Leap seconds will end on May 20, 2027, under a rule the General Conference on Weights and Measures adopted in Versailles, France, and a new study finds Earth’s solid surface turning slightly rounder as polar ground rises
The General Conference on Weights and Measures, meeting in Versailles, west of Paris, adopted a rule on Oct. 15, 2026, that ends leap seconds starting May 20, 2027. Noël Dimarcq, president of the Consultative Committee for Time and…
In South Australia’s opal town of Coober Pedy, about half of residents live in underground homes that stay between 66 and 77°F, and SA Water takes over the town’s aging water system before 2027
In Coober Pedy, an opal town in the South Australian desert, about half of the residents live in underground homes that stay…
Outside the International Space Station, NASA’s Anil Menon and Canada’s Joshua Kutryk will install the last two roll-out solar arrays on Oct. 29 and Nov. 5, lifting station power to about 215 kilowatts
On Oct. 29 and Nov. 5, astronauts Anil Menon and Joshua Kutryk will step outside the International Space Station to install the…
At Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, a prototype cooling system uses heat instead of an electric motor to stretch an ultrathin metal film, and it reached a 4°C temperature difference across the device
Researchers in Germany and Japan have demonstrated a cooling system in which heat supplies the force normally provided by an electric motor.…
In Princeton, New Jersey, NOAA forecaster Nat Johnson ranked the 2026 El Niño the second strongest on record through August, and the agency now gives a very strong event through early winter its highest odds
NOAA ranks the 2026 El Niño the second strongest on record through August and gives a very strong event through early winter…
In Brazil’s Chapada dos Guimarães, Asian elephant Sandro, about 54, walked out of a crate after 44 years at the Sorocaba Zoo, and on his second night he chose to sleep outside under the stars
Sandro, an Asian elephant of about 54, walked out of his transport crate at Elephant Sanctuary Brazil in Chapada dos Guimarães, Mato…
Across Switzerland, 1,000 volunteers buried over 2,000 pairs of cotton underwear, and within two months gardens broke down about 58 percent of the fabric in soils holding roughly four times the phosphorus of farm fields
About 1,000 volunteers across Switzerland buried more than 2,000 pairs of cotton underwear for a soil experiment called Proof by Underpants, and…
On Lake Nasser behind Egypt’s Aswan High Dam, an estimated 3.2 trillion gallons evaporate each year, more than the Seine carries through Paris, and a 1959 treaty budgeted for 2.6 trillion gallons in storage losses
About 12 billion cubic meters of water, roughly 3.2 trillion gallons, evaporate each year from Lake Nasser, the reservoir behind Egypt's Aswan…
In northern Quebec’s La Grande hydroelectric complex, flooding pushed mercury in fish to 2 to 8 times natural lake levels, and the Cree health board now says most local fish can be eaten safely
In northern Quebec, flooding for Hydro-Québec's La Grande hydroelectric complex pushed mercury in fish to 2 to 8 times natural lake levels,…
In Sharjah’s Al Madam ghost village, about 31 miles from Dubai, sand fills houses residents left in 1994, and a wind tunnel test reproduced the sand pattern around two of its buildings even in the details
In the Al Madam ghost village in the emirate of Sharjah, about 31 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of Dubai, sand now fills…
In Alaska’s Bering Sea, snow-Tanner hybrid crabs became 13.4 times more abundant after a marine heatwave wiped out billions of snow crabs, and in 2025 they made up 41.7 percent of commercial-sized males
In Alaska's Bering Sea, snow-Tanner hybrid crabs were 13.4 times more abundant in 2025 than their 1988-2024 average. NOAA Fisheries scientists reported…
Inside the Sun, an Ege University astronomer’s models hint that our star may have swallowed a rocky world of five to ten Earth masses, and the best fit points to about 5.6 times Earth’s mass
The Sun may carry traces of a planet that disappeared billions of years ago. A new study suggests that swallowing a rocky…
In a San Mateo County creek, a geomorphologist surveying habitat for threatened California red-legged frogs found an intact Pacific mastodon molar, a species only named in 2019, and Stanford plans to carbon date it
