Conservation experts are uniting to protect some of the world’s most endangered species and their habitats.

The Nature FIRST project launched in 2022, with University of Staffordshire and 11 global partners working together to improve biodiversity and protect species being threatened by human activity across Europe – including wolf, bear, lynx, and sturgeon.

An event on 25 – 26 June 2025 will mark the culmination of the £4.9m Horizon Europe funded project, bringing together leading conservationists, researchers, policymakers, and innovators to exchange strategies and drive impactful solutions for biodiversity conservation.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a key aspect of our lives. Large language model (LLM) is an AI which can understand and generate human-like text. ChatGPT is an LLM which is gaining popularity. A new scoping review of 16 studies explores the role of ChatGPT in writing instruction in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) setting. The review highlights the effectiveness of ChatGPT in providing feedback, revising grammar, and idea generation. The review also highlights the limitations of ChatGPT.

Electrospinning has been used to produce polymer fibres containing the well-known antibacterial drug metronidazole. The mats formed from them at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences could potentially be used as wound dressings, thanks to an appropriately selected polymeric structure capable of releasing the drug into the body in a controlled manner.

The global freshwater crisis has become one of the most urgent environmental challenges. Solar interfacial evaporation technology demonstrates significant potential for seawater desalination. However, conventional evaporators struggle with a persistent trade-off between stable evaporation and salt accumulation, as crystallized salt obstructs water transport and reduces efficiency. Recently, a research team from Shandong First Medical University published a groundbreaking study in Science Bulletin, introducing a novel approach to desalinate high-salinity brine. Inspired by the natural salt secretion and brine transport mechanisms of mangroves, the team designed a bio-inspired solar evaporator featuring an external photothermal layer and internal water supply channels. This innovative design effectively overcomes the long-standing trade-off between stable evaporation and salt accumulation, achieving highly efficient and stable desalination alongside continuous salt collection under high-salinity brine conditions.