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Scientists were exploring a mangrove forest in Thailand when they came across a bright blue tarantula. The species has been named Chilobrachys natanicharum.

Scientists say the species can live on the ground or in trees. But in mangrove forests, which are wetlands, the tarantulas are limited to living in hollow trees. Hoping to study the blue spiders, the team of researchers climbed the trees and tried to lure some out. They were able to catch only two.

C. natanicharum, also called the electric blue tarantula, had been sold in commercial markets before but is just now being documented by scientists. Its color is one reason the species is so special.

“Blue is one of the rarest colors to appear in nature, which makes blue coloration in animals particularly fascinating,” entomologist Narin Chomphuphuang told CNN.

The blue tarantula’s color doesn’t come from pigment, which is what produces the color of human skin or hair. Instead, it’s caused by the makeup of tiny hairs on the tarantula’s body. Tiny structures in the hair manipulate the light that shines on them. In addition to the blue, the spiders can also have some violet coloring.

Scientists say C. natanicharum is one of the world’s rarest tarantulas, and they’re concerned about its future. The mangrove forests where the species was found are rapidly being cut down.

Indigenous people are among the most heavily affected by climate change. That is why, since 2016, American Indians from more than 70 nations have come together at climate camps to share solutions and support one another.

People from at least 28 American Indian nations and intertribal organizations gathered at a camp in Port Angeles, Washington, in August 2023. They discussed the many ways in which the effects of climate change are harming their livelihoods—plants have died due to excessive heat, a landslide has damaged a fish habitat (and food source for one community), and much more. Climate change affects everyone but particularly American Indians. Indigenous peoples rely on fish and other wildlife for food, medicine, and the survival of their cultures.

One of the topics of discussion was how to use millions of dollars the U.S. government set aside for Indigenous people in 2022 so that they can fund ways to adapt to climate change. Scientists presented information, and people from different groups shared projects they are working on. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Montana has already developed a climate response plan. Michael Durglo, Jr., head of this group’s climate change advisory committee, shared the details of the plan at the camp and invited others to use it. 

“You don’t have to steal it. It’s yours,” Durglo said. “Everything I have is yours.”

“[What] this camp has done for us is to help us know that there is the network, there is a supporting web out there, that we can help one another,” Jonny Bearcub Stiffarm told the Associated Press. Bearcub Stiffarm, of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes in Montana, attended the Port Angeles camp. “So we make new songs. We make new stories. We make new visions that we embrace for the positive outcome of our people. We make new warrior societies, new climate warrior societies.”

Check out the slideshow for more photos from the Port Angeles conference.

A teen was looking for fossils in Alabama when she found the fossilized remains of a whale that died millions of years ago. Experts say the fossil may be of a species that was previously unknown.

Sixteen-year-old Lindsey Stallworth and her teacher, Drew Gentry, were digging on the Stallworth family’s property when they came across some fossilized bones. At first it wasn’t clear what they’d found. But as they continued to unearth their discovery and found that it included teeth, they realized it was a very large skull—about 4 or 5 feet (1 or 2 meters) long. Gentry, who is a paleontologist, later found information to suggest that the skull is about 34 million years old.

“It’s really hard to comprehend something that’s that many millions of years old, but it started to make more sense once we started getting the dirt away and saw what the skull might have looked like,” Stallworth told the Washington Post.

Starbucks says it’s changing the way people get their coffee. The popular chain plans to stop providing disposable cups at any of its locations by 2030.

The plan is part of Starbucks’s effort to be more environmentally friendly, which includes a goal to reduce waste, water use, and carbon emissions in half by 2030. Each year, the company uses about seven billion disposable cups at its locations worldwide. Those cups, which bear the famous green Starbucks logo, have become iconic. But they’re also terrible for the planet. Water and energy are used to produce the cups, and the cups end up in landfills when thrown away.

Some Starbucks locations have already stopped using disposable cups. At these stores, customers can either bring their own mugs from home or get their beverage in a “borrowed” reusable cup. Cups can be returned to Starbucks, where they’re cleaned and used again.

Thousands of people from all over the world traveled to Buñol, Spain, in August for La Tomatina, the biggest food fight on the planet. There was only one weapon in this friendly war: tomatoes.