A geomorphologist surveying a creek in a San Mateo County preserve for threatened California red-legged frogs this summer found an intact Pacific…
ECOnews on YouTube
See channel →
NASA: two spacewalks will lift ISS power from 160 to 215 kW18 hours ago
NOAA: this El Niño is already the 2nd strongest on record19 hours ago
NASA is building a Moon base. The robots land firstOctober 20
The only lemur that sings keeps a beat like human musicOctober 20
Dying of cancer, she still killed a crocodile: Arrowhead's last huntOctober 20
Angelina Jolie's foundation protects a 150,720-acre forest in CambodiaOctober 19Science
See all →
Leap seconds will end on May 20, 2027, under a rule the General Conference on Weights and Measures adopted in Versailles, France, and a new study finds Earth’s solid surface turning slightly rounder as polar ground rises
The General Conference on Weights and Measures, meeting in Versailles, west of Paris, adopted a rule on Oct. 15, 2026, that ends…
Between Saturn and Uranus, James Webb Space Telescope data show Chariklo’s inner ring about 50% more opaque than in earlier observations, and its outer ring’s signal about 60% weaker than in 2017
A small world beyond Saturn is giving astronomers a fresh puzzle about planetary rings. Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope show…
Archaeologists mapping a Qin royal cemetery beside Xi’an’s airport in China recovered 258 finds around a 656-foot tomb, and one researcher argues it belongs to Queen Dowager Huayang, the first emperor’s adoptive grandmother
Archaeologists have mapped a Qin royal cemetery beside Xi'an Xianyang International Airport in China, recovering 258 objects or sets of objects around…
Outside the International Space Station, NASA’s Anil Menon and Canada’s Joshua Kutryk will install the last two roll-out solar arrays on Oct. 29 and Nov. 5, lifting station power to about 215 kilowatts
On Oct. 29 and Nov. 5, astronauts Anil Menon and Joshua Kutryk will step outside the International Space Station to install the…
In Sharjah’s Al Madam ghost village, about 31 miles from Dubai, sand fills houses residents left in 1994, and a wind tunnel test reproduced the sand pattern around two of its buildings even in the details
In the Al Madam ghost village in the emirate of Sharjah, about 31 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of Dubai, sand now fills…
Inside the Sun, an Ege University astronomer’s models hint that our star may have swallowed a rocky world of five to ten Earth masses, and the best fit points to about 5.6 times Earth’s mass
The Sun may carry traces of a planet that disappeared billions of years ago. A new study suggests that swallowing a rocky…
ECOticias.com · Latest from our Spanish edition
Go to ECOticias.com →
El Niño 2026 podría batir récords: la ONU alerta de más hambre para 50 millones de personas
La OMM prevé que el fenómeno de El Niño 2026 alcance una anomalía de hasta 3,8 °C en el Pacífico …
Futuro de la Unión Europea: tres transiciones para frenar su pérdida de peso mundial
El futuro de la Unión Europea afronta una pregunta que afecta a sus empresas y ciudadanos: ¿cómo defender su prosperidad …
España recoge 9,3 kilos de residuos electrónicos por persona frente a 12,3 en la UE, pone en el mercado 36 kilos de aparatos y más de 4 de cada 10 kilos son placas solares
En 2024 se pusieron en el mercado español 36 kilos de aparatos eléctricos y electrónicos por habitante, más que la …
Inundaciones en el Mediterráneo: por qué las lluvias intensas pueden convertirse en riadas en pocas horas
Las inundaciones en el Mediterráneo combinan tormentas persistentes, cauces de fuerte pendiente y zonas muy pobladas, mientras el calentamiento agrava …
Mercado de carbono europeo: la UE pacta ampliar la reserva para frenar subidas bruscas
El precio de emitir CO2 vuelve al centro del debate sobre la competitividad industrial después de que la Unión Europea …
Energía solar fotovoltaica: 17.021 millones de ahorro en España en solo 18 meses, según UNEF
La energía solar fotovoltaica beneficia a todos, aunque no tengan paneles solares instalados. Es lo que ha demostrado un nuevo …
Environment
See all →
Two Perth scientists tested plastic pipes buried in mine waste rock as dens for endangered northern quolls, and the animals went in and out, with average highs of 92.5 degrees Fahrenheit, similar to natural dens
Two Perth scientists buried plastic pipes in mine waste rock in Western Australia as dens for endangered northern quolls, and cameras and…
