Science & Earth

UBC Okanagan researchers describe a dual-layer membrane that in laboratory tests removed nearly all microplastics and captured more than 98 per cent of nanoplastics from landfill leachate, and the membrane can be cleaned and reused.

Catania authorities have suspended or restricted guided excursions to Mount Etna after recent eruptions, prompting local guides to strike; Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology says lava fronts are cooling and not advancing.

Artemis 2 is scheduled to launch no earlier than Feb. 5, 2026, with four crew including Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen; the mission will fly around the Moon on Feb. 10 and return Feb. 15 and could surpass Apollo 13's decades-old distance record.

The article reports a U.S.-Canadian moon mission is preparing for a February launch amid international tensions. It recalls Canada's human spaceflight history, including Marc Garneau's 1984 flight and Chris Hadfield's missions.

U.S. authorities say they took control of two Venezuelan-linked tankers, including the Marinera, and that the crews may face prosecution; maritime analysts say more seizures of shadow-fleet vessels are likely.

The writer used Hipcamp to book cabins and yurts across Hawaii's Big Island, staying near Naalehu, Hilo and Kealakekua; nightly rates were about $90–$180 compared with much higher resort prices.

City staff were notified on Jan. 5 of an oil spill near Duke Point ferry terminal after oily residue was found in a storm drain, and a Transport Canada flight estimated 350–1,600 litres of sheen on the water while cleanup is underway.

A Nature Communications paper led by Paul Byrne reports that models of Europa's seafloor show little to no active faulting today, which would limit the formation of hydrothermal vents and the chemical energy such vents provide; NASA's Europa Clipper and ESA's JUICE missions will gather further observations to clarify the moon's interior.

A Brampton homeowner received a video showing shots fired at his house and a separate demand for $500,000; Peel police say their Extortion Investigations Task Force is probing the case. The homeowner and his family have left the residence.

The XRISM Collaboration combined nearly three months of high-resolution X-ray spectra to search galaxy clusters for unidentified emission lines that could indicate decaying dark matter; sterile neutrinos are cited as one candidate for such lines.

Astronomers completed a census of more than 2,000 nearby K‑type stars and obtained detailed spectra for 580 within 33 parsecs, identifying 529 mature, inactive K dwarfs as useful targets for terrestrial planet searches.

The 2026 King Faisal Prize named Professor Svetlana Mojsov as the Medicine laureate for her work on glucagon-like peptide-1 and Professor Carlos Kenig as the Science (Mathematics) laureate for contributions to nonlinear partial differential equations.

Jupiter reaches opposition on January 10, 2026, appearing high in the northern winter sky; it will be about 4.23 AU from Earth around January 8 and shine near magnitude −2.7.

First Nations on northern Vancouver Island say they were not adequately consulted after the Department of Fisheries and Oceans opened a commercial krill fishery on Jan. 5; DFO says the fishery is managed under a multi-year plan with precautionary catch limits and a 500-tonne total allowable catch.

Germany's greenhouse gas emissions fell by 1.5% in 2025, slowing from larger cuts in prior years, while the North Sea averaged 11.6C in 2025, the highest value in the BSH series since 1969.

A visitor recounts time on Viti Levu and the Coral Coast, noting beaches, village hospitality, local cuisine and a coral replanting activity, while reporting that rising floods are reshaping some rural areas.

CECO Environmental announced management will participate in the 28th Annual Needham Growth Conference on January 14, 2026, and the presentation will be posted on the company's Investor Relations website.

The Okanagan and Similkameen Invasive Species Society is asking the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) to request that 10 plant species be added to British Columbia's Weed Control Regulation Schedule A; the province plans to review and update the schedule this winter and the RDOS board will discuss the request at its Thursday meeting.

The Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens partnered with Urban E Recycling for an electronics recycling event this past weekend, and visitors received a discount for dropping off unwanted devices.

Researchers link rising clear-air turbulence to climate-driven changes in the jet stream, reporting a 41–55% increase in severe events since 1979 in some regions and forecasts that severe episodes could double over North America, the North Pacific and Europe if emissions are not cut; engineers are testing bird-inspired wing features that have shown promise in small-scale trials.

Researchers led by the University of British Columbia report detecting unusually hot gas in the young galaxy cluster SPT2349-56, about 12 billion light‑years away, and published the result in Nature.

Benjamin Libet's 1980s experiments found a brain 'readiness potential' that began about 0.2 seconds before participants reported the conscious intention to move, and the article contrasts this finding with Laplace's articulation of causal determinism in physics.

Astronomers report SN 2025wny, a superluminous supernova about 10 billion light-years away, was the first to be spatially resolved after its light was magnified and split by foreground galaxies.

Astronomers report that Cloud 9, a nearby gas cloud about 14 million light-years away, contains neutral hydrogen but shows no detectable stars; follow-up Hubble imaging supports its identification as a Reionization-Limited H I Cloud (RELHIC). The finding aligns with a Lambda-CDM prediction that some dark-matter haloes can remain starless.

The article reports researcher Shanmukha Sreenivas Madras is developing adjusted culture methods and multiplex qPCR assays to speed molecular diagnosis and has created quality-management frameworks to support clinical validation.

An independent review found CleanBC has cut emissions about 20% below 2007 levels but will likely meet only about half of its 2030 target; the report recommends renewing the program and speeding electrification.

Officials reported five people died in weather-related accidents as a cold snap brought temperatures below -12C in parts of Britain and caused widespread travel disruption in the Netherlands and at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

Researchers report that B.C. and western North American glaciers lost an estimated 30 gigatonnes of mass in 2025, the second‑worst year on record, and a 2021–24 study found only 2023 was worse.

Robert Stitt, 75, has given up his Beaver River trapline this year, citing rising aircraft costs and the threat of wildfires after a near-loss of his camp in 2021; he says he plans to find a different trapline and be out next winter.

A white paper submitted to ESO's Expanding Horizons initiative calls for broader, high-cadence observations of stellar flares because many potentially habitable planets orbit active M dwarfs and flares can alter planetary atmospheres.