Earth
- Animals
Let’s learn about whales and dolphins
Whales, dolphins and porpoises are all cetaceans — mammals that live in water and have a streamlined body similar to a fish.
- Earth
‘Tree farts’ make up about a fifth of greenhouse gases from ghost forests
Heat-trapping gases from dead trees play an important role in the environmental impact of “ghost” forests.
- Animals
Common parasite may help mussels survive heat waves
By whitening shells, the organism helps the shellfish stay cool on sunny days, a new study suggests.
- Earth
Let’s learn about lightning
Around 100 times a second, every hour of every day, lightning strikes somewhere on Earth. It’s beautiful — and deadly.
- Environment
Pond scum can release a paralyzing pollutant into the air
New study finds blooms of blue-green algae can seed the air with a poisonous pollutant.
- Animals
A common antibiotic might save some sick corals
The antibiotic amoxicillin stopped tissue death in corals for at least 11 months after treatment.
- Health & Medicine
Warning: Wildfires might make you itch
Western wildfires are on the rise due to climate change and land use. Now a study adds eczema to the list of health risks that smoke might trigger.
- Climate
Climate may have sent drift of the North Pole toward Greenland
This mid-1990s shift in the pole’s movement was driven by glacial melt. And that was triggered in part by climate change, a new study reports.
- Earth
Only 3 percent of Earth’s land is unchanged by people
A sweeping survey of land-based ecosystems finds that very few still support all the animals they used to. Reintroducing lost species could help.
- Agriculture
New technologies might help keep drought-prone farms green
After learning how much damage drought can do to crops, two teens designed ways to detect a thirsty plant and make sure it gets enough water.
- Environment
Local glacier could be gone in a decade, young scientist finds
A teen calculated the volume of a glacier by drilling into it with jets of steam — then used that to estimate how long before all its ice will be gone.
- Earth
Here’s how lightning may help clean the air
Airplane observations show that storm clouds can generate huge quantities of air-cleansing chemicals known as oxidants.
