Earth & Environment
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...
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...
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Continents slowly “peel away” to create ocean volcanoes, study finds
A team of Earth scientists has discovered that continents are slowly peeling apart from below—sending fragments deep into the oceanic mantle, where they can...
Music could boost health in people with Parkinson’s disease
Scientists found musical interventions could lessen motor symptoms in Parkinson's patients and improve their cognitive ability and emotional well-being.
Assyriologist unravels mystery of 2,700-year-old temple
In the ancient city of Dūr-Šarrukīn, which we now call Khorsabad in Iraq, there's a puzzle that's baffled experts for over a century.
On the...
Exoplanets made of water are more common than we thought, shows study
A new study suggests that many more planets in distant solar systems have large amounts of water than previously thought—as much as half water...
How do birds breathe so efficiently?
New findings offer potential to enhance flow engineering.
Birds breathe with greater efficiency than humans because of the structure of their lungs --looped airways that...
Economic shifts over 50 years have hurt the health and lifespans of less-educated Americans,...
New research from the University of Michigan shows that major economic changes over the past 50 years have had serious impacts on the health...
Earth’s biggest mass extinction took ten times longer on land than in the water,...
Our planet's worst mass extinction event happened 252 million years ago when massive volcanic eruptions caused catastrophic climate change.
The vast majority of animal species...
5G wireless may lead to inaccurate weather forecasts
Upcoming 5G wireless networks that will provide faster cell phone service may lead to inaccurate weather forecasts, according to a Rutgers study on a...