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For those who turn their lenses toward nature, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest is among the most prestigious awards—it’s been referred to as the “Oscars of wildlife photography.”

Now in its 60th year, the competition drew in nearly 60,000 submissions from 117 countries and territories around the globe for its 2024 contest. While the winners have yet to be announced, the Natural History Museum in London, which develops and produces the competition, recently released a collection of highly commended images that offer a sneak peak of what’s to come.

From a leaping stoat to a baby manatee and a frost-covered deer, the images honored in this year’s contest reveal both tender and tense moments in nature.

“In this selection, you see species diversity, a range of behavior and conservation issues,” says Kathy Moran, chair of the judging panel, in a statement. “These images represent the evolution of the competition through the years, from pure natural history to photography that fully embraces representation of the natural world—the beauty and the challenges. It is a powerful selection with which to kickstart a milestone anniversary.”

One hundred photographs from this year’s competition will go on display at the museum beginning October 11. To recognize six decades of the photography contest, the exhibition will also include a timeline of key moments in its history.

Below, take a look at 13 highly commended images that set the stage for the upcoming exhibition and offer a glimpse into wondrous animal behaviors and the often strained relationship between humans and nature.

Going with the Floe by Tamara Stubbs

While on a nine-week expedition in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea, photographer Tamara Stubbs of the United Kingdom spotted these two crabeater seals taking a nap. The pair had fallen asleep near the ship, often submerged enough that only the tips of their noses poked out of the water.

“Every now and then the head would come up for a bigger breath, and two came up together, handing me this photo opportunity,” Stubbs writes on Instagram. “I can’t tell you how magical it was to watch, and hear, as they were all snoring away. Some moments in life are complete treasure, and this was definitely one of those moments.”

Crabeater seals are the most abundant seal species in the Southern Ocean, numbering roughly four million. Despite their name, they do not eat crabs—instead, they’ll dine on krill. But these tiny crustaceans require sea ice, especially during the larval phase of their lives—and climate change is putting them at risk by driving down polar sea ice coverage.

As Clear as Crystal by Jason Gulley

American photographer Jason Gulley has photographed many a manatee, but this image of a mother and calf in Florida’s Crystal River remains one of his favorites. That’s not only because of the calf’s expression, or the bubbles trickling up from its flippers, but because it represents a success story of manatee conservation.

“Just a few years ago, Crystal River was an underwater wasteland devoid of aquatic vegetation,” Gulley writes on Instagram. Nutrient pollution and human development had set off algae blooms that choked out any other plants in the water—including the eelgrass that manatees rely on. “Today, thanks to the work of biologists, community and non-profit organizations, and state agencies, Crystal River is bursting with aquatic grasses that are clearing up the visibility, bringing back fish, and sustaining a year-round manatee presence.”

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A mother manatee and her calf in Florida’s Crystal River amid eelgrass, which is crucial for supporting the large mammals. Jason Gulley /   wildlife Photographer of the Year

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In his first book, The Heat and the Fury: On the Frontlines of Climate Violence, political correspondent Peter Schwartzstein offers a vital and riveting account of how climate change is already pulling societies apart, feeding violence across the globe. Each chapter presents a nuanced case study: Across the Sahel, farmers and herders fight one another over access to limited water and fertile land. By the coast of Bangladesh, impoverished farmers turn to fishing to supplement inconsistent harvests and face capture by ransom-seeking pirates. Across Jordan, climate-related poverty turns villagers against their overwhelmed government and appears to boost recruitment in terrorist and non-state-armed groups. Schwartzstein draws on more than a decade of on-the-ground reporting to both distill and humanize these complex conflicts, be they local or national.

Scientific American spoke with him about the ways climate change ignites existing societal powder kegs, the mechanisms by which it distorts people’s decision-making and the risk climate-change-associated violence poses in wealthier, Western countries.

[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]

In many of the communities you have covered, you were one of few reporters raising questions about the links between climate change and conflict. How did you land on this angle? Do you think policymakers now see its significance?

