Scientists pinpoint the brain's internal mileage clock 15 hours ago Share Save Victoria Gill Science correspondent, BBC News Share Save Getty Images Scientists have for the first time located the "mileage clock" inside a brain - by recording the brain activity of running rats. Letting them loose inside a small, rat-sized arena, the researchers recorded from a part of their brains that is known to be important in navigation and memory. They found that cells there "fired" in a pattern that looked like a mileage clock - ticking with every few steps the animal travelled. A further experiment, where human volunteers walked through a scaled up version of this rat navigation test, suggested that the human brain has the same clock. This study, published in the journal Current Biology, is the first to show that the regular ticking of "grid cells", as they are known, is directly connected to the ability to correctly gauge the distance we've travelled. Brain fog Stephen Duncan The scientists created an arena to train and test rats' ability to estimate the distance they had run "Imagine walking between your kitchen and living room," said lead researcher Prof James Ainge from the University of St Andrews. "[These cells] are in the part of the brain that provides that inner map – the ability to put yourself in the environment in your mind. " This study provides insight into exactly how that internal map in our brains works - and what happens when it goes awry. If you disrupt the ticking of that mileage clock by changing the environment, both rats and humans start getting their distance estimation wrong. In real life, this happens in darkness, or when fog descends when we're out on a hike. It suddenly becomes much more difficult to estimate how far we have travelled, because our mileage counter stops working reliably. To investigate this experimentally, researchers trained rats to run a set distance in a rectangular arena - rewarding the animals with a treat - a piece of chocolate cereal - when they ran the correct distance and then returned to the start. When the animals ran the correct distance, the mileage-counting cells in their brains fired regularly - approximately every 30cm a rat travelled. "The more regular that firing pattern was, the better the animals were at estimating the distance they had to go to get that treat," explained Prof Ainge. The researchers were able to record the brain's mileage clock counting the distance the rat had moved. Crucially, when the scientists altered the shape of the rat arena, that regular firing pattern became erratic and the rats struggled to work out how far they needed to go before they returned to the start for their chocolate treat. "It's fascinating," said Prof Ainge. "They seem to show this sort of chronic underestimation. There's something about the fact that the signal isn't regular that means they stop too soon. " The scientists likened this to visual landmarks suddenly disappearing in the fog. "Obviously it's harder to navigate in fog, but maybe what we what people don't appreciate is that it also impairs our ability to estimate distance. " To test this in humans, the researchers scaled up their rat-sized experiment. They built a 12m x 6m arena in the university's student union and asked volunteers to carry out the same task as the rats - walking a set distance, then returning to the start. Just like rats, human participants were consistently able to estimate the distance correctly when they were in a symmetrical, rectangular box. But when the scientists moved the walls of their purpose-built arena to change its shape, the participants started making mistakes. Prof Ainge explained: "Rats and humans learn the distance estimation task really well, then, when you change the environment in the way that we know distorts the signal in the rats, you see exactly the same behavioural pattern in humans. " Silvia Ventura The pattern of behaviour was the same in rats and humans, so the scientists are confident that we have the same internal mileage clock in our brains As well as revealing something fundamental about how our brains allow us to navigate, the scientists say the findings could help to diagnose Alzheimer's Disease. "The specific brain cells we're recording from are in one of the very first areas that's affected in Alzheimer's," explained Prof Ainge. "People have already created [diagnostic] games that you can play on your phone, for example, to test navigation. We'd be really interested in trying something similar, but specifically looking at distance estimation. " Getty Images The scientists believe the discovery could be useful in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease

