Under Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, more of the country's Amazon rainforest has been lost in the last year than in any of the last 12 years. The loss carries serious climate effects for the rest of the world.
Published in “Science”
Among the more unusual news stories recently…protesting lawmakers throw pig guts in Taiwan's parliament, an elephant is pulled out of a well with a crane in India, and a New Zealand city is forced to replace exploding parking sensors.
A group of second-year college students have discovered hidden writing on a page from a book from the 1500s. The students found the hidden writing using a special camera system they built.
A group of researchers in Europe have announced a 3-year project to collect information about the important smells of Europe, from the 1500s to the 1900s. One part of the project will be recreating the smells of long ago.
In today's news roundup, Central America struggles to recover from two strong late-season hurricanes, violence rocks Uganda following the arrest of a candidate for president, and the famous Arecibo Observatory will be shut down because of damage.
Last Friday, Tristan da Cunha, a tiny, remote island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean announced that it was creating one of the largest protected ocean areas in the world.
On Sunday, the rocket company SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station. It's NASA's first full flight with a private American space company, and marks a big change in the way that space travel will happen in the future.
Among the more unusual news stories recently…a 110-year-old carrier pigeon message is found in France, a Japanese village uses robot wolves to scare off bears, and an unusual bright yellow turtle is found in India.
In late October, scientists in Washington state destroyed the first nest of Asian giant hornets found in the US. Now they're reporting that the nest held nearly 200 queens - insects capable of going out and starting even more nests.
Two surfers recently discovered a strange metal tube on a beach in Ireland. The tube was a time capsule that had been buried in ice near the North Pole. Because of rapidly melting Arctic ice, the time capsule was found after just two years.
The drug companies Pfizer and BioNTech say the coronavirus vaccine they're developing seems to be 90% successful at preventing people from getting Covid-19. The results aren't final, but the news is much better than many experts expected.