I kind of fell into the field because the more straight political reporting space was saturated. But then the more I worked in the general climate and environment space, the more important I found it to be. I quickly realized I didn’t need to try hard to see the intense overlap—that I could tell the story of a country better by looking at it through the prism of water [access] and the environment than by a relatively superficial examination of the political scene. I mean, why, for example, does Iraq have water problems? For some of the same reasons, it has problems across the board: a legacy of conflict, meddling by countries near and far, incompetence, corruption, and an array of other troubles.

In 2015 I was quite literally laughed out of a room in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior when I broached with a senior Iraqi police general the possibility that climate troubles might be contributing to jihadi recruitment. To his mind and the mind of many of his contemporaries, this was just silly. But over the course of the past decade, there’s been an extraordinary sea change in attitudes, both in the wider Middle East and parts of Africa where I work, but also further afield. I’m still not convinced that many of these civilian and security officials that we see talking the talk on climate security see the linkages to the extent that their words might suggest, but there’s an understanding now of the need to at least pay lip service to the importance of climate change.

One difficulty seems to be that it’s hard to quantify the impact of climate change, and there are also so many different, overlapping factors that give rise to conflict. How do you disentangle these?

Yeah, I’d argue it’s almost impossible to effectively quantify the effect of climate change. What I try to do in this book and in my work is show that climate change is part of the equation, rather than put a dollar amount to the contribution. This gets at the heart, though, of why it’s taken so long for climate change’s destabilizing potential to be accepted to the extent that it has. It’s kind of a victim of its own nitty-grittiness.

Can you lead me through one of the examples in the book of how climate change might exacerbate or produce violence?

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Gossip Girl

Based on the best-selling book series, Gossip Girl premiered in 2007 and was instantly a must-watch for tweens, teens, and young adults. Who wouldn’t want a glimpse into the world of uber-wealthy teens living very adult lives—sans parental supervision—in the heart of New York City? 

But this is a tough show to introduce to your Gen Alpha kids (though today, they very likely will know the show’s star Blake Lively as one of Taylor Swift’s besties). Watching as a parent today, it’s a tough pill to swallow watching a show that glamorizes bullying, blackmail, and backstabbing.  

South Park

Many of the boys in my daughter’s elementary school are obsessed with South Park—which is crazy to me because I was in college when the show premiered way back in 1997. Even in the less PC days of the ‘90s, and despite being an animated show about fourth graders, South Park was NOT (and still not) for kids.

This show mocks every religion, race, and profession. In the early seasons, Kenny, one of the main characters, is killed in a violent and grotesque way in almost every episode. The truth is, South Park is actually a really smart show. The problem?  If you’re not “in” on the joke—especially if you’re not mature enough to “get” the joke(s)—the takeaways can backfire and send a negative message about acceptance and tolerance. 

Beverly Hills, 90210

I was obsessed with Beverly Hills, 90210 from the pilot. And, I’ve recently been rewatching in tribute to the recent death of the show’s star Shannen Doherty.  Yes, watching a show that premiered in 1990 seems innocent enough. Twins Brandon and Brenda Walsh get a massive dose of culture shock when they move from Minnesota to Beverly Hills—yet, re-watching as a parent, there’s many things that are a little tougher to accept.

For example, Melrose Place was technically a spin-off of 90210. We were introduced to Melrose Place’s mysterious handyman (emphasis on man) Jake Hansen when 90210’s Kelly Taylor, a junior in high school, all but throws herself at him while he fixes up her mom’s house. He didn’t deny her advances right away and though eventually it fizzled out, the whole scenario was so inappropriate as Kelly was 17 and Jake was definitely well into his twenties! 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I mean, the show is about a vampire slayer—it says it right there in the title. While this was one of the most popular series of the late ‘90s/early aughts, each week’s storyline unfolded in a bloodbath of intense violence.

This show is a toss-up because, on the one hand, you have an amazing, strong, female role model in Buffy (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) to introduce to your kids—but on the other hand, there’s a lot of death and darkness to get her there!

Pretty Little Liars

Pretty Little Liars, like Gossip Girl, is based on a best-selling book series, so some of the crazy plot points and disturbing reveals shouldn’t have been that shocking. But, seeing it all play out on the TV series was a little nuts. First of all, the show is about a girl who just vanishes! And, while her friends grapple with the loss, they’re also bullied by someone named “A”, who threatens to expose all their secrets if they don’t do whatever “A” says.

