Author: Derrick Lester

Somewhere off the coast of Oregon, a buoy has been monitoring the temperature, salinity, and oxygen content of water that is 80 meters below the surface for the past ten years. It received little attention outside of the oceanography community. Then, in June 2026, scientists boarded a research ship and set out to remove it from the water, not because the science was finished but rather because the funding was. The Ocean Observatories Initiative, a $386 million network of over 900 sensors constructed along the coasts of the United States and the North Atlantic, included that buoy. Last month, the…

For a century, whale remains provided scientists with nearly all of the information they needed to understand the enormous squid. Contents of the stomach. Only a portion is left. The occasional beak. It was barely sufficient to determine the animal’s true identity, but it was sufficient to verify its existence. Then, on March 9th of this year, the squid was simply floating in the frame of a remotely operated vehicle called SuBastian as it drifted through chilly, dark water almost 2,000 feet below the South Atlantic Ocean. The video was taken during an expedition by the Schmidt Ocean Institute close…

Living in Houston is associated with a specific type of anxiety: a low-grade, background awareness that anything can happen to you at any time. Longtime locals are aware of it. The parking lot outside your office appears to be a shallow lake by noon after you wake up to sunshine and take a quick look at your phone. According to the forecast, it was “partly cloudy.” It says “partly cloudy” every time. For millions of people throughout the metro area, Houston weather radar has become almost a daily ritual due to the discrepancy between the official forecast and actual conditions.…

Walking up to a typical bungalow tucked away among trees in the Essex countryside and realizing, in some way, that it goes down a very long way is subtly disorienting. No grand entrance. No imposing fence. With the exception of the brown tourist road signs that have been cheerfully pointing cars in the direction of the “Secret Nuclear Bunker” for decades, it’s just a small, unremarkable structure. The Top Gear crew, who once displayed those signs on air, were aware of the irony. No one who visits is unaware of it either. The Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker is located…

Standing in a city and reading those words, “Inspired by Nature,” is almost startling. for the climate. For the Future. Depending on where you are and what you’ve recently witnessed happen to the sky, rivers, and seasons, the theme for World Environment Day 2026 sounds both hopeful and a little desperate. Every year on June 5th, we observe World Environment Day. This year, Azerbaijan hosted the global observance in Baku, a city situated between the Caucasus mountains and the Caspian Sea at the intersection of two climate zones. Baku has a complex energy history but a growing commitment to the…

Students who have just hit “submit” on their A Level subject selections exude a certain quiet confidence. Computer science is one of those options for an increasing number of them. And not just any version of it—OCR A Level Computer Science, a certification that has quietly gained a respectable reputation among educators, tutors for college admissions, and students who have the courage to take it. However, it’s important to be truthful about this course. Because the version that appears on the specification sheet differs from the version that students envision, which includes writing code, creating apps, and feeling clever. The…

For more than 20 years, a school in Arcata, California, has been discreetly accepting students from all over the world. Campus visits are not necessary. No lecture halls. No strict timetables. Since 2004, the University of Metaphysical Sciences, or simply UMS, has provided fully online bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs in metaphysical studies. Finding a structured academic institution focused solely on topics like chakras, astral projection, shadow work, and consciousness is uncommon. Nevertheless, thousands of people have enrolled, earned degrees, and, according to the majority of accounts, discovered something truly significant during the process. It’s easy to write off the…

The way the ocean moves has an almost mechanical quality; it is a slow, deliberate churn that occurs hundreds of meters below the surface rather than the chaos of waves or the drama of storms. Although most people refer to it by its more obvious name, the ocean conveyor belt, scientists call it thermohaline circulation. It has been operating for thousands of years, almost nonstop. Additionally, salt plays a bigger role than most people realize. The simplicity of fundamental physics is elegant. Cold water freezes at the surface in the North Atlantic, close to Greenland and Norway. Seawater releases its…

There is a particular phrase that John Abraham, a professor of thermal sciences at the University of St. Thomas, used when describing what happened to the world’s oceans in 2024. He called it “bonkers.” Then he clarified, almost apologetically, that “bonkers” was the peer-reviewed scientific term. He was joking. But only just. In 2024, the global ocean set a new heat record for the ninth consecutive year. Not the surface alone — the warming reached 2,000 meters below the waterline. The ocean heat content in the upper 2,000 meters rose by roughly 16 zettajoules compared to 2023. A zettajoule is…

The thought of hunting in complete darkness, hundreds of feet below the surface, with no light, no landmarks, and no real idea of where your next meal might be, is almost unsettling. Most animals don’t fare well in that situation. It’s just another Tuesday for the northern elephant seals off the coast of California. In search of lantern fish and squid, these creatures frequently dive past the 1,000-foot mark, entering an area where sunlight just vanishes. For years, scientists were unsure of how they had discovered anything at all down there. It turns out that the solution was always right…