Musk's fellowship of Royal Society in doubt after rally address He said the matter would be discussed at the society's next council meeting. In response, Sir Adrian Smith, president of the Society, wrote a letter to fellows in which he raised concerns about "resorting to the language of violence" and the threat it posed to the organisation's values. Addressing the rally organised by right-wing activist Tommy Robinson, Musk criticised "uncontrolled migration" and said: "Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die. " Elon Musk's controversial comments at the Unite the Kingdom rally in London have raised doubts over his fellowship of the Royal Society - the world's most prestigious scientific institution. Elon Musk was first elected a fellow of the UK's national academy of sciences in 2018, for his work in the space and electric vehicle industries. But his continued participation in the Royal Society has grown increasingly controversial. Earlier this year, thousands of scientists signed a letter raising concerns about his involvement in funding cuts to US scientific research, as part of his previous role in Trump's Department of Government Efficiency. The Society debated his fellowship in March but it was decided he would remain. Some fellows said any attempts to remove him could be seen as a curtailment of freedom of expression. Without refencing Musk directly, Sir Adrian Smith wrote to fellows: "I am sure that many of you will share my concern at the events of the last week and the growing tendency to resort to the language of violence in pursuit of political programmes - including, unfortunately, an address to the recent London rally from a Fellow of the Royal Society. " He went on to say that: "Most of us have had the good fortune to have lived our lives in contexts where core values of tolerance, courtesy, respect for others, and freedom of speech have been widely acknowledged and respected and we have come to take them for granted. " "It is no accident that human understanding and science have also flourished to an extraordinary extent in this period. Threats to these values are now real," he finished. Addressing the crowds on Saturday via video link, Musk said: "I think there's something beautiful about being British and what I see happening here is a destruction of Britain, initially a slow erosion but rapidly increasing erosion of Britain with massive uncontrolled migration. "This is a message to the reasonable centre, the people who ordinarily wouldn't get involved in politics, who just want to live their lives. "They don't want that, they're quiet, they just go about their business. "My message is to them: if this continues, that violence is going to come to you, you will have no choice. You're in a fundamental situation here. "Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die, that's the truth, I think. " Any decision to remove Mr Musk would be a significant moment in the organisation's history. It is 250 years since a member of the Royal Society was ejected: German scientist and writer Rudolf Erich Raspe, who was accused of theft and fraud. Mr Musk has been approached for comment by BBC News sent via his companies Tesla and Space X

Chimps drinking a lager a day in ripe fruit, study finds 12 hours ago Share Save Elizabeth Dawson and Helen Briggs BBC climate and science team Share Save Aleksey Maro Understanding more about the diet of wild chimps could help explain human attraction to alcohol Wild chimpanzees have been found to consume the equivalent of a bottle of lager's alcohol a day from eating ripened fruit, scientists say. They say this is evidence humans may have got our taste for alcohol from common primate ancestors who relied on fermented fruit - a source of sugar and alcohol - for food. "Human attraction to alcohol probably arose from this dietary heritage of our common ancestor with chimpanzees," said study researcher Aleksey Maro of the University of California, Berkeley. Chimps, like many other animals, have been spotted feeding on ripe fruit lying on the forest floor, but this is the first study to make clear how much alcohol they might be consuming. The research team measured the amount of ethanol, or pure alcohol, in fruits such as figs and plums eaten in large quantities by wild chimps in Côte d'Ivoire and Uganda. Based on the amount of fruit they normally eat, the chimps were ingesting around 14 grams of ethanol - equivalent to nearly two UK units, or roughly one 330ml bottle of lager. The fruits most commonly eaten were those highest in alcohol content. Aleksey Maro Figs are a significant part of the diet for many primates, including chimpanzees The research adds weight to the so-called "drunken monkey" hypothesis - the idea that the human appetite for alcohol was inherited from our primate ancestors. This was first proposed by Prof Robert Dudley of the University of California, Berkeley, who is a co-researcher on the study. Scientists were initially sceptical. But more observations of "scrumping apes" have emerged in recent years, said Prof Catherine Hobaiter, a primatologist at the University of St Andrews, who was not part of the research team. "What we're realising from this work is that our relationship with alcohol goes deep back into evolutionary time, probably about 30 million years," she told BBC News. "Maybe for chimpanzees, this is a great way to create social bonds, to hang out together on the forest floor, eating those fallen fruits. " Getty Images Wild chimpanzees in Uganda are under threat from deforestation and climate change

