When Earth’s magnetic poles took a very long time to flip
Earth’s magnetic field feels steady and dependable, but over geological time it is anything but fixed.
The magnetic north and south poles have swapped places...
Why one of Earth’s most common ocean bacteria is surprisingly fragile
One of the most abundant living organisms on Earth may also be one of the most vulnerable.
A group of ocean bacteria known as SAR11,...
A pocket-sized dinosaur solves a 70-million-year mystery
Paleontologists have identified a new species of dinosaur so small it could almost fit under your arm—and yet it is helping scientists solve a...
Earth’s roof is slowly flowing: Satellites expose hidden motion beneath Tibet
A new satellite-based study is changing how scientists understand the forces shaping the Tibetan Plateau, one of the most dramatic and geologically active regions...
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...
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...