Lead Story
After 30 years of restoration work, the razorback sucker climbs off the endangered list
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has finalized a rule reclassifying the razorback sucker, an iconic Colorado River fish, from endangered to the less-severe threatened status, with the decision published in the Federal Register on July 17 and taking effect this week. The upgrade caps more than three decades of cooperative recovery work by Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, multiple tribes, hydropower operators, water users and federal agencies. Razorback suckers, recognizable by the bony keel behind their heads, can grow to more than three feet long and were once on the brink of disappearing as dams and non-native predators devastated their habitat. Stocking programs, habitat restoration and predator control have rebuilt wild populations enough to justify the downlisting, though managers note the species still cannot reliably reproduce unaided in the wild and will keep receiving conservation support under a new 4(d) rule.
Read more →Lead Story
After 30 years of restoration work, the razorback sucker climbs off the endangered list
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has finalized a rule reclassifying the razorback sucker, an iconic Colorado River fish, from endangered to the less-severe threatened status, with the decision published in the Federal Register on July 17 and taking effect this week. The upgrade caps more than three decades of cooperative recovery work by Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, multiple tribes, hydropower operators, water users and federal agencies. Razorback suckers, recognizable by the bony keel behind their heads, can grow to more than three feet long and were once on the brink of disappearing as dams and non-native predators devastated their habitat. Stocking programs, habitat restoration and predator control have rebuilt wild populations enough to justify the downlisting, though managers note the species still cannot reliably reproduce unaided in the wild and will keep receiving conservation support under a new 4(d) rule.
Chemists crack a decades-old puzzle, opening a 'new chapter' in rare-earth chemistry
Rice University chemists have found a way to make neodymium, a rare-earth metal, bind to oxygen in a configuration long thought nearly impossible, using a custom-built molecular 'basket' just large enough to cradle a single f-block metal atom. By positioning two of these baskets facing each other with six precisely placed atoms bridging them, including a dioxygen molecule, the team coaxed two neodymium atoms into forming a reactive lanthanide-oxo bond. The work, led by researcher Hernandez Sanchez and published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on July 24, demonstrates pi interactions between dioxygen and a lanthanide metal for the first time. Because rare-earth elements are notoriously difficult to get to react in controlled, useful ways, the discovery could eventually give chemists new alternatives to the iron-based molecules used in biological reactions and industrial chemical manufacturing.
Read more →Chemists crack a decades-old puzzle, opening a 'new chapter' in rare-earth chemistry
Rice University chemists have found a way to make neodymium, a rare-earth metal, bind to oxygen in a configuration long thought nearly impossible, using a custom-built molecular 'basket' just large enough to cradle a single f-block metal atom. By positioning two of these baskets facing each other with six precisely placed atoms bridging them, including a dioxygen molecule, the team coaxed two neodymium atoms into forming a reactive lanthanide-oxo bond. The work, led by researcher Hernandez Sanchez and published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on July 24, demonstrates pi interactions between dioxygen and a lanthanide metal for the first time. Because rare-earth elements are notoriously difficult to get to react in controlled, useful ways, the discovery could eventually give chemists new alternatives to the iron-based molecules used in biological reactions and industrial chemical manufacturing.
Solar power became Europe's single biggest source of electricity for the first time
Solar panels supplied a record 25% of all electricity used across the European Union in June, according to a report released by energy think tank Ember on July 14, making solar the bloc's largest electricity source for the month ahead of nuclear at 21%, gas at 15%, wind at 14%, hydro at 12% and coal at 8%. The EU generated a record 52 terawatt-hours of solar electricity in June, with Germany, Spain and Poland leading the surge, and a record 129 TWh across the second quarter overall, almost 20% more than any previous second quarter. The United Kingdom set its own milestones in parallel, with Great Britain's grid hitting a new instantaneous solar record of 14 gigawatts on July 8 after a record-breaking second quarter. Analysts say the surge is now so large it is driving stretches of negative electricity prices in some European markets, a sign that clean power is increasingly outcompeting fossil generation on cost during sunny hours.