In Sydney’s Homebush Bay, the SS Ayrfield, a 1911 collier abandoned at a scrapyard, has become a floating forest of mangroves, and the bay it sits in needed a dioxin cleanup that ran until 2010
The SS Ayrfield, a 1911 collier abandoned at a scrapyard in Sydney's Homebush Bay has become a floating forest, with mangrove trees…
In Suffolk, England, five moon bears rescued from a South Korean bile farm after more than 20 years in cages finished a 5,500-mile journey, and 219 bears were still on Korean farms in June
Five moon bears that spent more than 20 years in cages on a South Korean bear bile farm landed in the UK…
In South Australia’s opal town of Coober Pedy, about half of residents live in underground homes that stay between 66 and 77°F, and SA Water takes over the town’s aging water system before 2027
In Coober Pedy, an opal town in the South Australian desert, about half of the residents live in underground homes that stay…
In Princeton, New Jersey, NOAA forecaster Nat Johnson ranked the 2026 El Niño the second strongest on record through August, and the agency now gives a very strong event through early winter its highest odds
NOAA ranks the 2026 El Niño the second strongest on record through August and gives a very strong event through early winter…
In Brazil’s Chapada dos Guimarães, Asian elephant Sandro, about 54, walked out of a crate after 44 years at the Sorocaba Zoo, and on his second night he chose to sleep outside under the stars
Sandro, an Asian elephant of about 54, walked out of his transport crate at Elephant Sanctuary Brazil in Chapada dos Guimarães, Mato…
Energy
See all →
At Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, a prototype cooling system uses heat instead of an electric motor to stretch an ultrathin metal film, and it reached a 4°C temperature difference across the device
Researchers in Germany and Japan have demonstrated a cooling system in which heat supplies the force normally provided by an electric motor.…
In Corvallis, Oregon, chemists separated zirconium and hafnium in water with choline, a common food additive, reaching a separation factor of 33, and the solvent method used at two U.S. plants scores 6 to 7
Chemists at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, have patented a way to separate zirconium and hafnium in water, with no organic…
Princeton physicists reworked a 70-year-old fusion rule and calculated heating plasma first is the lowest-energy path to fusion ignition, while a trace of tungsten can roughly double the pressure
In 2015, Luis Delgado-Aparicio, a physicist at a U.S. Department of Energy fusion laboratory in New Jersey, won a five-year, $2.6 million…
When he was 15, he wanted to impress his mother with a kite, and that crazy idea ended up leading him to design a home turbine; what’s more, he has already sold his entire projected production for 2027
In a video KiteX posted in June 2026, founder Andreas Okholm stands in a field next to a slim mast held up…
Fervo’s Cape Station in Utah began commercial operation a day early at 33 MW, a first for utility-scale enhanced geothermal plants, and its co-founder traces the idea to overheating drill motors
Tim Latimer's road to Cape Station, the enhanced geothermal plant his company now runs in Utah, started with a maintenance problem. In…
The Tennessee Valley Authority has an NRC permit to build the first U.S. commercial small modular reactor, a 300-megawatt unit at Clinch River in Oak Ridge, and it still needs a separate operating license
The signing took place on a Tuesday in TVA's Knoxville office, with Gov. Bill Lee, Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Reps. Chuck Fleischmann…
Mobility
See all →
Over the Atlantic in 2001, Air Transat Flight 236 lost power to both engines and glided about 75 miles for roughly 19 minutes, and all 306 people aboard survived a hard landing in the Azores
An airliner running out of fuel over the ocean sounds like a situation with no way out. Yet on August 24, 2001,…
New Mexico’s Sceye flew a solar-powered stratospheric airship about 18,600 miles to Japan and back in about a month and used it to beam calls and video to ordinary smartphones from more than 54,000 feet
On the morning of August 9, 2026, a silver stratospheric airship rose out of the New Mexico desert and set off across…
Cologne tested a curb charger that hides a 22-kilowatt EV socket inside a standard-size curbstone, logging 2,829 charging sessions with over 99 percent availability, and installation still cost about the same as a charging post
