Every day, hospitals rely on platelet transfusions to stop bleeding, support cancer treatment and help patients recover from surgery and serious illness. Yet one of medicine’s most essential blood products is also among its most fragile. Unlike red blood cells, which can be stored for several weeks, platelets last just a few days.
Andrew B. Watkins, Monash University Sweltering temperatures are shattering records across Europe, as the continent battles a deadly heatwave. On Tuesday and Wednesday, France endured its hottest days in history, with western regions reaching highs of between 39°C and 43°C. Wednesday was the United Kingdom’s warmest June day on record, with the mercury
Marcos Rodrigues Mimbrero, Universidad de Zaragoza; AXA Research Fund and Jorge Félez Bernal, Université de Concepcion Fire-smart risk assessment is needed to tackle the scale of wildfire destruction, which is a growing reality across the globe. Hazardous fires are more intense and more frequent, fuelled both by climate change and by the no
Along a small stream in Spain, groups of teenagers are at work. One hovers around a black tarpaulin covered in wet pieces of plastic. Another stands on a small bridge, fishing with a net. Others sort small pieces of plastic, cigarette butts and various other things they’ve recovered from the stream. What looks
Ph. The Dames Point Bridge spans a river in Jacksonville, Fla. Jonathan Zander/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY Alex Krasnok, Florida International University Every bridge has parts that drivers never see: steel buried in concrete, welds tucked under girders, and soil packed around foundations below the waterline. A bridge can look fine from the road
Hybrid cars are a regular sight on European roads today. Sitting between internal combustion engines and fully electric vehicles, they run on fuel for some of the journey and electricity for the rest. That concept might be about to shake up the aviation industry. Aviation accounts for around 2.5% of global carbon emissions,
Kira Lancker, University of Copenhagen At lakeside markets along Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake by area, choosing fish to eat is part of daily life. A customer might pick a tilapia based on its freshness, size, price, and farmed or non-farmed origin, much like shoppers do in markets and supermarkets around the world.
Tania Prinsloo, University of Johannesburg Foot and mouth disease is common in South Africa’s wildlife reserves. There are constant efforts to make sure it doesn’t spread to farmed animals. But since 2019 the country has seen repeated outbreaks on farms. In 2026 the country’s R80 billion (US$5 billion) beef industry faced a crisis
Ph. Marine heat waves can trigger coral bleaching. Alexis Rosenfeld/Getty Images Dillon Amaya, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration It’s official: El Niño is back. By late fall 2026, forecast models give a 2-in-3 chance of a strong-to-very strong El Niño affecting the weather, climate and ocean temperatures across the planet. El Niño is
Nearly a century after her death, Marie Skłodowska-Curie remains one of science’s most enduring symbols of curiosity and discovery. The breakthroughs she made in radioactivity transformed medicine and physics, and her legacy reaches far beyond the laboratory. “I am among those who think that science has great beauty,” she once said. Born in