Earth & Environment
Ancient plant viruses may have originated before the last ice age
A group of plant viruses that infect many important crops may have origins stretching back tens of thousands of years, long before humans began...
The Sun has a heartbeat
Think you know the Sun?
You glance up on a clear day, feel the warmth on your face, and it seems reassuringly constant. Same star,...
Tiny zircon crystals reveal new secrets about Earth’s earliest history
Scientists still have many questions about the earliest years of our planet.
Earth formed about 4.55 billion years ago, but almost no rocks from that...
Climate change could wipe out 20% of Colombia’s cocoa land by 2050, study warns
Colombia may lose nearly one-fifth of the land currently suitable for growing cocoa by 2050, according to a new scientific study.
The research suggests that...
Why many middle‑aged Americans feel worse than previous generations
A growing number of Americans in their 50s and early 60s say they feel lonelier, more depressed, and physically weaker than people of the...
Why dance tracks dominate TikTok while love songs rule Spotify
What makes a song become a hit today?
While listeners certainly play a role, new research suggests that streaming platforms and their algorithms also have...
US is less prone to oil price shocks than in past decades
Oil is a global market, so when prices rise in one place, they rise everywhere. The current war against Iran has already raised oil...
Scientists grow chickpeas in “moon dirt,” opening the door to farming on the Moon
As NASA prepares for future missions that could send astronauts back to the Moon, scientists are trying to answer an important question: what will...
Elephants steer clear of humans much more than other wildlife, study finds
Wild animals do not all react to human activity in the same way.
A new study from Botswana shows that some species are much more...
Antarctica has lost ice the size of 10 Los Angeles cities in 30 years
A new 30-year study has revealed how Antarctica’s ice is slowly retreating along parts of its vast coastline.
Scientists led by researchers at the University...
Did the first land plants accidentally trigger two ancient ocean extinctions?
Hundreds of millions of years ago, the first plants began spreading across Earth’s land. This major turning point helped transform the planet into the...
Fossil bite marks reveal ancient predator hunts 280 million years ago
New research suggests that large land predators were already hunting big plant-eating animals more than 280 million years ago, much earlier than scientists once...
FEATURED
Young Tyrannosaurus rexes were deadly despite bite force one-sixth that of adults
Jack Tseng loves bone-crunching animals — hyenas are his favorite — so when paleontologist Joseph Peterson discovered fossilized dinosaur bones that had teeth marks...
New nanotech could recover rare earth elements from electronic waste
Manufacturers rely on rare earth elements, like neodymium, to create strong magnets used in motors for electronics including hybrid cars, aircraft generators, loudspeakers, hard...
How the bumble bee got its stripes
Researchers have discovered a gene that drives color differences within a species of bumble bees.
This discovery helps to explain the highly diverse color patterns...
Scientists develop new coffee snake species in Ecuador
In the cloud forests of northwestern Ecuador, researchers from the Khamai Foundation and Liberty University have uncovered a new species of snake, a discovery...
How can we find Cryovolcanoes on Europa
In the 1970s, NASA's Voyager probes passed through Jupiter's system and snapped pictures of its largest moons, also known as the Galilean Moons.
These pictures...
Why studying asteroids could save our planet
Asteroids are rocky objects left over from the early days of our solar system, orbiting the Sun much like planets. While most asteroids are...
A new way to check your relationship’s health
Just in time for Valentine's Day, researchers at Stockholm University have developed a new way to measure relationship satisfaction. Their study, published in the...
Roblox set to start checking people’s ages. But it will need to do more...
Online gaming giant Roblox has just announced it will start checking users' ages from early December in an attempt to stop children and teenagers...