A research team from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), led by Professors Gan Jianping (Department of Ocean Science) and Professor Yang Can (Department of Mathematics), has developed a novel AI-powered tool named STIMP for diagnosing coastal ocean productivity and ecosystem health. STIMP introduces a novel paradigm that imputes missing data and then predicts Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentrations across large spatiotemporal scales. In tests across four representative global coastal regions, STIMP significantly outperformed existing geoscience tools, reducing the mean absolute error (MAE) for imputation by up to 81.39% and for prediction by 58.99%. Accurate Chl-a prediction aids in early detection of harmful algal blooms, ecosystem protection, and provides data-driven insights for evidence-based policy-making. 

Dating dinosaur eggs is difficult: available methods are limited and prone to errors because measurement proxies – such as volcanic rocks or crystals – may have changed between egg laying and dating attempts. Now, in a first for paleontology, researchers used a new method to date dinosaur eggs by firing lasers at eggshell fragments. This way, eggs in central China have been dated to the late Cretaceous, making them about 85 million years old. The findings could tell researchers about dinosaur populations and the climate millions of years ago.

A Texas A&M geologist says recent findings from the Perseverance rover may point to the presence of past microbial life on ancient Mars.

A new fossil from Devon reveals what the oldest members of the lizard group looked like, and there are some surprises, according to a research team from the University of Bristol.  The study is published today [10 September] in Nature.

Dr. Tanja Stratmann has been awarded the prestigious Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). Starting in 2026, Dr. Stratmann will spend five years researching the nitrogen cycle of living and fossil sponges at MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen.