A massive volcanic eruption in Tonga that triggered tsunami waves around the Pacific caused "significant damage" to the island nation's capital and smothered it in dust, but the full extent was unclear with communications still hampered Monday.

Planetary-scale engineering schemes designed to cool Earth's surface and lessen the impact of global heating are potentially dangerous and should be blocked by governments, more than 60 policy experts and scientists said on Monday.

Millions of Americans hunkered down as a major winter storm hit the eastern United States with heavy snow and ice knocking power out for an estimated 130,000 customers as of early Monday.

Nasa fixes malfunctioning equipment on a new rocket designed to take astronauts to the Moon.

New Zealand and Australia were able to send military surveillance flights to Tonga on Monday to assess the damage a huge undersea volcanic eruption left in the Pacific island nation.

Lowland tapir populations in the Atlantic Forest in South America are at risk of almost complete disappearance, scientists have estimated. Weighing up to 250 kg, the animal can adapt to most habitats in South America—but its populations continue to decline across its range.

Using artificial intelligence (AI) researchers have found that between 2007 and 2016 online sentiments around climate change were uniform, but this was not the case with vaccination.

It’s been dubbed the perfect invader, but the marbled crayfish may offer a sustainable food source and even help prevent diseaseSmall, bluish-grey and speckled, it would be easy to overlook the marbled crayfish. Except for the fact it is likely to be coming to a pond or river near you soon – if it is not already there. The all-female freshwater crustacean has become a focus of fascination for...

Dogs can figure out some things that even chimps can’t. Our science correspondent puts her puppy retriever to the testIt’s a cold winter’s day, and I’m standing in a room watching my dog stare fixedly at two flower pots. I’m about to get an answer to a burning question: is my puppy a clever girl?Dogs have been our companions for millennia, domesticated sometime between 15,000 and 30,000...

First up will be Gemini, the twins, then Cancer, the crab, and finally Leo, the lionThis week, the full moon will cruise through three zodiacal constellations. First Gemini, the twins; then Cancer, the crab; and finally Leo, the lion.The chart shows the view at 2100 GMT on 17 January, looking east-south-east from London. The moon will be full and sitting just below the two brightest stars of...

When the huge eruption happened over the weekend, a fleet of spacecraft overhead gathered key data.

A charity director says the country's coal mining history means it has released a lot of carbon.

Up to 80,000 people could be affected after tsunami waves caused "significant damage" to Tonga.

One reader’s experience of the effects on family members of the conspiracy theories surrounding vaccinationsI read David Green’s letter on anti-vaxxers (12 January) and empathised with the letter written in response (13 January). The week before Christmas my dad died of Covid. The intensive care consultant couldn’t have been clearer that, in her opinion, if he had been vaccinated he would...

A 4 billion-year-old meteorite from Mars that caused a splash here on Earth decades ago contains no evidence of ancient, primitive Martian life after all, scientists reported Thursday.

Repeated exposure to major disasters does not make people mentally stronger, a recent study found: individuals who have been repeatedly exposed to major disasters show a reduction in mental health scores.

Graves dating back thousands of years are giving up their secrets, as new ways to pin down the sex of old bones are overturning long-held, biased beliefs about gender and loveIn the early summer of 2009, a team of archaeologists arrived at a construction site in a residential neighbourhood of Modena, Italy. Digging had started for a new building and in the process workers unearthed a cemetery,...

Two years of Covid have wreaked havoc with the nation’s mental health. What can be learned from the survivors of other traumas and is there a way of thinking ourselves to a happier, healthier place?It was October 2020 when I realised I was going to have to ask for help. I’ve always been anxious, but thanks to the pandemic, I developed debilitating health anxiety. A dire winter was coming and...

First, the beer was named for the fossil.

At least half a million chickens have been either killed by a bird flu outbreak in Burkina Faso or culled to prevent the virus spreading, the West African country announced Saturday.

An undersea volcano erupted in spectacular fashion Saturday near the Pacific nation of Tonga, sending tsunami waves crashing across the shore and people rushing to higher ground. Tsunami advisories were issued for Hawaii, Alaska and the U.S. Pacific coast.

The discovery of African swine fever in northern Italy has Italian pork producers fearing significant economic damage to a major agricultural export and has forced curtailing of the official seasons to hunt for game and to gather prized truffles.