Science

The RSPB has called for netting on buildings to be taken down because it is stopping endangered birds from nesting. Video posted on Twitter showed a kittiwake trying but failing to reach ledges in Lowestoft, Suffolk. A dead bird was later found trapped there. In the tweet, the RSPB said: “Heartbreaking to see kittiwakes find

Around 40,000 sq m of coral reef has been restored as part of a collaboration between local groups, conservation organisation The Nature Conservancy and pet brand Sheba. It’s part of a plan to restore 185,000 sq m of the world’s coral reefs by 2029. One partially restored reef off the coast of Indonesia has since

Hereiti, 17, lives on Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. She says the ocean is the “lifeblood” of her community, and that when it is “healthy”, the people are too. But she worries that rising sea levels and pollution are threatening the health of the ocean. “Life Below Water”

What on earth is an Arctic walrus doing relaxing on the west Wales coast? The Pembrokeshire resort of Tenby, where Wally is currently basking, is about 1,000 miles (1,600km) away from where he should be. All of his 225,000 other walrus friends are waiting to welcome him back at the Arctic Circle. The World Wide

Around 1,000 of the world’s rivers are the source of 80% of the global ocean plastic pollution, according to a new study. The research was carried out by The Ocean Cleanup, who are developing technology to remove plastic waste from the Pacific Ocean, as well as from rivers themselves. The BBC’s Science Editor David Shukman

Thousands of human-made objects orbit earth and the majority of them no longer work. There’s a risk this space debris could collide with functioning satellites, which provide vital services like GPS and weather warnings. To track and predict its behaviour, Prof Moriba Jah and his colleagues built AstriaGraph – a near real-time map of where

The Caribbean island of St Vincent has been blanketed in ash after the eruption of the La Soufrière volcano. Over 15,000 people have been displaced, only weeks away from hurricane season. Infrastructure and agriculture have also been severely impacted – and experts say the eruptions may continue for weeks or months. The UN has launched

Four astronauts have lifted off from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the International Space Station (ISS). Americans Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Frenchman Thomas Pesquet and Akihiko Hoshide from Japan went into orbit in a SpaceX Dragon capsule launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket. They should arrive at the space station on Saturday

Tackling climate change is a big task and can feel impossible to do alone. But there are clear ways of cutting your contribution to carbon emissions, also known as your carbon footprint. BBC Reality Check’s Chris Morris explains how changing three aspects of how you live can make a difference. Motion Graphics by Jacqueline Galvin

The American space agency, Nasa, has successfully flown a small helicopter on Mars. The drone, called Ingenuity, was airborne for less than a minute, but Nasa is celebrating what represents the first powered, controlled flight by an aircraft on another world. This was the moment the data came through that proved its flight was a

Sir David Attenborough has urged people to remember their impact on the natural world, ahead of his new documentary on the impacts of lockdown on nature. He spoke to the BBC’s David Shukman about his hopes for the project, the upcoming global climate summit and his young fan base. ‘The Year Earth Changed’ airs Friday

Drone footage has shown the extent of damage after two large sections of cliff on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast collapsed. Dorset Council said a “substantial” rockfall happened near Thorncombe Beacon, with more movement expected as fresh cracks had appeared near the cliff top fence line. A further 300m (980ft) of cliffs east of Seatown also fell

The Bafta-winning Netflix documentary My Octopus Teacher focuses on a film-maker who befriends an octopus. But the unsung star of the show is actually the kelp forest off the coast of Cape Town that he dives in – one of the world’s richest ecosystems. The makers of the documentary are part of a campaign to

Sixty years ago, a man went into space for the very first time. For the USSR, Yuri Gagarin’s single orbit of the Earth was a huge achievement and propaganda coup. There will be celebrations across Russia to mark the anniversary. Our Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg reports on the day a new Russian hero was born,

A paediatrician has described how his love of space observation has grown during the Covid-19 lockdown. Syed Tahar, from Oadby in Leicestershire, has taken detailed pictures of phenomena like Comet Neowise and the pinwheel galaxy Messier 101 – located more than 20 million light years away – from his back garden. He said astrophotography –

One of the positive impacts of lockdown is that there has been a big reduction in light pollution. A nationwide star count found a 10% drop in the amount of people who could only see 10 or fewer stars, an indicator of severe light pollution. Light pollution can impact human health and wildlife by disturbing