We certainly don’t want our kids worrying about missing classmates or anonymous, omnipresent bullies, but there’s also a plot line where a student dates her teacher for most of the series. That opens up a convo that I don’t think any parent wants to have with their tween/teenage kids!

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From Wikipedia

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The Wilmington insurrection of 1898, also known as the Wilmington Massacre of 1898 or the Wilmington coup of 1898, was a coup d’état and a massacre which was carried out by white supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, on Thursday, November 10, 1898. The white press in Wilmington originally described the event as a race riot caused by black people. In later study from the 20th century onward, the event has been characterized as a violent overthrow of a duly elected government by a group of white supremacists.

The coup was the result of a group of the state’s white Southern Democrats conspiring and leading a mob of 2,000 white men to overthrow the legitimately elected local Fusionist biracial government in Wilmington. They expelled opposition black and white political leaders from the city, destroyed the property and businesses of black citizens built up since the American Civil War, including the only black newspaper in the city, and killed from 14 to an estimated 60 to more than 300 people.

The Wilmington coup is considered a turning point in post-Reconstruction North Carolina politics. It was part of an era of more severe racial segregation and effective disenfranchisement of African Americans throughout the South, which had been underway since the passage of a new constitution in Mississippi in 1890 which raised barriers to the registration of black voters. Other states soon passed similar laws. Historian Laura Edwards writes, “What happened in Wilmington became an affirmation of white supremacy not just in that one city, but in the South and in the nation as a whole”, as it affirmed that invoking “whiteness” eclipsed the legal citizenship, individual rights, and equal protection under the law that black Americans were guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment. tangie

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We are living in a golden age of apples, a time of delicious, diverse, mouth-watering abundance that we could barely have imagined at the turn of the millennium. How did we get to a time when most of us, most of the year, can eat our choice of fragrant, juicy, sweet, crisp (oh so crisp) apples?

We can thank a mix of science, innovations, investment in long-term research, the multi-multi-multi-generational transmission of knowledge, communal action, and people who joyfully dedicate their lives to a cause.

What’s your favorite apple? I asked this question on the social media platform Bluesky, and this is a sample of people’s answers: Macoun, Winesap, Gravenstein, Winter Banana, CrimsonCrisp, SnapDragon, SweeTango, Jazz, Cosmic Crisp, Jonathan, Empire, Envy, RubyFrost, Hidden Rose, Sonata, Pink Lady, Regent, Honeycrisp, Honeycrisp, Honeycrisp. (My favorite? Evercrisp.)

Many of us remember that the U.S. apple market was dominated for decades by one variety: Red Delicious, which is a bold name for a bland apple. It is certainly red, with a lovely rich jewel color and a handsome shape. But delicious? The main alternative was Golden Delicious, a perfectly fine but similarly uninspiring yellow variety. Tart, green Granny Smiths, which were propagated in Australia in 1868 by an orchardist named Maria Ann Sherwood Smith, started taking a decent share of the market in the U.S. in the 1980s. And that’s where we were stuck.

David Bedford, an apple researcher at the University of Minnesota who helps develop new varieties (his favorite apples: Honeycrisp, SweeTango and Rave) says, “I still remember some big marketers telling me: we have a red apple, a yellow apple, and a green apple. Do we really need any more?”

Apple History

Today’s cultivated apples are produced by the tree Malus domestica. Its ancestor is Malus sieversii, which still grows wild in what is now Kazakhstan and bears small and variable fruit. Farmers began domesticating apples sometime between 10,000 and 4,000 years ago in the Tian Shan Mountains of Central Asia, according to genetic analyses. These cultivated varieties then quickly spread along the Silk Road trade route, where breeders crossed them with another wild species, Malus sylvestris. The ancient Romans developed techniques for apple grafting (more on that in a sec) and propagated the trees across their empire.