https://irrationalfear. com/p/the-great-hurricane-drought-of-2025 Exposing the Gap Between “Supercharged” Predictions and a Hurricane Season That Never Peaked DR. MATTHEW WIELICKI I’ve been monitoring the Colorado State University (CSU) real-time hurricane dashboard for weeks now: tropical. php?loc=northatlantic. Scroll down to the storm-by-storm table and the Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) plot; they tell a story that’s far from the “supercharged” nightmare we’ve been sold. Don’t just take my word for it. Pull up the official 2025 storm list, then eye the ACE curve. ACE, accumulated cyclone energy, measures the total strength and duration of storms; it’s like a season’s energy scorecard. When no named storms form, the energy flatlines. On CSU’s graph, you’ll see that the stall is clear as day, especially through the peak around September 10th. The data? It’s not matching the dire predictions. Meanwhile, the media machine churns out alarmist headlines (while never mentioning the hurricane drought): The New York Times insists climate change is making hurricanes worse https://www. com/2025/08/20/climate/climate-change-hurricanes. html France 24 asks if warming is making hurricanes stronger. com/en/environment/20250831-is-climate-change-making-hurricanes-stronger? Grist claims we now know how much warming “supercharged” Hurricane Katrina. org/science/we-now-know-just-how-much-climate-change-supercharged-hurricane-katrina/ I’ve spent years checking those claims against observations, including “The Hurricane Hoax: What the IPCC Doesn’t Want You to Know”, “The Myth of Increasing Disasters”, and “The Myth of Ever-Escalating Climate Costs in the USA”. The gap between rhetoric and records keeps widening. Want the nitty-gritty? Specific dates, season totals, side-by-side comparisons, why warm oceans didn’t spark a busy September, and a straightforward takedown of hurricane attribution studies? Dive in below. Open CSU’s North Atlantic page. The storm table lists every 2025 system with dates, peak winds, pressure, and each storm’s contribution to ACE. Right beneath it sits the season’s ACE vs. 1991–2020 climatology curve. That single picture is the season’s pulse. php?loc=northatlantic Total named storms: 6 (well below the pre-season forecasts of 13–19). Total ACE: About 39—roughly 30–40% of the full-season average (123). By mid-September, we’d expect 75–100 in a typical year. Key observation: No new storms since Fernand ended on August 28. That’s a 19-day drought during the climatological peak, flattening the ACE curve like a stalled engine. ACE, in plain English Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) is the season’s scoreboard. Every six hours, forecasters square the maximum sustained wind of each named storm and add it to the running total. Long-lived and strong storms add a lot; short, weak storms barely nudge the needle. That’s why ACE exposes hype. You can have several named storms and still have a modest season if they’re brief. Conversely, two long-track majors can dominate the total. In 2025, once the names stopped appearing, the scoreboard went flat. Why warm water wasn’t enough “Warm water fuels hurricanes. ” It’s a soundbite staple, but it’s only half the truth. The upper atmosphere calls the shots. Here’s why the tropical Atlantic’s heat (0. 5–1°C above average) didn’t ignite a storm frenzy: Strong wind shear: Winds shifting with height ripped apart budding systems. Shear topped 20 knots in the prime areas of formation. Dry air invasions: Dust from the Sahara and dry subtropical air starved storms of moisture, killing convection (the rising air that builds thunderstorms). Tropical Upper-Tropospheric Trough (TUTT): This high-altitude “storm killer”—a strip of low pressure and cool air 5–10 miles up—lingered, forcing sinking air and extra shear over the tropics. These hurdles trumped the ocean warmth, turning September into a ghost town for storms. rainfall, stop mixing metrics Much of the confusion is deliberate. Media pieces slide between how many storms form, how intense the strongest get, and how much rain they drop. The assessment literature is more cautious than the headlines: the long-term global trend in the number of tropical cyclones is weak or non-existent; there is higher confidence that the share of stronger storms and rainfall rates in storms can increase in a warmer climate. Those are different claims. A sharper look at attribution, and why I’m skeptical Event attribution tries to answer: “How would this storm play out without human warming?” It’s model-heavy and assumption-laden. I’ve critiqued it extensively, and here’s why I’m wary—backed by science, not spin: Counterfactual flaws: Results hinge on tweaks to aerosols, oceans, or shear. Alter one, flip the outcome. Many studies hold variables static, risking bias. False precision in noise: Hurricanes are chaotic; tiny track shifts change winds more than a “climate boost” of 5–10%. Data revisions (upgrades/downgrades post-season) add uncertainty. Overlooking 3D dynamics: Warming tweaks the whole atmosphere, but studies often isolate temperature. This can bake in positive signals artificially. No real predictions: These are after-the-fact explanations, not forecasts. True test? Predict the “extra mph” before a storm hits. harm: A modeled rain bump in Katrina doesn’t explain the catastrophe—levee breaks, population growth, and poor planning did. Losses normalize flat when adjusted for exposure. Attribution studies overpromise, fueling headlines that erode trust when seasons like 2025 underperform. What the quiet tells us, and what it doesn’t A flat ACE through peak hurricane season doesn’t debunk the climate’s role in hurricanes. But it demolishes the oversold tale: “Warm world = nonstop monster storms, every year. ” Climate is about long-term stats, and 2025 exposes the folly of one-variable hype. It erodes public faith in science when predictions flop and headlines scream anyway. It fuels wasteful policies chasing phantom threats while ignoring real resilience needs, like better infrastructure. The lesson? Always verify against data, not dogma. Seasons like this remind us: Nature doesn’t follow scripts. If we want credible climate discourse, let’s demand narratives that match the records. I’ve been monitoring the Colorado State University (CSU) real-time hurricane dashboard for weeks now: tropical. php?loc=northatlantic. Scroll down to the storm-by-storm table and the Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) plot; they tell a story that’s far from the “supercharged” nightmare we’ve been sold

