SCIENCE

Like her ancestors before her, Emirati astronaut Nora AlMatrooshi has spent much of her life gazing up at the stars and dreaming of flying to the Moon.

A US spaceship attempting a lunar landing lifted off early Thursday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the second such private-led effort this year after the first ended in failure.

NASA has kicked off a series of marathon flights in Asia with the world's biggest flying laboratory, in an ambitious mission to improve the models that help to forecast and fight air pollution.

Earth has endured 12 months of temperatures 1.5C hotter than the pre-industrial era for the first time on record, Europe's climate monitor said Thursday, in what scientists called a "warning to humanity".

Bottled water is up to a hundred times worse than previously thought when it comes to the number of tiny plastic bits it contains, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences said Monday.

Consulting giant McKinsey & Company sought to place controversial carbon market schemes favoured by its fossil fuel clients at the heart of the Africa Climate Summit, according to internal documents and sources who talked to AFP. The documents reveal that the firm worked behind the scenes to shape the agenda of September's Nairobi gathering, a key event in the run-up to the UN's COP28 talks in Dubai.

When Chang'e-3 became the first Chinese craft to land on the Moon 10 years ago, it kicked off nationwide celebrations -- and a decade of major successes for a rapidly accelerating space programme.

The fashion industry's enormous waste problem is pushing governments, particularly in Europe, towards ambitious recycling targets.

Growing calls for the world to come to grips with the many ways that global warming affects human health have prompted the first day dedicated to the issue at crunch UN climate talks starting next week.

Covid-19 remains a threat as a virus variant has been spreading steadily around the globe, the World Health Organisation said Tuesday.

Nearly five times more people will likely die due to extreme heat in the coming decades, an international team of experts warned on Wednesday, adding that without action on climate change the "health of humanity is at grave risk".

Scientists proposed a novel idea on Wednesday that could solve two of the world's mysteries at once -- one that passes over our heads every night, and one that sits far below our feet.

Invasive species that wreck crops, ravage forests, spread disease, and upend ecosystems are spreading ever faster across the globe, and humanity has not been able to stem the tide, a major scientific assessment said Monday.

NASA has spotted a small new crater on the Moon that was likely caused by a Russian probe crash landing on the surface around two weeks ago.

Temperature records are being toppled across Asia, from India's summer to Australia's winter, authorities said Friday, in fresh evidence of the impact of climate change.

Air pollution is more dangerous to the health of the average person on planet Earth than smoking or alcohol, with the threat worsening in its global epicenter South Asia even as China fast improves, a study showed Tuesday.

A parasitic roundworm typically found in snakes has been pulled "alive and wriggling" from a woman's brain in a stomach-churning medical first, Australian doctors said Tuesday.

NASA and SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft blasted off on Saturday carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station.

India began exploring the Moon's surface with a rover on Thursday, a day after it became the first nation to land a craft near the largely unexplored lunar south pole.

From Quebec to British Columbia to Hawaii, North America is facing an extraordinary wildfire season -- and regions both near and far have found themselves increasingly blighted by smoke exposure.

India readied Wednesday for its latest attempted Moon landing, a historic moment for the world's most populous nation as it rapidly closes in on milestones set by global space powers.

Russia launched its first probe to the Moon in almost 50 years on Friday, a mission designed to give fresh impetus to its space sector, which has been struggling for years and become isolated by the conflict in Ukraine.

Russia's plan to launch its lunar lander on Friday is the latest in an international push to return to the Moon that includes the world's top powers but also new players.

Scientists have identified the maximum mix of heat and humidity a human body can survive.

The two men in bright overalls rooting for plastic on a Tunisian beach do so to make a living, but also in the knowledge that they are helping the environment.

July is on track to be the hottest month in recorded history, scientists confirmed Thursday, as UN chief Antonio Guterres warned Earth has moved into an "era of global boiling".

The world has been buffeted by fires, dire health warnings and broken temperature records in the past week.

July 2023 will probably be the world's hottest month in "hundreds, if not thousands, of years," top NASA climatologist Gavin Schmidt said Thursday.

The extreme heat in the northern hemisphere is putting an increasing strain on healthcare systems, hitting those least able to cope the hardest, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.