antarctic in danger

The Antarctic is in danger of losing both its ice shield and its biodiversity. These two issues are typically treated separately, but are both linked via the climate catastrophe we are causing, so I hooked them up together in my latest feature, which is out now:

The Antarctic faces climate threats

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 14, 20 July 2026, Pages R777--R779

Restricted access to full text and PDF download

Magic link for free access
(first seven weeks only)

(Unfortunately, this year's features will no longer become open access one year after publication - do contact me if you would like a PDF and the magic link has expired.)

See also my new Mastodon thread where I will highlight all this year's CB features.

My mastodon posts are also mirrored on Bluesky.

Last year's thread is here .

Gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) have recently been recognised as four separate species,
three of which are threatened. (Photo: Liam Quinn/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).)

all about oysters

I didn't know much about oysters until three weeks ago, but a member of the editorial team at Current Biology suggested to do a feature on the restoration of oyster reefs, so I educated myself and found out a lot of interesting things about the ecosystems we lost, but could in some cases restore quite easily, for instance by dumping discarded oyster shells in the sea.

The resulting feature is out now:

Returning shells to the sea

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 9, 4 May 2026, Pages R363--R365

Restricted access to full text and PDF download
(Unfortunately, this year's features will no longer become open access one year after publication - do contact me if you would like a PDF.)

Magic link for free access
(first seven weeks only)

See also my new Mastodon thread where I will highlight all this year's CB features.

My mastodon posts are also mirrored on Bluesky.

Last year's thread is here .

Oyster reefs declined severely in the 19th and 20th centuries but are now being restored in many places. (Photo: The Tampa Bay Estuary Program/Unsplash.)

how trees rule the world

I keep writing about trees, all the wonderful things they do for us, and why we should stop deforestation. I never joined the dots quite like Harriet Rix does in her amazing book

The genius of trees:
How trees mastered the elements and shaped the world
Bodley Head 2025

which shows that our whole environment is basically the product of trees controlling earth, water, air, and fire, the classical elements referenced in the title.

So I should have written this book, but it was more relaxing just reading and enjoying it.

My review of the book is now out in the March issue of Chemistry & Industry:

A world shaped by trees

Chemistry & Industry Volume 90, Issue 3, March 2026, Page 34

access via:

Wiley Online Library (paywalled PDF of the whole review section)

SCI (premium content, ie members only)

As always, I can send a PDF on request.

PS I believe the book is now available as a paperback too - saves some trees!

plants recycling metals

It has been known for centuries that certain kinds of plants thrive on soils heavily contaminated with toxic metals, even on mining waste. It took a while for people to realise that these plants can be used to extract desirable metals from such soils. Especially in our times with ever-growing hunger for resources like nickel, gold, and rare earth metals, the rising prices of these metals have led to some plant-based mining methods becoming economically attractive.

Read all about it in my latest feature which is out today:

Mining metals with plants

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 3, 2 February 2026, Pages R73-R75

Restricted access to full text and PDF download
(contact me if you would like a PDF)

See also my new Mastodon thread where I will highlight all this year's CB features.

My mastodon posts are also mirrored on Bluesky.

Last year's thread is here .

The yellow zinc violet (Viola lutea ssp. calaminaria) has historically served as an indicator plant for soils rich in zinc ores. It is still found on former mining sites in the area where the borders between the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany meet. (Photo: Gilles San Martin/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).)

30 years of climate failure

I get a bit of an anger management problem around the time of year when another COP climate summit confirms that humanity has spent another year not doing anything to stop the climate catastrophe. Even worse when it's a round number, like this year's COP30 marking three decades of failure to even stop emissions from rising, never mind reducing them. I think my first COP-related article was this one on the preparations for COP15 in Copenhagen (2009). We still had hope back then.

By way of therapy, I channel that anger into a vaguely climate-related feature. This year's climate-rage writeup is about the Lancet climate report on the health impacts of the climate catastrophe. Obviously depressing, but then again it is also refreshing that the Lancet authors name the acute dangers we're facing loud and clear whereas the normal media coverage has all but given up on this emergency.

So, well, I've calmed down and my feature is out now:

An unhealthy climate

Current Biology Volume 35, Issue 23, 1 December 2025, Pages R1127-R1129

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See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2025.

The thread for 2024 is here .