com/vijay-jayaraj/2025/09/09/greenhouses-pay-the-costs-of-demonizing-greenhouse-gas-n4943487 By VIJAY JAYARAJ The era of hypothetical warnings about the cost of green policies is over. We have now entered the brutal phase of reporting with empirical data on the economic devastation that the foolish “decarbonization” agenda has left in its wake. The latest exhibit in this gallery of ruin is New Zealand, where the so-called “green” transition has just claimed a victim: greenhouse growers of the nation’s food production line. Typically made of glass or plastic, greenhouses are used for indoor crop production. They allow growers to control parameters such as temperature and humidity, enabling year-round cultivation of vegetables, fruits, and flowers. Common food crops are tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce. Because carbon dioxide is a plant food, concentrations of the gas are sometimes elevated in greenhouses to accelerate growth. All this requires a lot of energy, making greenhouses vulnerable to climate taxes on carbon dioxide emissions and bans on hydrocarbons, which drive fuel and electricity prices higher. Government policies have tripled natural gas prices for Simon Watson of NZ Hothouse, a 25-year tomato producer in South Auckland, who says the very foundation of his business is crumbling. “Twenty-five years ago, gas was abundant and we were told it was going to last forever,” said Watson. “It was a wonderful thing. ” But the good times are gone. Natural gas supplies are running out, and rising costs threaten to uproot the entire operation, disrupting hundreds of workers. Watson’s two plants represent about 10% of New Zealand’s 500 acres of covered crops in the upper North Island. He predicts many will have to cut back or close down because they can’t afford to pay for gas. Natural gas fuels far more than greenhouses. Watson points out that 80% to 90% of supermarket products — from meat and dairy to sugary drinks and liquor — rely on gas-intensive processes. The decline in natural gas reserves is pushing prices higher. The government and the energy industry have nine months to come up with a solution before the high energy demands of next winter make the situation catastrophic. Self-Inflicted Energy Pain The gas crisis in New Zealand began with a 2018 ban on new permits for offshore exploration in the Taranaki region, curtailing growth in oil and gas production. The energy sector, historically a significant contributor to New Zealand’s economy, has faced reduced investment and exploration activity, impeding domestic gas production. Recently reversing its ban on permits, the government has now allocated $200 million for offshore gas exploration. Similarly, New Zealand has withdrawn from an international group promoting the phase-out of fossil fuels, signaling a retreat from its climate policies. But it will take a while before these changes can yield results, leaving businesses in limbo. Threat to Global Agriculture This manufactured crisis reveals the true cost of climate virtue-signaling – not just in New Zealand but across the globe, where similar policies are damaging the agricultural sector. Canadian greenhouse farmers face carbon tax bills that represent up to 40% of their energy costs. Added to this are carbon taxes that Canadians pay when buying fuel, electricity, and groceries. Agriculture ranks among the global industries most dependent on fossil fuels, making it particularly susceptible to the harms of bad energy policy. Diesel fuel powers equipment, and propane runs grain dryers and heats barns. Nitrogen fertilizer, herbicides, and insecticides are synthesized from natural gas and oil byproducts. The biggest irony is that the CO 2 that climate activists demonize enhances photosynthesis and boosts agricultural productivity. The self-inflicted pain of “decarbonization” is not accidental but by design — a way of forcing a decrease in energy use to satisfy a perverted, anti-human ideology that preaches an apocalyptic vision with no basis in science or common sense. The question is whether societies will recognize this path to destruction before it’s too late to reverse course

