The Latest Breaking News from NERC

In October 2021, thousands of dead and dying crabs and lobsters washed up along 45 miles (70km) of coastline in north-east England. This mass-mortality event coincided with the redevelopment of one of the UK’s largest ports at Teesside.

Extreme weather is by definition rare on our planet. Ferocious storms, searing heatwaves and biting cold snaps illustrate what the climate is capable of at its worst. However, since Earth’s climate is rapidly warming, predominantly due to fossil fuel burning, the range of possible weather conditions, including extremes, is changing.

A little-known group of microscopic animals has spent millions of years copying recipes for antibiotics from bacteria and using them to fight infections, we have shown in a new paper. We think this unusual defensive strategy could offer short-cuts in the race to develop antimicrobial treatments.

Twenty thousand years ago the world was locked into a great ice age. Ice sheets two miles thick covered much of North America, Scandinavia and the British Isles.