudoku that is getting lots of attention. To get a printable page of the problems click this link. If you got stuck with the last one, which was very hard, this video reveals how to solve it. Continue reading...

Scientists reveal 1 million species at risk of extinction in damning UN reportHuman society is in jeopardy from the accelerating decline of the Earth’s natural life-support systems, the world’s leading scientists have warned, as they announced the results of the most thorough planetary health check ever undertaken.From coral reefs flickering out beneath the oceans to rainforests desiccating into savannahs, nature is being destroyed at a rate tens to hundreds of times higher than the average over the past 10m years, according to the UN global assessment report. Continue reading...

There is hope in the face of environmental crises. But we must all – farmers, citizens, politicians – embrace changeA new UN report is set to reveal that up to 1m species face extinction because of human actions. The loss of pollinating insects and other ecological disasters – from the destruction of flood-saving mangroves to air pollution – poses no less of a threat than climate change, according to the report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).Related: Biodiversity crisis is about to put humanity at risk, UN scientists to warn Continue reading...