It’s a little challenging to track the cultural history of apples because in many languages, the word that came to mean “apple” could refer to any type of fruit. There weren’t apples in Mesopotamia, for instance, so the tempting fruit in the Garden of Eden story was more likely a fig. When the Greek goddess of discord inscribed a fruit with “For the most beautiful” and started the Trojan War, that fruit may have been a quince. And William Tell probably didn’t shoot an arrow through an apple on top of his son’s head. Isaac Newton wasn’t hit on the head, but he did say that observing an apple falling from a tree helped inspire his theory of gravity.

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STEM toys are a fantastic way to combine fun and learning, sparking curiosity and creativity in children of all ages. Whether shopping for science gifts for kids or searching for activities that teach valuable skills, these toys offer engaging ways to explore science, technology, engineering, and math. From hands-on activities like the GraviTrax JUNIOR Starter-Set for younger kids to the advanced challenges of the LEGO Technic NASA Mars Rover Perseverance for teens, the best STEM toys offer something for every age and interest.

STEM toys can range from really high-tech gadgets to simple, hands-on activities like marble runs and model rocket kits to even more traditional options like classic paper toys. These toys are designed to build essential skills in science, technology, engineering, and math, providing fun ways to learn while encouraging problem-solving and creativity. Whether your child loves tinkering with building sets, experimenting with science kits, or exploring engineering challenges, there’s something for every budding inventor. High-tech children’s STEM toys can introduce coding and robotics, while simpler toys offer valuable lessons in physics and engineering. They all help foster critical thinking, making STEM toys for kids an excellent choice for playtime and learning. Explore our recommendations to find the perfect educational gift that balances fun and learning for every child.

• Best overall: Yoto Player and collection of STEM cards
• Best splurge: Makeblock mBot Ultimate
• Best for little kids (age 3-7): GraviTrax JUNIOR Starter-Set
• Best for big kids (age 8-12): 3 Doodler Start+ Maker Bundle
• Best for teens (age 13+): LEGO Technic NASA Mars Rover Perseverance
• Best budget: STEM Explorers Superhero Science 

How we chose the best STEM toys

Our top STEM toy recommendations are based on extensive research. We reviewed expert opinions, user feedback, and product reviews to compile a list of standout options and tested them thoroughly. Read on to discover the best STEM toys that balance innovation, ease of use, and educational value, providing your child with engaging opportunities to explore science, technology, engineering, and math in a fun and exciting way.

The best STEM toys: Reviews & Recommendations  

We’ve handpicked the best STEM toy options to suit a variety of skill levels. Whether you’re looking for something simple for beginners or more complex projects for advanced learners, our detailed reviews will guide you in choosing the perfect STEM toy to inspire creativity and help your child build something amazing. 

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An alcohol-only diet would throw most species for a loop, but new research suggests that hornets can live—apparently unimpaired—with an 80 percent ethanol sugar solution as their sole food source.

Fruit flies, tree shrews, and many other animals naturally consume alcohol in fruits that ferment; this happens when yeast or certain bacteria are around to break down sugars in ripe fruit, creating small amounts of ethanol. Most animal species show signs of impairment or toxicity after consuming this substance at concentrations above 4 percent. But animal nutrition researcher Sofia Bouchebti, now at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, suspected that hornets and wasps might tolerate alcohol better—or even use it as a food source. After all, these insects’ gut is known to host yeast that converts fruit sugar to alcohol. When hornets or wasps pollinate and feed, some of this yeast rubs off onto plants and their fruits—playing a key role in the fermentation process.

Bouchebti turned her attention to the hornet Vespa orientalis, a type of social wasp. In a study this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, she and her colleagues at Tel Aviv University fed both hornets and honeybees sugar solutions containing 0 to 80 percent ethanol with a trackable carbon isotope. The researchers found that hornets’ exhaled breath contained up to 300 percent more labeled carbon than the honeybees’, suggesting the hornets’ bodies broke down the alcohol that much faster.

“There’s lots of energy in ethanol, and it’s a great metabolic fuel,” says study co-author and zoologist Eran Levin. The problem for humans and many other animals, of course, is that there are behavior and health consequences as the substance interacts with the brain and organs. But when provided with nest-building materials, the ethanol-fed hornets in the study completed construction tasks as efficiently as sugar-fed ones. When faced with an intruder, they did not delay sending “back off” signals. Moreover, hornets fed with 80 percent ethanol lived out their typical three-month-long lifespan; their honeybee counterparts died within 24 hours. Still, hornets showed no preference between sugar and ethanol when given a choice. “If ethanol is more nutritious and without bad effects, shouldn’t they want more? Maybe they can’t taste it,” Bouchebti suggests.

