Earth & Environment
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...
Scientists discover Tyrannosaurus rex grew for 40 years, far longer than we thought
Tyrannosaurus rex has long been pictured as a fast-growing monster that quickly reached its enormous adult size.
But a new study suggests the famous “king...
Different dirty air linked to different lung cancer death risks
Lung cancer is one of the most serious and deadly diseases in the world. Every year, millions of people are diagnosed, and many lose...
The Arctic is entering a new era of extreme weather, scientists warn
The Arctic is no longer changing slowly.
According to a new international study, the region has entered a new phase marked by frequent and intense...
A lost ice age giant speaks again—from inside a wolf’s stomach
Scientists have recovered the complete genome of a woolly rhinoceros that lived more than 14,000 years ago—and they did it using tissue preserved inside...
The rise of fish began with a mass extinction, fossils reveal
About 445 million years ago, life on Earth nearly collapsed. In a relatively short geological moment, Earth’s climate flipped dramatically.
Massive glaciers spread across the...
Whale hunting in south America began 5,000 years ago—far earlier than we thought
The history of whale hunting is much older—and more global—than researchers once believed.
A new study shows that Indigenous communities living along the southern coast...
How a 400-year-old shark keeps its vision sharp for life
In a quiet office at the University of California, Irvine, Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk watches a grainy video on her computer.
A massive Greenland shark drifts slowly...
This system reveals how super-Earths are born
One of the best things about being able to see thousands of exoplanetary systems is that we’re able to track them in different stages...
Why the Los Angeles fires were so destructive
Twelve months after devastating wildfires tore through parts of Los Angeles, researchers are still uncovering lessons from one of the most destructive urban fire...
Your receipt could soon be made from trees, not toxic chemicals
Every day, most of us touch thermal paper without giving it a second thought.
It shows up as shopping receipts, delivery labels, movie tickets, and...
Walking on two legs began earlier than we thought
Scientists may have just pushed back the timeline for when our ancestors first started walking upright.
A new study suggests that Sahelanthropus tchadensis, a species...
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Deaths from firearms are reaching unprecedented levels
Firearm-related violence and suicides have been on the rise since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a study from Emory University and Boston Children's...
Think you’re funny? ChatGPT might be funnier, study finds
A recent study suggests that artificial intelligence, specifically ChatGPT, might be better at telling jokes than humans.
Researchers compared jokes written by people to those...
The Whale’ is a horror film that taps into our fear of fatness
I knew before seeing “The Whale” that it was a movie about a man named Charlie who weighs over 600 pounds, is grief-stricken over...
New study reveals how dinosaurs once crossed oceans
The first fossils of a duckbilled dinosaur have been discovered in Africa, suggesting dinosaurs crossed hundreds of kilometers of open water to get there.
The...
How Saharan dust impacts hurricane rainfall: New study reveals surprising connections
New research has uncovered a surprising link between giant plumes of dust from the Sahara Desert and the rainfall from hurricanes.
These dust plumes, which...
Scientists warn rapid melting of Andean glaciers signals faster global ice loss
Researchers from Boston College have discovered that glaciers in the Andes Mountains are melting much faster than expected.
Their study, published in the journal Science,...
Scientists create sustainable plastic from the carbon dioxide in the ocean
The ocean absorbs about a quarter of all carbon dioxide (CO₂) released by human activity, helping to slow climate change—but at a cost.
This constant...
ChatGPT can write university essays better than students, study finds
A recent paper in Scientific Reports reveals that ChatGPT, a conversational AI developed by OpenAI, could write answers to university-level questions that are as...