The city of Belém, shown in this satellite view, is surrounded by Amazonian rainforest. (Photo: Coordenação-Geral de Observação da Terra/INPE (CC BY-SA 2.0).)

where our waste ends up

We do like to think that the stuff we put into recycling bins or return to shops will be neatly disassembled and reconfigured into new products. Unfortunately, a lot of it ends up creating an unsavoury mess in less fortunate countries like Turkey, Ghana or Indonesia, as Alexander Clapp reports in harrowing detail here. Many of the things going wrong with the global waste flows have also been reported elsewhere, but it is shocking to see them all in one place:

Waste wars: Dirty Deals, International Rivalries and the Scandalous Afterlife of Rubbish
Alexander Clapp
John Murray 2025

For a first impression, read my long essay review of the book which is out now in the October issue of C&I:

What a waste

Chemistry & Industry Volume 89, Issue 10, October 2025, Page 36

access via:

Wiley Online Library (paywalled PDF of the whole review section)

SCI (premium content, ie members only)

As always, I can send a PDF on request.

Blackwell's

coastal squeeze

Sometimes reading a new word or phrase opens a whole new perspective on problems that we may already have known about in a less focused way. The words alone can suggest new connections, analytical methods, ways of describing things, a whole new world. This happened to me recently when I spotted the expression "coastal squeeze" in the headline of a press release. So I had to do a feature about how the coasts get squeezed, and why, and what to do about it.

My feature is out now:

Squeezed between land and sea

Current Biology Volume 35, Issue 14, 21 July 2025, Pages R687-R689

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(contact me if you would like a PDF)

See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2025.

The thread for 2024 is here .

Coastal ecosystems are at risk of being squeezed out between rising sea levels and encroaching infrastructure. (Photo: x70tjw/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).)

a global meltdown

In case you didn't realise, 2025 is the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation and March 21 was the annual World Day for Glaciers. The frozen freshwater stocks of our planet urgently need all the awareness and support they can get. At 1.5 degrees warming and rising, they are disappearing fast and that will affect the water supplies of two billion people, contribute to sea level rise, and accelerate further warming through the loss of albedo.

So, plenty of reasons to care about glaciers, and high time to dedicate a feature to them, which I hadn't done before.

a world in meltdown

Current Biology Volume 35, Issue 6, 24 March 2025, Pages R199-R201

restricted access to full text and PDF download
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See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2025.

The thread for 2024 is here .

Glaciers around the world offer imposing, landscape-defining sights, but many are shrinking and doomed to disappear. The photo shows the Perito Moreno Glacier, Patagonia, Argentina. (Photo: pclvv/Flickr (CC BY 2.0).)

moving backwards and breaking things

I've been trying to distil the events unfolding in the US since January 20 into a reasonable narrative that remains valid during the 2.5 week production period and beyond, so I focused on the public health implications of dismantling both international cooperation and federal agencies meant to protect people. Whereas there is no telling which changes will remain and which ones won't, one thing is for sure that many people will suffer and die as a result of certain oligarchs moving backwards and breaking things, and the climate catastrophe will accelerate further, which, again, will cause more suffering and death among humans and wildlife alike.

In retrospect, why didn't the assaults on global public health and on the survival of a habitable biosphere in the early weeks of the Deatheaters takeover get a similarly energetic response from Europe to what we're now witnessing in the context of Ukraine policy? I happen to think that on a dead planet, there won't be a free Ukraine either, so protecting the planet should have been be a bit more important.

Anyhow, my trumpocalypse 2 feature is out now:

Rolling back public health

Current Biology Volume 35, Issue 5, 10 March 2025, Pages R159-R161

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See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2025.

The thread for 2024 is here .

Healthcare for women is particularly threatened after the US administration announced the departure from the WHO. The photo shows a Shakila midwife listening to the heartbeat of a pregnant woman at the mobile clinic organised by the WHO at the Garm Abak of Waras district in Bamiyan, Afghanistan. (Photo: © World Health Organization/Rada Akbar, 2015.)

forever fluorinated

Polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) aka "forever chemicals" have been in the news a lot, as they are now being found just about everywhere including in animal and human tissues. So it was about time to do a feature about them, which is out now:

Forever problems

Current Biology Volume 35, Issue 4, 24 February 2025, Pages R125-R127

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See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2025.

The thread for 2024 is here .

Firefighting foams containing PFAS have been used for decades. In locations with regular fire drills, the substances have accumulated in the environment. (Photo: Senior Airman Brett Clashman, US Air Force/Wikimedia Commons.)

