Two kona low storms dumped up to 50in of rain on Oahu, flooding fields and submerging equipment
Eddie Oroyan’s farm was thriving when the storms hit. He and his wife had started LewaTerra Farm last year on a gorgeous stretch of land on the north shore of Oahu. They were delivering vegetables to customers in the community, selling at farmer’s markets and to local restaurants.
Then, on the week of 10 March, a first kona low storm hit the island, bringing copious amounts of water, flooding their land and wiping out crops. Nearly all their papayas were gone. And the tomatoes didn’t survive. But the couple quickly began cleaning, replanting and tying down crops, confident that they would get back on their feet shortly.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
03/29/2026 - 08:00
03/29/2026 - 08:00
Fossil-fuel burning at Ohio facility could burn longer, leaving Middletown residents to face environmental risks
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It was just a few months after moving from Louisville to Middletown, Ohio, four years ago that Vivian Adams’s six-year-old daughter’s asthma problem worsened.
“My daughter was born prematurely so she already had lung issues,” she says, “[but] it’s gotten worse. She stays sick and coughing and can’t breathe. She’s had to go on everyday medication for her asthma, plus she has a rescue inhaler.”
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03/29/2026 - 07:00
Peaches, strawberries and grapes were almost always found to be contaminated with ‘forever chemicals’ in the analysis
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A first-of-its-kind analysis has identified Pfas pesticide residues on 37% of conventional California produce, with peaches, strawberries and grapes almost always found to be contaminated with the toxic “forever chemicals”.
The analysis coincided with the introduction of California legislation that would by 2035 fully ban Pfas from being used as active ingredients in pesticides, and require warning labels and other restrictions in the meantime.
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03/29/2026 - 02:00
According to new research, distinguishing between the UK’s 2,500 species could halt cognitive decline – so my brain could not be happier, or healthier
Do you ever worry that your brain’s slowing down and your mind is … what’s the word … fogging? If you do, I have news. A recent study on birdwatching, with the appropriately named lead author Erik Wing, found that learning to become an expert birder causes changes to the brain that may help to protect against age-related cognitive decline. Compared with novice birders, when true bird nerds tease apart difficult species, they show more activity in brain regions linked to visual processing, attention and working memory. These same areas also appear more compact, and age-related changes in them are smaller.
The take-home message is that learning to tell a chiffchaff from a willow warbler could help us to stay mentally sharp as we age. But what about discerning a common quaker from a clouded drab? Or a brown-line bright-eye from a bright-line brown eye? These are the names, not of birds, but of moths. I’ve been hooked on moths ever since I was a kid.
Helen Pilcher is a science writer and the author of This Book May Cause Side Effects
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03/29/2026 - 02:00
Exclusive: critics warn Reform UK use of trade policy would increase food costs amid cost-of-living crisis
Nigel Farage’s farming adviser has called for a doubling of wheat prices by using trade policy, which critics have said would hike food costs during a cost-of-living crisis.
Arable farmer and campaigner Clive Bailye has been appointed as a farming and land use adviser for Reform UK. Bailye owns the website The Farming Forum, a social network for farmers, and helped organise the large-scale protests against the Labour government’s introduction of inheritance tax for farmed land.
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03/28/2026 - 14:00
When we strip off, it is all there on our bodies: scars mixed in with the ordinary wear and tear. It’s bolstering – this evidence of life lived
Most waterholes in the northern rivers of New South Wales are hidden from view. Creeks snake through private land, unseen from the road. To find the path to my waterhole, a visitor needs directions. The forest is thick and there is no line of sight.
When I was a teenager, many of my peers lived on bushland with waterways. I had a close-knit group of girlfriends and we’d have weekend sleepovers, moving between each other’s houses and creeks.
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03/28/2026 - 01:00
University’s botanic garden will use study materials created by John Stevens Henslow, the naturalist’s mentor, 200 years ago
Plant specimens and teaching materials that inspired Charles Darwin and qualified him to work as a naturalist on HMS Beagle have been unearthed from an archive in Cambridge and will be used for the first time to teach contemporary students about botany.
The fragile specimens, ink drawings and watercolour illustrations of plants belonged to Darwin’s teacher and mentor, Prof John Stevens Henslow, and have been stored in Cambridge University’s herbarium for nearly 200 years.
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03/27/2026 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 28 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s44183-026-00189-y
Assessing the status and challenges of vulnerability to viability transitions: small-scale fisheries in the transboundary Sundarbans mangrove forest
03/27/2026 - 11:35
Rescuers used boats and excavators to try to guide 10-metre long sea mammal to deeper waters
A humpback whale stranded on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast since early this week has freed itself and swum into deeper waters, rescuers said on Friday.
A flotilla of vessels were following the weakened animal at a distance, hoping to help guide it into the North Sea and toward the Atlantic Ocean, its natural habitat.
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03/27/2026 - 11:13
Female named Rounder surrounded by family members when about to give birth to her second calf
Scientists have managed to film a sperm whale giving birth while other female whales worked together to support the mother and her newborn.
A team from Project Ceti, an international effort seeking to understand how whales communicate, was in a boat near a pod of 11 whales off the coast of the Caribbean island of Dominica on 8 July 2023.
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