La Tomatina takes place every year on the last Wednesday in August. Buñol officials are totally in on the fun. On the morning of the event, 120 tons of overripe tomatoes are brought into town by truck. Meanwhile, shop owners cover their storefronts with plastic. Participants put on old clothes and often don eye goggles. Everyone knows things are about to get messy.

The fight begins at noon. For safety reasons, there are a few rules. No one is allowed to carry or throw hard objects. Tomatoes must be squashed and softened before they are thrown. Also, everyone must stop throwing tomatoes when they hear the boom of a water cannon at the one-hour mark. Beyond that, the fight is a free-for-all. It’s crowded, chaotic, and extremely messy. But that’s what people love about it. After it’s all over, officials hose down the town, and it’s business as usual until August rolls around again!

A group of kids, teens, and young adults scored a courtroom victory in August 2023, winning a lawsuit claiming that the state of Montana was violating their right to a clean and safe environment. The trial was the first of its kind in the United States, but it might not be the last.

The group of 16 plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in 2020, when they ranged in age from 2 to 19. The case was called Held v. Montana, after the oldest plaintiff, Rikki Held. The lawsuit claimed that Montana state agencies allowed the production of fossil fuels without considering their effect on the climate. When burned, fossil fuels create gases such as carbon dioxide, which contribute to climate change. Montana’s state constitution guarantees citizens a clean and healthy environment.

In her ruling, Judge Kathy Seeley wrote that Montana residents “have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment, which includes climate as part of the environmental life-support system.”

“I knew that we would win because we had such a strong case. This is about protecting our basic human rights,” said Held, who is now 22. 

Austin Knudsen, Montana’s attorney general, says he will appeal the decision. This means he’ll take the case to a more powerful court and ask for the decision to be reversed. The state had argued that the carbon dioxide produced there has little or no effect on climate change because it’s a tiny fraction of all the carbon dioxide produced in the world.

Experts say Judge Seeley’s decision sets a major precedent (meaning that courts will consider it when looking at similar cases). Currently, young people are suing several states, claiming that their right to a healthy environment has not been protected. In another climate case, a group of young people is suing the U.S. government.

The outcomes of these lawsuits will answer an important question. Do governments have a responsibility to protect their citizens from the effects of climate change?

Legend has it that a monster lurks in a body of water in Scotland called Loch Ness. Could it be true? One weekend in August 2023, volunteers traveled to the loch, hoping for answers.

“We are looking for breaks in the surface and asking volunteers to record all manner of natural behavior on the loch,” Alan McKenna told the British Broadcasting Corporation. McKenna represents Loch Ness Exploration, an organization dedicated to searching for the monster. “Not every ripple or wave is a beastie. Some of those can be explained, but there are a handful that cannot.”

For two days, hundreds of monster hunters scanned the murky waters for any signs of the existence of “Nessie” (that’s the monster’s nickname). While people have been searching for the creature for generations, the chance of success is better than ever due to modern technology. The weekend’s volunteers brought along sonar equipment, which allows them to map the lake bed. They also brought thermal-imaging drones meant to detect heat (a sign of life), as well as hydrophones that can pick up sounds from deep under the water. And they had a deep faith that Nessie is real.

“I’m 90 percent convinced [the monster] exists,” Ken Gerhard, who researches creatures like Nessie, told NBC News. “I’ve never had a sighting or an observation, but if you immerse yourself in the evidence, you have over a thousand good sightings that are very consistent.”

Da’vian Kimbrough is a pro soccer player—and he’s only 13. In August 2023, Kimbrough signed with Sacramento Republic, a professional soccer team in the U.S. He’s now the youngest professional athlete in the history of American team sports.

“Da’vian’s journey with Republic FC is just beginning,” said Sacramento Republic president and general manager Todd Dunivant. “He is a remarkable talent who has committed to his dream of becoming an elite player, from competing with players in older age groups, thriving at top competitions, to stepping on to the first team training grounds.”

Da’vian started playing in Republic’s youth academy in 2021, when he was 11 years old. He scored 27 goals in his first year. Thanks in part to Da’vian, his team wrapped up that season with the best record in its age group (30 wins and one loss). In two seasons of play for MLS Next, which is Major League Soccer’s youth division, Da’vian scored 61 goals.