NB I love this photo to bits, but the things I learned about PFAS pollution produced by regular firefighting drills were downright scary. I mean I get that you make exceptions for its use in life or death situations, but apparently some places such as airports have saturated their environment by spreading the stuff every week in their drills.

we're drugging the biosphere

During the plague years I have often mentioned that things like virus fragments can be readily detected in wastewater, and that with the same methodology researchers can also describe the distribution of drug use, eg for cocaine. This is quite routine now, but what amazingly hasn't been done very often is to look at the impact our drugs - including the legal as well as the illegal kind - have on ecosystems when they escape into the water systems. The first global survey attempting to estimate the impacts of drug pollution in the environment only happened two years ago. So I thought this endeavour could do with a bit of a shout-out, which is why it is the subject of my latest feature, out now:

Drugging the biosphere

Current Biology Volume 34, Issue 13, 8 July 2024, Pages R605-R607

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See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2024.

The thread for 2023 is here .

A wide variety of drugs is helping us to stay healthy for longer, but the effects the active ingredients may have on other species after our use are too little understood. (Photo: Myriam Zilles/Unsplash.)

all about sand

Ahead of the (Northern hemisphere) summer holiday season, I've had a look at the problems around the supply of sand both for beaches and for the concrete infrastructure growing alongside them. The resulting feature is out now:

Trouble on the beaches

Current Biology Volume 34, Issue 10, 20 May 2024, Pages R473-R475

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See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2024.

The thread for 2023 is here .

Sandy beaches popular with many millions of holiday makers may look like a permanent natural feature, but many of them need replenishing with sand transfers. (Photo: maczopikczu/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0 Deed).)

rivers restored

Today's issue of Current Biology is a special theme issue on ecosystem restoration with lots of articles on various kinds of ecosystems from rescued coral reefs to land rehabilitated after mining, and general aspects from ecology to finance. My modest contribution is a feature about restoration of rivers, from the reinvention of what was once Europe's dirtiest river (not all that far from where I went to school, so this revolutionary change still boggles my mind) to the removal of barriers in Europe and North America:

Rivers revival

Current Biology Volume 34, Issue 9, 6 May 2024, Pages R360-R362

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See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2024.

The thread for 2023 is here .

The river Emscher, which served as an open sewer for the entire 20th century, has been cleaned up in a 30-year restoration project. (Photo: Eselsmann™, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0 Deed).)

stop plastic pollution

I have written a few features already about the rising tide of plastic waste engulfing our planet. What's new this time is that the microplastics have actually arrived in our bodies and are causing harm to humans not just the environment, and that a global effort is underway to do something about it. So let's hope that this will be a success story like the Montreal protocol, not a 30-year tragedy like the climate summits.

The feature is out now:

Can we end plastic pollution?

Current Biology Volume 34, Issue 8, 22 April 2024, Pages R301-R303

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See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2024.

The thread for 2023 is here .

Microplastics are now ubiquitous. They have entered the food chain and thus the human body, where they may increase disease risks. (Photo: The 5 Gyres Institute (CC BY 4.0 Deed).)

power to the peatlands

In September I attended the conference Power to the Peatlands in Antwerp and learned lots of things about the ongoing efforts to save or restore peatlands, not just as ecosystems but also as carbon storage that has a major impact on climate change. What I love most about this topic is how our idea what progress means has turned by 180 degrees in just a few decades - until around 1970 draining the swamps was considered a good idea (which today mainly survives in political metaphor), whereas now progress is all about rewetting the landscapes we once drained.

Now I've rounded up everything from the cultural history to current climate efforts in my latest feature which is out now:

Powerful peatlands

Current Biology Volume 33, Issue 21, 6. November 2023, Pages R1127-R1129

FREE access to full text and PDF download
(open archives)

See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2023.

I'm not on Instagram myself, but I believe if you follow CurrentBiology there, you'll find my features highlighted there as well.

Population pressure and generous investments made the Netherlands a pioneer in draining wetlands to create new land for agriculture. The iconic windmills now admired by tourists often served as pumps to remove water from low-lying areas. (Photo: R Boed/Flickr (CC BY 2.0 DEED).)

PS back in the noughties, I read various sources about wetlands drainage programmes in 17th century France for family history reasons, because Octavio Strada Junior, grand-son of Jacopo Strada, was involved with them and made quite a success of it. His well-documented descendants include French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing. A firm connection to my Strada ancestors remains to be found though.

the war on nature

Wars are a stupid idea for so many reasons eg because they tend to empower horrible people to do horrible things. In the current situation, as several countries are well equipped to wipe out our civilisation, our species, and much of the natural environment, it's even worse. And even in the "normal" conventional mode, the warring mindset means that all concerns for the environment go overboard because of "war priorities".