UK and US unveil nuclear energy deal promising thousands of jobs 7 hours ago Share Save Charlotte Edwards Business reporter, BBC News Share Save Getty Images The UK and US are set to sign a landmark agreement aimed at accelerating the development of nuclear power. The move is expected to generate thousands of jobs and strengthen Britain's energy security. It is expected to be signed off during US President Donald Trump's state visit this week, with both sides hoping it will unlock billions in private investment. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the two nations were "building a golden age of nuclear" that would put them at the "forefront of global innovation". The government has said that generating more power from nuclear can cut household energy bills, create jobs, boost energy security, and tackle climate change. The new agreement, known as the Atlantic Partnership for Advanced Nuclear Energy, aims to make it quicker for companies to build new nuclear power stations in both the UK and the US. It will streamline regulatory approvals, cutting the average licensing period for nuclear projects from up to four years to just two. 'Nuclear renaissance' The deal is also aimed at increasing commercial partnerships between British and American companies, with a number of deals set to be announced. Key among the plans is a proposal from US nuclear group X-Energy and UK energy company Centrica to build up to 12 advanced modular nuclear reactors in Hartlepool, with the potential to power 1. 5 million homes and create up to 2,500 jobs. The broader programme could be worth up to £40bn, with £12bn focused in the north east of England. Other plans include multinational firms such as Last Energy and DP World working together on a micro modular reactor at London Gateway port. This is backed by £80m in private investment. Elsewhere, Holtec, EDF and Tritax are also planning to repurpose the former Cottam coal-fired plant in Nottinghamshire into a nuclear-powered data centre hub. This project is estimated to be worth £11bn and could create thousands of high-skilled construction jobs, as well as permanent jobs in long-term operations. Beyond power generation, the new partnership includes collaboration on fusion energy research, and an end to UK and US reliance on Russian nuclear material by 2028. Commenting on the agreement, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: "Nuclear will power our homes with clean, homegrown energy and the private sector is building it in Britain, delivering growth and well-paid, skilled jobs for working people. " And US Energy Secretary Chris Wright described the move as a "nuclear renaissance", saying it would enhance energy security and meet growing global power demands, particularly from AI and data infrastructure

Water firm bans tankers from transporting water for billionaire's lake 1 day ago Share Save Jonah Fisher Environment correspondent and Tom Ingham Climate and Science Producer Share Save Gwyndaf Hughes/BBC Water from drought-hit Hampshire has been used to help fill this lake in Wiltshire Southern Water has warned tanker companies to stop delivering its water to the Wiltshire estate of an American billionaire. Some of it was recently used, entirely legally, to help fill a lake, despite a hosepipe ban being in place locally for domestic users. Multiple water tankers have been filmed both day and night by local residents filling up from standpipes in part of neighbouring Hampshire where a drought order is in place. The BBC has been told that those tankers went to Conholt Park, a 2,500 acre estate owned by Stephen Schwarzman – who is one of the world's richest men and a financial backer of US President Donald Trump. A spokesperson for Mr Schwarzman confirmed that a small proportion of the water transported had very recently been used to help fill a new lake but said the water has been "sourced through licenced providers responsible for the lawful and proper extraction and delivery". They said that following the Southern Water request the supply of water to the lake had been adjusted. Despite the ongoing drought, the tankers are legally allowed to take the water in Hampshire under licence because construction work is not domestic and therefore not covered by current drought restrictions. However, Tim McMahon, Southern Water's managing director, said he was "appalled by this use of water" and that the company had imposed on immediate ban on tankers extracting from the standpipes. Southern Water said it did not know exactly how much water had been taken but that there had been a spike in the last week with "significant" amounts taken but with other users also making use of the standpipes it was impossible to say who had taken more. Jonah Fisher/BBC Locals have been documenting the movement of tankers to the Conholt Park estate. The water firm, which serves more then two million customers, said it was first alerted by residents in Andover who had spotted the tankers coming and going from the standpipes. Among them was Lawrence Leask, an air conditioning inspector who told the BBC that he has been waking up at 03:00 BST to follow the tankers from the standpipes in Andover to the estate eight miles away, just over the border in Wiltshire, which is not subject to a drought order at present. "We think there have been over 30 tankers a day, seven days a week," he said. "That's a lot of water. I worked out that 30 tankers means a million litres a day, something like that. " He said it had been going on for the past few months, prompting him to co-ordinate a network of neighbours who took it in turns to film and follow the tankers. One of those, Trevor Marshall, said: "We think they might be using the water to fill the lake. He makes notes of the tankers passing his kitchen window and sends them to Lawrence. "At the same time we're on a hosepipe ban - it's incredibly outrageous. " Reuters/Kevin Lamarque Stephen Schwarzman is an ally of US president Trump

