Earth & Environment
How to spot the warning signs of financial abuse
Financial abuse is one of the most common yet least visible forms of abuse in family and domestic violence.
It happens when one person controls,...
Think bottled water is cleaner? It may contain more microplastics than the tap
Many people choose bottled water believing it is cleaner and safer than tap water. But new research suggests that this assumption may not always...
430,000-year-old wooden tools found in Greece rewrite early human history
Archaeologists have uncovered the earliest known hand-held wooden tools ever used by humans, and the discovery is changing what we know about early technology.
Found...
Baby dinosaurs were a key food source for Jurassic predators, study finds
A new study suggests that the babies of the largest dinosaurs to ever walk the Earth were once a crucial food source for meat-eating...
Ancient DNA solves a 12,000-year-old medical mystery
Scientists have uncovered the oldest known genetic diagnosis of a rare inherited disease, thanks to advances in ancient DNA research.
By analyzing the DNA of...
A 40-million-year-old ant hidden in Goethe’s amber still has stories to tell
More than 200 years after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s death, his curiosity about nature is still leading to new discoveries.
Scientists in Germany have now...
Why the ocean around Greenland is expected to drop—even as the world’s seas rise
Sea levels are rising across most of the planet as the climate warms and ice melts.
But around Greenland, scientists say the opposite is likely...
Burning wood at home may harm our health more than we think
Throwing a log into the fireplace might seem cozy on a cold winter night, but new research shows it could be much more harmful...
How a slow change in ocean chemistry may have cooled Earth after the dinosaurs
Scientists may have finally solved a long-standing mystery about how Earth shifted from a hot, tropical “greenhouse” world to the cooler, ice-covered planet we...
Air pollution may raise the risk and speed of ALS
A new study from Sweden has found that long-term exposure to air pollution may increase the risk of developing serious brain diseases like ALS.
The...
How tiny Mars helps set Earth’s ice ages
Mars is only about half the size of Earth and has just one-tenth of our planet’s mass.
Compared with giants like Jupiter, it seems far...
Why Tiger Shark bites peak in Hawaiʻi each October
For years, surfers and ocean-goers in Hawaiʻi have talked about “Sharktober,” a time when shark encounters seem more common.
Now, scientists say the pattern is...
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Philippines once home to extinct giant cloud rats
The Philippines was once home to three previously unknown species of an unusual group of rodents with fluffy tails known as "giant cloud rats",...
Tourism’s dirty secret: How party spots enable sexual assault
Every summer, thousands of young people flock to famous party spots like Ayia Napa, Magaluf, Ibiza, and Mykonos for a carefree escape filled with...
Six things we’ve learned about Earth from meteorites and comets
Apart from the sun, its planets and their moons, our solar system has vast amounts of space rocks—fragments left over from the formation of...
How did plesiosaurs get their super-long necks? New fossils give clues
Ever wonder how some dinosaurs got really long necks?
Imagine a marine reptile, like the plesiosaur, with a neck five times longer than its body!
Scientists...
This study shows a surprising cause of heart disease, blood vessel damage
Long-term exposure to environmental noise—think planes, trains, and automobiles—has been linked in multiple studies to adverse health effects such as poor sleep, psychiatric disorders,...
Patagonia’s cave art identified as south America’s earliest pigment-based paintings
The discovery of ancient cave art in Patagonia, dated to be as old as 8,200 years, marks a significant breakthrough in understanding the cultural...
How to manage your digital afterlife and why it matters
30 million people visit the memorialized Facebook pages of the dead each month.
If you were to die tomorrow, what would happen to your Facebook...
How tiny plants changed the planet, 488 million years ago
Nearly 500 million years ago, Earth's lowland landscapes were dominated by vast sandy, gritty plains.
They then underwent a major, irreversible change, after which these...