So, well, not much fun to write about, but as there are a few stupid wars going on right now and ecocides being committed, a few things had to be said. My feature on the impact of modern wars on the natural environment is out now:

Wars leave nature on the losing side

Current Biology Volume 33, Issue 17, 11. September 2023, Pages R879-R881

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See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2023.

I'm not on Instagram myself, but I believe if you follow CurrentBiology there, you'll find my features highlighted there as well.

The photo shows the Castle Bravo nuclear test undertaken by the US on March 1, 1954. (Photo: United States Department of Energy.)

PS Speaking of horrible people doing horrible things, today marks the 50th anniversary of the coup in Chile - here is my blog entry on the 40th, with memories of the 10th. Still not over it.

where there's smoke

Due to climate disruption, the world has seen a vast number of devastating wildfires in recent years, and there are some of those happening right now, even in some of Europe's favourite holiday destinations. These have received a fair bit of coverage in terms of immediate loss of property and danger to life. However, the slow-acting danger of exposure to the smoke produced has seen less attention.

In context of the recent spate of wildfires in Canada, which produced air pollution choking major US cities, the issue was raised, however. Therefore, I've looked into the science of the health risks associated with exposure, both to humans and to wildlife. The resulting feature is out now:

Breathing wildfire smoke

Current Biology Volume 33, Issue 14, 24. July 2023, Pages R743-R745

FREE access to full text and PDF download

See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2023.

I'm not on Instagram myself, but I believe if you follow CurrentBiology there, you'll find my features highlighted there as well.

Due to climate change and anthropogenic disturbances, extreme wildfires are becoming more frequent and are likely to affect human health and animal survival. (Photo: Robert Lang Photography.)

under the sea

Earlier this week it was reported that the International Seabed Authority (ISA) closed its meeting without reaching agreement on regulations on deep-sea mining. In the absence of such regulation, uncontrolled mining could start at the end of June next year. Ahead of this development I looked into deep-sea mining again and at one particular problem that I hadn't covered in my previous features on the subject (2015, 2014), namely noise pollution. The feature is out now:

Mining noise set to rock the oceans

Current Biology Volume 32, Issue 15, 8 August 2022, Pages R807-R810

FREE access to full text and PDF download

NB: as the 2022 features move into the open archives, I will add them to this thread on Mastodon.

Polymetallic nodules found on the seafloor at depths between four and six kilometres are the target of planned seafloor mining operations. Formerly known as manganese nodules, they also contain cobalt, nickel, copper and rare earth metals. (Photo: James St. John/Flickr (CC BY 2.0).)

fire and water

The Pantanal, a major wetlands region in the south of Brazil is gradually diminished by the sum of many planning decisions, conservation experts have said, and it is also suffering devastating fires as rainfall produced by the Amazon water pump are decreasing.

I've used these developments as an excuse for a broader roundup of wetland issues ranging from conservation through to restoration.

The resulting feature is out now:

Wetland worries

Current Biology Volume 32, Issue 11, 6 June 2022, Pages R495-R497

FREE access to full text and PDF download

NB: as the 2022 features move into the open archives, I will add them to this thread on Mastodon.

In August 2020, wildfires devastated large parts of the Pantanal. This photo shows a Panthera Brazil team trying to save wooden bridges on the Transpantaneira road. (Photo: Fernando Tortato/Panthera.)

changes at the top

High mountain lakes, streams and glaciers are often seen as the ultimate natural environments untouched by human devastation, but climate change and tourism are already changing that situation. The remoteness of those mountain sites means that we don't see the change when it happens, but there are multiple knock-on effects such as the spread of pathogens and the disruption of freshwater supplies that will fall back on us eventually.

Starting from a hint to a paper about problems with mountain lakes I extended my scope to include mountain streams an glaciers as well and found the overall picture rather worrying.

The resulting feature is out now:

Anthropocene at altitude

Current Biology Volume 32, Issue 10, 23 May 2022, Pages R441-R444

FREE access to full text and PDF download

NB: as the 2022 features move into the open archives, I will add them to this thread on Mastodon.

Mountain lakes such as this one in the Pyrenees, although remote from cities and industries, are also exposed to chemical pollution. (Photo: Witizia/Pixabay.)