US energy chief tells BBC nuclear fusion will soon power the world 7 hours ago Share Save Justin Rowlatt Climate Editor Share Save BBC/Pol Reygaerts US Energy Secretary Chris Wright spoke to BBC Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt dureing an interview in Brussels Don't worry too much about planet-warming emissions, the US Energy Secretary has told the BBC, because within five years AI will have enabled the harnessing of nuclear fusion – the energy that powers the sun and stars. Chris Wright told me in an interview that he expected the technology to deliver power to electricity grids around the world within eight to 15 years and that it would rapidly become a big driver of greenhouse gas reductions. His claims will likely surprise even enthusiasts for the technology. Harnessing the energy released when atoms fuse together could produce vast amounts of low carbon energy but most scientists believe commercial fusion power plants are still a long way off. "With artificial intelligence and what's going on at the national labs and private companies in the United States, we will have that approach about how to harness fusion energy multiple ways within the next five years," said Mr Wright. "The technology, it'll be on the electric grid, you know, in eight to 15 years. " Scientists believe nuclear fusion, which Mr Wright studied at university, could one day produce vast amounts of energy without heating up our atmosphere. But it's a very complex process. Replicating it on Earth involves heating atoms to temperatures many times hotter than the sun. President Donald Trump's controversial energy chief also urged the UK government to lift the de facto ban on fracking and issue new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea. The US Energy Secretary warned the Trump Administration had "serious concerns" about Europe's reliance on Chinese renewable technologies. "It looks like the Chinese could control what's going on with your energy system," he said. He repeated the claims made by Donald Trump that the UK and Europe's effort to transition away from fossil fuels to low carbon energy is driving deindustrialisation and impoverishing their citizens. Mr Wright is in Brussels ahead of Donald Trump's second state visit to the UK next week. The US President will meet Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and will attend a banquet hosted by King Charles at Windsor Castle. Getty Images China leads the world in solar technology and exports. The US Energy Secretary warned the Trump administration had "serious concerns" about Europe's reliance on its renewable technologies During the BBC interview the US Energy Secretary said fracking – releasing oil and gas trapped rock formations underground - could have a "tremendous" impact on the UK economy. Mr Wright, who has founded and run fracking companies in the US, suggested the oil and gas the process would produce could "bring back manufacturing and blue-collar jobs and drive down not just electricity prices, but home-heating prices and industrial energy prices". Reform UK recently said it would encourage fracking in the UK if it were to win the next election, but the British Geological Survey has warned the potential for the technology to produce large amounts of oil and gas in the UK is likely to be limited. Mr Wright defended the billions of dollars of cuts the Trump Administration has made to renewable energy subsidies. He said wind power has been subsidised for 33 years and solar for 25 years. "Isn't that enough?" the Energy Secretary asked: "You've got to be able to walk on your own after 25 to 30 years of subsidies. " Getty Images US Energy Secretary Chris Wright stands behind President Donald Trump as he holds an executive order The Energy Secretary also stood by the report issued by the Department of Energy in July which said the threat of climate change has been exaggerated. Among a series of controversial claims, the report said sea level rise is not accelerating, that computer models of the climate exaggerate future temperature rises and that climate scientists overlook beneficial aspects of climate change like the fact that high densities of carbon dioxide promote plant growth. Earlier this month more than 85 international scientists claimed it was riddled with errors and misrepresentations and that data had been "cherry-picked" - selectively chosen. The scientists also called into question the academic standards of the five authors of the paper. Mr Wright told the BBC he believes it is climate scientists who use data selectively. "Cherry-picking data in climate science, in the media, by activists and by politicians is the norm," he said. He acknowledged that climate change is a "very real, physical phenomenon" and said that he believes the world will decarbonise: "It's just generations from now, not two or three decades from now. " He said he was delighted his report had prompted such vigorous debate: "We've got a dialogue back and forth about climate change in a public forum. I've wanted that for 20 years. " He denied that the cuts the Trump Administration is making to climate science, including a proposal to slash the funding for the US's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), would damage US research into weather and climate. There has been speculation that the cuts could block the development of the next generation of weather satellites and could even lead to the closure of the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, which is responsible for the longest record of direct measurements of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. "There are a lot of rumours about all sorts of terrible things happening," said Mr Wright, who claimed the US government is trying to restore "real science". He claimed: "One of the problems of science is it's become so politicised in the climate world, if you deviate from the church, your funding gets cut off