To distill the secret behind this metabolic mastery, study co-author and zoologist Dorothée Huchon led a hunt for genetic clues. She found that hornets possess multiple copies of the gene responsible for the enzyme that breaks down alcohol—an adaptation perhaps fueled by their relationship with yeast.

University of Rochester biologist James Fry, who was not involved in the new study, says it tells an “interesting evolutionary story.” But he cautions that the methods are too different from those of other studies to directly compare ethanol resistance between species.

Robert Dudley, an insect flight specialist at the University of California, Berkeley, notes that insects would never encounter such high ethanol values in nature. Bouchebti says the researchers “aimed to find a maximum limit, and we still didn’t find it.” Next up is examining gene expression during ethanol consumption and seeking patterns in this among animals known to be attracted to alcohol (some beetles and bats, for example). Dudley agrees: “A broader survey of social Hymenoptera and other insects is clearly called for,” he says.

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When you enter a relationship, you’re not just embracing the shared present, you’re also stepping into the emotional landscape shaped by your partner’s past. Previous relationships can leave behind unresolved fears, scars, and insecurities that inevitably affect your dynamic.

While this emotional baggage may seem heavy, it can provide valuable insights into your partner’s needs and vulnerabilities. Yet, if these feelings go unspoken or unmanaged, they have the potential to cloud your connection and make you feel like you’re navigating someone else’s unresolved history.

The challenge lies in supporting your partner through their emotional residue without compromising your own boundaries. How can you offer empathy without becoming the emotional caretaker? How do you respect your partner’s past without letting it shape your future together? These are questions many couples grapple with.

Here are three steps to help balance empathy and self-care, allowing both you and your partner to thrive without being weighed down by past shadows.

1. Be A Mirror, Not A Healer

When someone you love struggles with emotional pain from their past, it’s natural to want to help. Our empathy drives us to heal those we care about, but in romantic relationships, attempting to “fix” your partner’s wounds can backfire. This approach places an undue burden on you that isn’t yours to carry.

Your role isn’t to erase their past hurts or provide a magical solution. Instead, you can be a mirror—reflecting their emotions back to them with empathy and understanding. This means listening deeply, offering validation, and creating a space where they feel seen and heard.

Research indicates that “partner-orientation thinking,” which involves evaluating both your feelings and your partner’s regarding the relationship, can lead to greater relationship satisfaction. Often, what your partner needs most is not a fix for their pain but for you to hold space as they work through it themselves.

Why is this important?

Trying to heal your partner can blur emotional boundaries and lead to burnout, resentment, or even codependency. Conversely, being a reflective listener fosters a healthy emotional balance, allowing both partners to maintain their independence while offering support.

In practice, when your partner expresses insecurity or anxiety tied to their past, you might say, “I understand why what happened before makes you feel this way. I’m here with you now, but how do you think we can approach this together?”

2. Watch For Trigger Loops

Emotional baggage from past relationships often brings triggers—specific situations that provoke strong emotional reactions tied to unresolved experiences like betrayal or abandonment. These triggers can create recurring patterns of conflict, known as “trigger loops,” where your partner reacts not to the present but to past hurts.

For instance, if your partner was betrayed in a previous relationship, they might

become anxious when you’re late or don’t respond to messages promptly. Their reaction is less about the current situation and more about the fear of being hurt again.

Initially, these triggers may seem like minor disagreements, but if they keep surfacing, it’s essential to recognize the underlying pattern. Ask yourself, “Is my partner responding to the present or to their past?” Acknowledging this distinction can help defuse tension and clarify the situation.

Why is this important?

Left unaddressed, trigger loops can erode trust and lead to misunderstandings, leaving both partners feeling frustrated or confused. Recognizing these patterns early helps interrupt the cycle and prevents small triggers from escalating into larger conflicts.