Four curb chargers on Klosterstrasse and Dürener Strasse in Cologne logged 2,829 validated charging sessions in 329 days and were available more…
The world’s largest construction vessel had to take on ballast water and sink lower to fit under the 213-foot clearance of Denmark’s Great Belt Bridge on its way to a Baltic wind farm
Pioneering Spirit, the world’s largest construction vessel, passed under Denmark’s Great Belt Bridge on Tuesday, September 29, on its way to install…
Maersk fueled the 9,016-TEU Tangier Maersk with 100 percent corn ethanol in America’s first ethanol bunkering of a deep-sea container ship, as a national lab says today’s methanol-ready fleet could burn 2 billion gallons yearly
Andrea Lazzaro, head of business development at the marine engine designer WinGD, told Ship & Bunker in an interview published in March…
The Agua Negra tunnel plan calls for a custom machine to bore twin 8.6-mile tubes under the Andes, but the $1.5 billion Argentina-Chile project has been stuck since the IDB approved it in 2017
By August 7, 2026, the Cristo Redentor pass between Mendoza and Santiago had been closed by snow for 24 days, with more…
hoyECO · Sustainable living, in Spanish
Go to hoyECO →
Unos físicos de Stanford, en California, han registrado por primera vez en tiempo real los saltos cuánticos del sonido en un resonador que vibra 2,1 milisegundos y han visto cómo se apaga un solo fonón
Unos físicos de la Universidad de Stanford, en California, han registrado por primera vez en tiempo real los saltos cuánticos …
Más de 390 millones irán a 135 proyectos LIFE y España se lleva 27, más que ningún otro país, con un plan de 17,6 millones para salvar al desmán ibérico a la cabeza
La Comisión Europea ha concedido este lunes, 19 de octubre, más de 390 millones de euros a 135 proyectos LIFE …
Los botánicos del experimento de Beal, en la Universidad Estatal de Michigan, desenterraron una botella de semillas de 1879, germinaron 20 y el ADN confirmó un híbrido colado por error
Los botánicos de la Universidad Estatal de Michigan (MSU) que mantienen el experimento de Beal desenterraron en abril de 2021 …
En San Antonio, Texas, el Ayuntamiento ha financiado desde 2016 más de 2000 tejados reflectantes a familias humildes, y en las primeras casas medidas el ático se enfrió 5,6 °C las tardes de verano
El Ayuntamiento de San Antonio, en Texas, ha financiado desde 2016 más de 2000 tejados reflectantes en viviendas de familias …
Junto a los cayos Marquesas, en Florida, el equipo de Mel Fisher halló en 1985 la bodega del galeón Atocha tras 16 años de búsqueda, y en el pecio aparecieron unas 6000 esmeraldas sin registrar
El 20 de julio de 1985, el equipo de Mel Fisher encontró junto a los cayos Marquesas, en Florida, la …
En Asturias, el puente de Ribadesella, de 1940, cerrará al tráfico rodado el 26 de octubre, previsiblemente hasta marzo de 2027, y Transportes le pondrá un tablero nuevo de 13,15 metros con carril bici
El Ministerio de Transportes y Movilidad Sostenible cerrará por completo al tráfico rodado el puente de Ribadesella, sobre el río …
Technology
See all →
At Japan’s car parts shipping sites, workers read about 10 barcodes per product until DENSO’s Masahiro Hara created the QR code in 1994, and it now tracks glass eels for an expected 10,000 traders a year
Masahiro Hara, a barcode engineer at DENSO, created the QR code in 1994 after watching workers at car parts shipping sites in…
Pegasus, a 16-foot-wide drone built by three Australian companies, flew for almost 2 hours over Queensland on a single lithium-sulfur battery pack, and its makers now expect missions of 5 to 8 hours
On its longest test flight, over Queensland in Australia, a drone called Pegasus ran on one lithium-sulfur battery pack for almost 2…
Louisiana’s Lake Peigneur emptied into a salt mine within hours in 1980 while a Texaco rig drilled on the lake, and about 50 miners escaped, but federal investigators never pinned down the exact cause
Leonce Viator Jr. had taken his nephew out to their favorite fishing hole on Lake Peigneur early on November 20, 1980. "I…
GM and LG will mass-produce LMR battery cells in Tennessee and add 500 jobs
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and his deputy governor, Stuart McWhorter, announced on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, that the battery plant in Spring…
