Science & Climate

Since being relocated to west London, the beaver colony appears to have stopped flooding in an urban area This chonky beaver is London’s latest flood hero  When a London neighbourhood needed a flooding solution, community groups suggested bringing in beavers — and it worked. For The National, CBC’s Briar Stewart …

Earliest known outbreak of plague was surprisingly deadly, especially for children This shared grave is among many containing children found at a 5,500-year-old hunter-gatherer archeological site in Russia. It contains two half-sisters, one around 10, and the other around six, along with an unrelated boy who was about 12. DNA …

They run the gamut from orange to purple to brown, eating toxins in the ground These anthracobia fungi are a type of fire-loving fungi that help consume some of the harmful chemicals in the soil left behind after a wildfire. (Submitted by Monika Fischer)  Within weeks of a wildfire, an orange …

University of Calgary study has implications for chemotherapy-induced nausea, neuroscientist says Rats chow down on grains of puffed rice in this file photo. New research from the University of Calgary and Washington State University digs into the effects of cannabis on rats and humans, particularly when it comes to appetite. (Sanjay …

The orbiting laboratory has far outlived its 15-year lifespan The International Space Station is pictured from inside a window aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour in 2021. NASA hopes to keep the station operational until at least 2030. (NASA)  Imagine you live in a house with walls that are just 2.54 …

Remote and under-resourced communities could gain the most As space missions get longer and farther away, it will push technology to support more flexible and automated medical care, according to researchers. (Pat Sullivan/The Associated Press)  The ear thermometer. Portable ultrasounds that plug into an iPhone. A virtual doctor’s appointment. All of …

Researchers aim to be first team to diagnose CTE while people are alive to ‘stop the disease and reverse it’ Unlocking the mystery of how CTE destroys the brain Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a devastating brain disease that ruins lives, but it can’t be diagnosed until after death. For …

‘El Niño conditions will pour fuel on the fire of a warming world,’ says UN secretary general This image shows the anomalous warm water stretching from South America into the central Pacific Ocean, indicative of an emerging El Niño. Forecasts are calling for a particularly strong El Niño event this …

Animal, plant, fungal DNA in squirrel latrine paints picture of Arctic grasslands in Age of Mammoths An artist’s reconstruction of Pleistocene Yukon shows Arctic ground squirrels scavenging meat and foraging on plants within the mammoth-steppe ecosystem. Ancient DNA from their preserved burrows and feces reveals this complex food web, where …

Extreme Cascadia scenario could expose gaps in Tofino’s tsunami planning Tsunami waves as high as 15 metres hit the coast of Japan in 2011, after a magnitude 9.1 earthquake. A new study suggests a similar disaster could affect Tofino, B.C. (Sadatsugu Tomizawa/NASA)  The first warning in Tofino, B.C., would not be …