In practice, if your partner has trust issues stemming from past betrayal and begins questioning your actions, it’s crucial to acknowledge the trigger instead of reacting defensively—one of the “horsemen” that predicts the end of a relationship. You might say, “I understand why this brings up old fears, but I’m committed to being honest with you. Let’s talk about what’s making you feel uneasy.”

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There are multiple ways to steer through past hurts without hitting rough waters. Here are a few of … [+]  Getty

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It’s said that lightning never strikes the same place twice and a watched pot never boils.

But neither statement is true—especially when your “pot” is an enormous tropical lightning storm bristling with thunderbolts, and you’re watching it from far above in the stratosphere. Two recent studies in Nature found that some storms are indeed at a rolling boil—one that emits powerful bursts of gamma rays, not steam. And some of these emissions occur in mysterious, previously unrecognized patterns, split-second flickers that seem to spark ordinary lightning discharges.

“How lightning gets started inside thunderstorms is a big mystery,” says Joseph Dwyer, a physicist at the University of New Hampshire, who served as a reviewer for both studies. “Decades of balloon and aircraft measurements have failed to find electric fields inside storms large enough to make a spark, and yet thunderstorms manage to make more than eight million flashes per day around the planet. We are clearly missing something important. These new observations could be that ‘something.’”

Scientists have long known that thunderstorms can produce gamma rays, extremely high-energy light that is more often associated with astrophysical phenomena, such as exploding stars and matter-devouring black holes. In earthly tempests, the physics behind such emissions is relatively well-understood: swirling, windblown water droplets and ice crystals build up an electric charge within a storm, with positively charged particles rising to the cloud tops and negatively charged ones sinking to the bottom. This results in a sprawling electric field on the order of 100 million volts—powerful enough to accelerate electrons inside the storm to nearly the speed of light, slamming the charged particles into air molecules that give off further electrons and setting off a cascade of collisions so energetic that gamma rays are ultimately produced.

Researchers had observed two forms of thunderstorm gamma-ray emissions: relatively long-lived “glows” lasting hundreds of seconds, as well as intense, microsecond-scale bursts known as terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs), bright enough to be visible to Earth-observing satellites.

But scientists also knew this picture was incomplete, built as it was on piecemeal readings from airborne and ground-based instruments. “We still have significant uncertainties in the electrical nature of storms, from the details of how charge is separated by particles within the cloud to the physics of lightning initiation and channel development,” says Vanna Chmielewski, an atmospheric scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Severe Storms Laboratory, who was not involved in the new research. “Many of these processes are difficult if not impossible to accurately capture in a laboratory setting or model, given the number of contributing factors, known variability within even a single storm and limited observational datasets which can be used for validation.”

To get a clearer view, in 2023 a team led by Nikolai Østgaard and Martino Marisaldi, both atmospheric physicists at the University of Bergen in Norway, monitored the gamma-ray emissions of large storms from up close and on high, chasing down thunderheads with 10 flights of a NASA-owned modified U-2 spy plane over the Caribbean and Central America. The program, called ALOFT (Airborne Lightning Observatory for Fly’s Eye Geostationary Lightning Mapper Simulator and Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes), constitutes the most comprehensive and focused airborne surveillance of thunderstorm gamma-ray emissions yet performed.

“ALOFT was designed to try to definitively answer the question ‘Are these gamma-ray flashes and glows common or rare?’” says Steve Cummer, an electrical engineer at Duke University and co-author of both studies. “And it delivered big time… The gamma-ray production process is way, way more important than we thought.”

The flights revealed glows and TGFs, as expected, but also much more: Both phenomena proved far more abundant than predicted, with most of the TGFs being dim enough to escape the notice of any overwatching satellites. The glows also weren’t steadily emanating from isolated regions in the storms as anticipated, but rather bubbled up in surges of radiation for hours across regions about 100 kilometers wide. And amid the hundreds of recorded events, the researchers also glimpsed something new—so-called flickering gamma-ray flashes (FGFs), pulsing spikes of emission that lasted for milliseconds and seemed to spring from glows. Most intriguingly, Østgaard says, “all the transient gamma-ray events were followed by intense lightning.”

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