Da’vian’s parents, who were both athletic when they were teens, said he’s been interested in sports since he was about 3, when he would watch footage of his dad playing football.

“We are so happy and honored,” Da’vian’s mom, Jessica Cervantes, told Fox 40 News. “All the hard work that he put in, and for Republic to put their trust in him, we greatly appreciate it.”

Da’vian’s dad, Dom Kimbrough, says the family will make sure their son still gets to be a kid. Cervantes says that while Da’vian is serious on the soccer field, he also knows how to let loose.

“He’s still like a regular teenager,” she told Fox 40 News. “When we get home, he’s a regular 13-year-old boy, having fun [and] laughing with us.” 

According to the team, Da’vian is eligible to begin playing with the major league team immediately, but he will also continue to sharpen his skills by training with the team’s academy.

“We are honored that the Kimbrough family and Da’vian have chosen Republic FC to support his professional pathway, and we look forward to taking the next steps together,” Dunivant said.

The video shows Kimbrough in action!

The James Webb Space Telescope has given us some amazing images, and a few surprises. When some sharp-eyed people noticed what looked like a question mark in the background of a recent Webb image, it raised some, well, questions. Is there something in space that’s shaped like a question mark? Could this be a message from aliens? Scientists have answers.

What looks like a question mark is actually two or more galaxies that are in the process of merging, or coming together. Galaxies merge quite often, scientists say. In fact, between 10 and 25 percent of galaxies are merging at any given time. Our own Milky Way galaxy is the product of a merger.

“Many people think of galaxies like these little islands in space that don’t move, but nothing in the universe can be pinned down,” Matt Caplan, an assistant professor of physics at Illinois State University, told CBS News. “Stars move as they orbit the galaxy, and the galaxy—being made of gas and stars—moves whatever direction the gravity of nearby galaxies pulls it. The same is true of our Sun and Milky Way.”

Nora Luetzgendorf of the European Space Agency believes that the arc of the question mark might be a tidal tail, a shape that forms due to the gravitational interaction between two galaxies. The dot might be another, smaller galaxy.

While galaxies merge quite often, we don’t often get to see it happen—which makes this question mark special, even if it’s not a message from aliens.

Macarena Garcia Marin is a Webb project scientist with the Space Telescope Science Institute, which manages the telescope’s science operations. “I think we all enjoy finding familiar shapes in the sky; that creates a deep connection between our human-experience and language in this case (a question mark!) and the beauty of the Universe surrounding us,” Garcia Marin told National Public Radio. “To me it brings the question of how many other interesting objects are out there waiting to be explored with Webb!”

Relief workers, volunteers, and celebrities rushed to help after a fire devastated part of the Hawaiian island of Maui. The blaze, which ignited on August 8, 2023, killed at least 100 people and destroyed thousands of buildings, including many homes.

The fire left many people homeless and in need of food, shelter, and basic supplies. Local charitable organizations are helping, many of them with assistance from national and international organizations like the American Red Cross. For example, the Maui Strong Fund collects donations and distributes the money to organizations that provide shelter, food, and financial help. A group called Chef Hui brings together chefs, farmers, and others in the food industry who are willing to supply food and prepare meals for people in need.

Help has also come from the mainland. Americans from many states have sent supplies or money to Maui. Workers with the American Red Cross and other organizations have flown from their home states to the island to help in any way they can.

“They’ve lost everything,” Andrea Webb, who works with the American Red Cross of New Jersey, told CBS News in New York, after landing in Hawaii. “They need some kind of help with anything even if it’s a hug, a kind word.”

Celebrities have brought attention to the disaster as well. Actor Matthew McConaughey announced he would pay for a plane to fly supplies to Maui. Famed surfer Archie Kalepa and some volunteers are distributing supplies from the front yard of Kalepa’s Maui home. And actor Auliʻi Cravalho, who is Native Hawaiian, created an Instagram post urging fans to make donations.

If you are interested in helping, make sure your donation will get to the people of Maui. Ask an adult to help you find a trusted charitable organization.