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3 weeks ago | 
geographical.co.uk | Bryony Cottam
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1 month ago | 
geographical.co.uk | Bryony Cottam
From the icy expanses of the Arctic to the coral reefs of the tropics, our oceans are facing unprecedented challenges. But amidst the growing concerns about climate change and environmental degradation, there are beacons of hope, individuals dedicated to unravelling the ocean’s mysteries and safeguarding its future. One such individual is Mattie Rodrigue, science programme director at OceanX.
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1 month ago | 
geographical.co.uk | Bryony Cottam
By Friday 21 March marks the first ever World Day for Glaciers, a UN day dedicated to amplifying the alarm sounded by scientists who warn that our planet’s ice is disappearing at an alarming rate. According to the World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Global Climate 2024 report, released this week, 2024 was the warmest year in the 175-year observational record, with dire consequences for melting glaciers around the world.
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1 month ago | 
geographical.co.uk | Bryony Cottam
By A global collaborative effort led by the Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census has announced the discovery of 866 new marine species, a major step forward in our understanding of ocean biodiversity. For centuries, much of our planet’s marine life has remained a mystery, with estimates suggesting that only a fraction of species have been documented.
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1 month ago | 
geographical.co.uk | Bryony Cottam
• When travelling, adventures don’t stop when the sun sets – start exploring in the dark• Search for clear skies away from towns and light pollution• Learn as much as you can about the night sky and local weather conditions Interview by Last May, as the strongest solar storm in decades swept through the Earth’s upper atmosphere, people across London spotted an unusual sight in the nightsky: the aurora borealis.
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2 months ago | 
geographical.co.uk | Bryony Cottam
By In 2016, the Colombian government and FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) signed a peace deal to end one of the world’s longest-running civil wars. In the time since, some 13,000 ex- guerilla fighters have turned in their weapons and, after more than 50 years of conflict, begun the often challenging transition back to civilian life. More than a third of them are women.
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2 months ago | 
geographical.co.uk | Bryony Cottam
By For many descendants of enslaved people in the USA, tracing their ancestry is a difficult, often impossible task. In Charleston, South Carolina, once one of the most prolific slave-trading ports in the country, researchers and community leaders have been working to identify the origins of individuals in a late-18th-century burial site – the Anson Street African Burial Ground – that was unearthed in 2016.
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2 months ago | 
geographical.co.uk | Bryony Cottam
By In 1982, Kshitish Chandra Saha, a dermatologist at the School of Tropical Medicine in Kolkata, India, was treating two patients suffering from black skin lesions. At first, Saha suspected leprosy, which afflicted a large proportion of the country’s population at the time. But he later gave a different explanation: arsenicosis – arsenic poisoning.
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2 months ago | 
geographical.co.uk | Bryony Cottam
By Catherine Wanjala has watched her fields of maize in Kakamega County, Western Kenya, yellow and wither. Her brother has abandoned his land. Like an estimated 40 million other farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa, the siblings are facing a huge threat to their food security – the result of a small, purple-flowering plant that shares the soil with their crops. Known colloquially as ‘witchweed’, Striga (Latin for ‘witch’) is a parasitic weed that has invaded nearly every country in Africa.
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Dec 30, 2024 | 
geographical.co.uk | Bryony Cottam
By Every 43 seconds, a child dies from pneumonia. Of all the infectious diseases, including diarrhoeal diseases and malaria, it’s the single largest driver of child mortality. Pneumonia has no single cause; it can develop from airborne pathogens – bacteria, viruses and fungi – but the most common cause is a bacterium called Streptococcus pneumoniae.
