A major new report published today warns that nature loss is not just an environmental issue, it is already disrupting our food system, threatening catastrophic impacts on our economy and society. The report has been produced by the UK’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and Anglia Ruskin University.

30 April 2026 / Kiel / Mindelo. Tomorrow, fourteen Master’s students in the West African Master’s programme ‘Climate Change and Marine Sciences’ will begin their two-week training and research voyage aboard the research vessel POLARSTERN. Travelling from Mindelo in Cabo Verde to Bremerhaven, Germany, they will carry out physical, biogeochemical and biological measurements together with ten experienced scientists. This is the fourth time that the Floating University is taking place under the leadership of GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. This initiative significantly contributes to the goals of the UN Decade of Ocean Science and is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) as part of the WASCAL programme (West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use).

Hole-collecting monolayers (HCMs) have pushed perovskite solar cells to record efficiencies, yet the fundamental mechanisms of electronic behavior and how they work at the molecular scale remain elusive. In a recent study, researchers from Japan developed the first universal model for energy level alignment at electrode/HCM/perovskite interfaces. Using fundamental energy parameters, their model successfully predicts which HCM configurations can achieve efficient charge collection, enabling the rational design of next-generation solar cells with improved performance.