Physicists fired a laser at the plastic used in drink bottles and recovered nanodiamonds just 3 nanometers wide, after each shot hurled about 10 trillion of them at more than 22,000 mph into a soft gel
"The idea is quite cool. You take water bottle plastic; you zap it with a laser to make diamond. How practical it…
Robots built by the Israeli company Ecoppia roll along desert solar panels every night and brush off the dust without a drop of water, saving about 2.6 billion gallons so far, according to the company
Picture a huge solar farm in the desert at night. No sun, no workers, just long rows of dark panels. And then,…
Economy
See all →
Two amateur archaeologists found 141 Roman gold coins in a field in Luxembourg, and beneath them, they also discovered a fortification that had been buried for more than 1,600 years
Two amateur archaeologists prospecting a plowed field near Holzthum, a village in northern Luxembourg, set off a find that ended with 141…
In 1988, a treasure hunter discovered a ship loaded with gold that had been sunk since 1857, but he ended up spending more than 11 years behind bars over 500 coins whose whereabouts remain a mystery
Finding a sunken fortune sounds like the end of a treasure hunt. For American engineer Tommy Thompson, it became the beginning of…
A miner pushing dirt with a bulldozer near Ruby, Alaska, in 1998 spotted something unusual, and it turned out to be the state’s largest gold nugget, a 294.1-troy-ounce mass that later sold for $750,000
In 1998, Barry Clay was pushing dirt with a bulldozer on a placer claim along Swift Creek, near the Yukon River village…
Someone laying a patio in northern Denmark dug up the country’s largest known Viking silver hoard, 18.5 kilograms of bracelets, bars and coins, and one bar is scratched with a runic word experts have never seen before
"It was only supposed to be a couple of hours of hard yard work," the finder said, translated from Danish. The job…
A Wyoming coal mine bought for $2 million in 2011 holds what Ramaco calls the largest unconventional rare earth deposit in the US, and a new engineering report has pushed first production back to 2031
Randall Atkins went to Wyoming looking for coal. In 2011 his company bought the defunct Brook Mine near Sheridan for $2 million,…
A metal detectorist near Cologne stopped digging after 15 silver coins and called archaeologists, who then found 934 Roman denarii, the largest hoard from Hadrian’s time ever found in Germany
Oliver Riedl had already pulled 15 silver coins out of a field near Wesseling, south of Cologne, and his metal detector was…
Trending
See all →
At a fire lab at Brazil’s Unisinos University, Tetra Pak carton strips carried flames nearly 6 inches in 14 seconds, and the 17.6°F they took off a test roof’s surface shrank indoors
At a fire lab at Brazil's Unisinos University, strips of Tetra Pak carton, the material promoted online as a cheap way to…
Kelvin Doe built a battery, a generator and an FM radio station from Freetown’s trash and reached MIT at 15, and 14 years later he is building a free youth makerspace in Toronto
Kelvin Doe grew up in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and as a teenager he dug through the garbage for parts to build his…
Juan, 29, chose an olive farm near Tarragona, Spain, over a Barcelona apartment costing more than $1,100 a month, and now he sells organic olive oil and grows 80 percent of his vegetables
Juan keeps his organic olive oil in a little stone hut at the mouth of a tunnel in a Catalan hillside. "We…
A Burkina Faso farmer filled zaï pits with manure and grew a nearly 100-acre forest on abandoned land, and a study found termite tunnels made rain soak in 2 to 4 times faster
The sun was going down on another scorching day when journalist Mark Hertsgaard found Yacouba Sawadogo walking through his woods with a…
Naples Botanical Garden shows how an empty 2-liter soda bottle becomes a self-watering planter with a cotton wick, and a University of Kentucky extension guide says capillary action can lift water about 4 inches
"Have you ever wanted to grow herbs and vegetables, but you're worried about remembering to water them? There is a solution for…
A village of a few dozen winter residents on Stromboli reopened what Italian media call the smallest school in Europe for one 6-year-old girl, and her mother says the alternative was splitting the family
On September 10, 2026, a 6-year-old named Aysha went off to her first day of school in Ginostra, a tiny hamlet on…
