Picked from a record 60,636 entries, the first images from the Natural History Museum’s wildlife photographer of the year competition have been released. The photographs, which range from a lion facing down a cobra to magnified mould spores, show the diversity, beauty and complexity of the natural world and humanity’s relationship with it. The winners will be announced on 14 October
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
08/26/2025 - 23:00
Sharks could struggle to feed themselves efficiently in future, affecting marine ecosystem stability, researchers say
Sharks without teeth might sound like the stuff of dreams to swimmers and surfers. Now a new study has found that ocean acidification could leave the apex predators without their critical survival weapon.
Shark jaws carry several rows of teeth and new ones quickly push forward to replace losses. However, rapidly acidifying oceans are damaging shark teeth and could speed losses past replacement rates. Sharks with bad teeth could struggle to feed themselves efficiently, “potentially affecting shark populations and marine ecosystem stability”, the study said.
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08/26/2025 - 11:00
Educators across the country confronted with how to deal with children in their schools who experienced tragedy
Schools in parts of Texas reopened their doors two months earlier than planned this summer. But the reason was tragic.
They were transformed into “relief hubs” to welcome volunteers whose efforts were instrumental in responding to devastating floods in the state. Now, as lessons have mostly resumed in Texas, the classrooms have been turned back from temporary emergency centres into places of learning, but that’s not to say the memories of what was lost will linger with the community indefinitely.
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08/26/2025 - 10:46
Mean temperature is tracking at 16.13C after four heatwaves, significantly above current record of 15.76C
This summer is set to be the warmest on record for the UK, the Met Office has said, after the country experienced four heatwaves.
The mean temperature for summer is tracking at 16.13C (61.03F), which is significantly above the current record of 15.76C set in 2018.
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08/26/2025 - 09:32
Firefighters try to corral Garnet fire, with parts of California under red flag warning, as Oregon blaze destroys homes
Numerous wildfires across the US west coast are challenging emergency crews from California wine country to central Oregon, as weather forecasters warned that the risks of more blazes sparking is not over yet.
In central California, firefighters are working to corral a fast-growing wildfire that is churning through the Sierra national forest as forecasters warned on Tuesday that lightning strikes from thunderstorms could ignite new fires.
Since breaking out on Sunday afternoon, the Garnet fire has scorched 14 sq miles (36 sq km) of grass, chaparral and timber in a remote area known for camping and hiking about 60 miles (97km) east of Fresno. The fire is currently at 0% containment, and officials said that “strong, erratic winds” would likely test firefighters ability to make progress.
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08/26/2025 - 06:30
As survivors and experts reflect on the storm 20 years on, fear is growing that the US is just as unprepared to take on extreme weather amid cuts to Fema
Darren McKinney grew up in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward. When Hurricane Katrina struck 20 years ago this week, he watched his neighborhood wash away. From his second-floor apartment, he saw flood waters rise up to his window.
“I had no food at all, no water, no electricity,” he recounted one rainy day this month, while taking a break from his job leading home restoration in the neighborhood as field operations director of the non-profit lowernine.org.
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08/26/2025 - 03:37
Activists claim Anant Ambani’s Vantara facility has no plan to return its endangered species to the wild
India’s supreme court has ordered an investigation into a vast private zoo founded by the son of Asia’s richest person over allegations of illegal wildlife imports and financial misconduct.
Home to a reported 200 lions, 250 leopards and 900 crocodiles, Vantara in western Gujarat state describes itself as the “world’s biggest wild animal rescue centre”. It is run by Anant Ambani, a son of Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire head of the conglomerate Reliance Industries, and was one of the venues for his extravagant wedding celebrations last year, where celebrities were encouraged to wear “jungle fever” outfits.
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World Ocean Explorer Wins Gold Medal Serious Simulation Award from Serious Play Annual International Competition
10/26/2023 - 14:35
For Immediate Release October 19, 2023
Sedgwick, Maine USA World Ocean Explorer, a 3D virtual aquarium and educational simulation, was recently cited for excellence, winning a Gold Medal Award in the 2023 International Serious Play Awards Program.
World Ocean Explorer is an innovative 3D virtual aquarium designed for educational exploration of the world’s oceans. With interactive exhibits and a lobby space, visitors can immerse themselves in realistic marine environments, including a DEEP SEA exhibit funded by Schmidt Ocean Institute, showcasing unprecedented deep-sea discoveries off Australia. Targeted at 3rd graders and beyond, this immersive experience offers a range of perspectives on the ocean environment and can be explored through guided tours or user-controlled interfaces. Visit DEEP SEA at worldoceanexplorer.org/deep-sea-aquarium.html.
Serious Play Conference brings together professionals who are exploring the use of game-based learning, sharing their experience, and working together to shape the future of training and education. For more information on Serious Play Award Program visit seriousplayconf.com/international-serious-play-award-programs.
World Ocean Explorer is a transformative virtual aquarium designed to deepen understanding of the world ocean and amplify connection for young people worldwide. Organized around the principles of Ocean Literacy and the Next Gen Science Standards, World Ocean Explorer brings the wonder and knowledge of ocean species and systems to students in formal and informal classrooms, absolutely free to anyone with a good Internet connection. As an advocate for the ocean through communications, World Ocean Observatory believes there is no better investment in the future of the sustainable ocean than through a new approach to educational engagement that excites, informs, and motivates students to explore the wonders of our marine world and to understand the pervasive connection and implication for our future, inherent in the protection and conservation of all aspects of our ocean world.
World Ocean Explorer presents an astonishing 3-dimensional simulated aquarium visit, organized to reveal the wonders of undersea life, with layers of detailed data and information to augment the emotional connection made to the astonishing beauty and complexity of the dynamic ocean. Within each of the virtual exhibits, students visit exemplary theme-based sites with myriad opportunities to understand the larger perspectives of scientific knowledge as organized and visualized to dramatize the impact and change on ocean life as a result of natural and human-generated events. Through immersion among displays, mixed media and 3D models, the experience of an aquarium visit will be brought into classrooms or home school environments as a free, accessible, always available opportunity for teaching and learning. All of this will be available to a world audience without physical limitation or cost. World Ocean Explorer, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, receives support from the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Visual Solutions Lab, the Climate Change Institute, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, and The Fram Museum Oslo. To learn more about the current and future exhibits of World Ocean Explorer, visit worldoceanexplorer.org.
media contact
Trisha Badger, Managing Director, World Ocean Observatory | director@thew2o.net +12077011069
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