The University of Essex’s Sustainable smArt Robotic Agriculture initiative has won the AI & Robotics Research Awards 2026 prize for best research project (industry collaboration) for a robot capable of picking, weighing and packaging strawberries in seconds. The prototype, first announced in October 2024, is already deployed commercially by Wilkin & Sons (the Tiptree-based jam maker) and by JEPCO on a farm in Thorrington near the university. Co-designer Dr Vishwanathan Mohan said the accolade recognises the team’s vision to help transform food production amid modern farming challenges. Award judges highlighted the system’s use of artificial intelligence to automate repetitive, labour-intensive tasks while increasing yield, reducing waste and lowering carbon footprint to sustain local production. The project demonstrates integrated sensing, handling and packaging capabilities and represents a move from research prototype to operational use in UK soft-fruit supply chains.

Researchers have published the most detailed account to date of a sperm whale birth after recording the event off Dominica on July 8, 2023. Scientists with the Cetacean Translation Initiative (Project CETI) used drones, shipboard photography, hydrophones and machine‑learning analysis to document 11 whales — ten adult females and one adolescent male — that surrounded a labouring female known as “Rounder.” The delivery lasted about 34 minutes and, crucially, the group took turns physically lifting and supporting the negatively buoyant newborn at the surface for hours so it could breathe and recover. The observations, reported in papers in Science and Scientific Reports on March 26, 2026, show support crossing matrilineal lines: non‑kin joined relatives in alloparental care. Acoustic recordings revealed shifts in vocal patterns at key moments. Authors say the behaviour — previously rarely documented in cetaceans — may have deep evolutionary roots and is vital to calf survival in the open ocean.

Water companies discharged raw sewage into England’s rivers, lakes and seas for about 1.9 million hours in 2025 across 291,492 recorded storm overflow events, the Environment Agency said in data published in late March 2026. That represents a 35% fall in spill incidents and roughly a 48% drop in total spill duration from 2024, a decline regulators largely attribute to unusually dry weather last year. Campaigners and some investigations, however, say tens of thousands of hours of “dry day” spills—when overflows should not operate—remain under investigation. The government and industry point to a planned £104 billion investment programme over five years to upgrade sewers and treatment works and to recent independent commission recommendations proposing tougher regulation, mandatory monitoring and a single regulator. New academic research from Imperial College London and Brunel University (using 2023 data) suggests combined sewer overflows (CSOs) release substantial pollution — an estimated 420,000 tonnes of biochemical oxygen demand and 360,000 tonnes of suspended solids nationally — and that nearly half of wastewater systems fall into high or very high environmental risk categories, underscoring persistent threats to ecosystems and public health.

Birutė Galdikas, the primatologist whose five-decade fieldwork in Borneo transformed understanding of orangutans and helped drive conservation efforts, has died at 79, news outlets reported March 25–26, 2026. Recruited by Louis Leakey as one of the famed “Trimates,” Galdikas established Camp Leakey in 1971 and led one of the longest-running studies of any wild mammal. Her research documented orangutan behavior, solitary social structures and slow reproductive rates, and she combined science with hands-on rehabilitation, returning more than 450 orphaned and confiscated orangutans to the forest. In 1986 she founded Orangutan Foundation International and shifted into advocacy, working with local communities to protect fragmented peat-swamp and lowland forests amid logging, agricultural conversion and fires. Her interventionist rehabilitation methods drew some scientific debate over the line between research and rescue, but her influence on policy, public awareness and habitat protection was wide-ranging. Galdikas’s passing renews focus on the ongoing threats to Borneo’s forests and the species she championed.

The UK government has said developers must install heat pumps and solar panels in all new homes in England under updated building regulations, part of its Warm Homes Plan announced in March 2026. The plan includes about £15 billion of support for household green technologies. Homeowners can access a Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant of £7,500 (extended to 2029/30), but households typically face roughly an extra £5,000 out-of-pocket on top of the grant; the Home Builders Federation estimates the new rules could add around £10,000 to the cost of building a new home. For low-income households and social housing the government has allocated an additional £5 billion for a Social Housing Fund and a Warm Homes Local Grant. Heating accounts for about a fifth of UK emissions, and ministers and advisers say switching from gas and oil to electric heat pumps is essential to meet net-zero targets. Nearly 125,000 heat pumps were sold in 2025, but the Climate Change Committee says installations must rise to about 450,000 a year by 2030 and 1.5 million by 2035. Rules on noise and planning have been relaxed to encourage uptake, but a large increase in trained installers and supply capacity is needed.