A homegrown catnip lotion has proven ‘just as effective as diethyltoluamide (Deet)’ as a mosquito repellant in trials carried out in Uganda. Catnip is a common herb from the mint family. The chemical in the plant that causes feline euphoria…

Life has colonised every corner of the planet by evolving ingenious survival strategies but these are increasingly being overwhelmed by destructive human activities, this year’s red list of endangered species has revealed. Many snails, limpets and clams have adapted to…

When staff answer the call of nature at the European Space Agency’s headquarters in Paris, their urine is not simply flushed away – it is turned into something more useful.While urine-diverting toilets are often associated with smelly festival toilets, there…

Norwegian fish farms are filling fjords and other coastal waters with nutrient pollution equivalent to the raw sewage of tens of millions of people each year, a report has found. Norway is the largest farmed salmon producer in the world,…

Methane emissions from the energy sector remained at near record levels in 2025, the International Energy Agency (IEA) concludes. Tackling the emissions could make billions of cubic metres (bcm) of gas available to international markets, a top priority as the…