Read more →Solar power became Europe's single biggest source of electricity for the first time
Solar panels supplied a record 25% of all electricity used across the European Union in June, according to a report released by energy think tank Ember on July 14, making solar the bloc's largest electricity source for the month ahead of nuclear at 21%, gas at 15%, wind at 14%, hydro at 12% and coal at 8%. The EU generated a record 52 terawatt-hours of solar electricity in June, with Germany, Spain and Poland leading the surge, and a record 129 TWh across the second quarter overall, almost 20% more than any previous second quarter. The United Kingdom set its own milestones in parallel, with Great Britain's grid hitting a new instantaneous solar record of 14 gigawatts on July 8 after a record-breaking second quarter. Analysts say the surge is now so large it is driving stretches of negative electricity prices in some European markets, a sign that clean power is increasingly outcompeting fossil generation on cost during sunny hours.
NASA's Psyche spacecraft aces its Mars flyby, slinging itself toward a metal-rich asteroid
NASA's Psyche spacecraft successfully completed a close gravity-assist flyby of Mars, passing within about 2,864 miles of the planet's surface and picking up a 1,000 mile-per-hour speed boost that bent its trajectory roughly 1 degree relative to the Sun. NASA published a striking time-lapse video of the encounter alongside new flyby data on July 17, and confirmed on July 27 that every instrument aboard performed exactly as designed, returning readings that both matched existing knowledge of Mars and added fresh insight about the planet. The maneuver sets Psyche squarely on course for its ultimate destination: the metal-rich asteroid also named Psyche, orbiting in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which it is now due to reach in 2029. Scientists hope the mission will reveal whether the asteroid is the exposed iron core of an early planetary building block, offering a rare direct look at material like what may lie at the heart of Earth itself.
Read more →NASA's Psyche spacecraft aces its Mars flyby, slinging itself toward a metal-rich asteroid
NASA's Psyche spacecraft successfully completed a close gravity-assist flyby of Mars, passing within about 2,864 miles of the planet's surface and picking up a 1,000 mile-per-hour speed boost that bent its trajectory roughly 1 degree relative to the Sun. NASA published a striking time-lapse video of the encounter alongside new flyby data on July 17, and confirmed on July 27 that every instrument aboard performed exactly as designed, returning readings that both matched existing knowledge of Mars and added fresh insight about the planet. The maneuver sets Psyche squarely on course for its ultimate destination: the metal-rich asteroid also named Psyche, orbiting in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which it is now due to reach in 2029. Scientists hope the mission will reveal whether the asteroid is the exposed iron core of an early planetary building block, offering a rare direct look at material like what may lie at the heart of Earth itself.
Amazon deforestation falls to a 10-year low in Brazil as political will pays off
Brazil's national space agency INPE reported that just 1,295 square kilometers of the Amazon rainforest were cleared between January and June 2026, a 38% drop from the 2,090 square kilometers deforested over the same period in 2025 and the lowest total for any comparable six-month stretch in a decade. The decline marks a milestone for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's environmental agenda after years of surging destruction under his predecessor, and comes even as Brazil pushes back against U.S. tariff accusations tied to its environmental record. Ane Alencar, science director at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, said the drop shows deforestation "is not an inevitable process" and that its reduction responds directly to decisions made by government and society. Forecasters cautioned that a strong El Niño pattern later in 2026 could still drive up fire activity, meaning the gains will need to hold through the dry season to stick.
Read more →Amazon deforestation falls to a 10-year low in Brazil as political will pays off
Brazil's national space agency INPE reported that just 1,295 square kilometers of the Amazon rainforest were cleared between January and June 2026, a 38% drop from the 2,090 square kilometers deforested over the same period in 2025 and the lowest total for any comparable six-month stretch in a decade. The decline marks a milestone for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's environmental agenda after years of surging destruction under his predecessor, and comes even as Brazil pushes back against U.S. tariff accusations tied to its environmental record. Ane Alencar, science director at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, said the drop shows deforestation "is not an inevitable process" and that its reduction responds directly to decisions made by government and society. Forecasters cautioned that a strong El Niño pattern later in 2026 could still drive up fire activity, meaning the gains will need to hold through the dry season to stick.