Hand it to Trump: in just over six months he has flattened the left’s multi-hundred-billion-dollar climate change colossus. You don’t have to take our word for it. The New York Times this weekend admitted the movement is in shambles: The article admits this is “a uniquely bleak time” for climate activists and “the movement’s future is cloudier than ever. ” One longtime activist complained: “everything that I’ve worked on in my entire professional life has gone down the toilet in the last six months. ” Marc Morano of Climate Depot puts it well: “It’s official. The Trump administration is presiding over the unprecedented collapse of the entire global climate change effort. ” The story points out that under Trump 2. is repealing the wrongful CO2 Endangerment Finding, has withdrawn from the UN climate treaty process, and defunded much of the Green New Deal. There’s not much left

Life on Mars? 'Leopard-spot' rocks could be biggest clue yet 15 hours ago Share Save Rebecca Morelle Science editor Share Save NASA/JPL The rocks are covered with unusual markings that look like leopard spots Unusual rocks discovered on Mars contain the most tantalising evidence yet of potential past life on the Red Planet. The mudstones, found in a dusty riverbed by Nasa's Perseverance Rover, are dotted with intriguing markings nicknamed leopard spots and poppy seeds. Scientists believe these features contain minerals produced by chemical reactions that could be associated with ancient Martian microbes. It's possible the minerals were produced by natural geological processes, but at a press conference Nasa said the features could be the clearest signs of life ever found. Watch: NASA finds "clearest sign" of ancient life on Mars The findings are significant enough to meet Nasa's criteria for what it calls "potential biosignatures". This means that they warrant further investigation to determine whether they are biological in origin. "We've not had something like this before, so I think that's the big deal," said Prof Sanjeev Gupta, a planetary scientist from Imperial College London and one of the authors of a study which has been published in the journal Nature. "We have found features in the rocks that if you saw them on Earth could be explained by biology - by microbial process. So we're not saying that we found life, but we're saying that it really gives us something to chase. " "It's like seeing a leftover fossil. Maybe it was a leftover meal, maybe that meal's been excreted and that's what we're seeing here," Dr Nicola Fox, Nasa's Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, said in at the press conference. The only way to fully confirm if the minerals were made by microbes would be to bring the rocks back to Earth for analysis. A Mars sample return mission has been proposed by Nasa and Esa but its future looks highly uncertain. The US Space Agency's science budget is facing huge cuts that have been put forward in President Trump's 2026 budget and a sample return mission is one of those facing cancellation. Today, Mars is a cold and arid desert. But billions of years ago there is evidence that it had a thick atmosphere and water, making it a promising place to look for past life. The Perseverance Rover, which touched down on the Martian surface in 2021, was sent to search for signs of biology. It has spent the last four years exploring a region called the Jezero Crater, which was once an ancient lake with a river flowing into it. The rover found the leopard print rocks last year at the bottom of a canyon carved out by the river in an area called the Bright Angel Formation. 5bn years old and are a type of rock called mudstone, which is fine-grained rock formed from clays. "We kind of immediately knew there was some interesting chemistry that had happened in these rocks so we were pretty excited right away," said Joel Hurowitz from Stony Brook University in New York, who is also a Perseverance mission scientist and lead author of the paper. The rover used several instruments in its onboard lab to analyse the minerals in the rocks. This data was then beamed back to Earth for scientists to study. "We think what we've found is evidence for a set of chemical reactions that took place in the mud that was deposited at the bottom of a lake - and those chemical reactions seem to have taken place between the mud itself and organic matter - and those two ingredients reacted to form new minerals," explained Dr Hurowitz. In similar conditions on Earth, chemical reactions creating minerals are typically driven by microbes. "That is one of the possible explanations for how these features came to be in these rocks," said Dr Hurowitz. "This feels like the most compelling potential biosignature detection that we've had to date. " The scientists have also examined how the minerals could have formed without microbes - and concluded that natural geological processes could also be behind the chemical reactions. However they would require high temperatures, and the rocks don't look like they've been heated. "We found some difficulties for the non-biological pathways - but we can't rule them out completely," Dr Hurowitz said. NASA/JPL Perseverance has collected samples of the intriguing rocks