Earth
- Environment
Unconventional spill
An accidental spill of extra-heavy crude oil points to some unusual challenges in safely getting this petroleum to market.
- Environment
Explainer: All crude oil is not alike
Crude oil comes in conventional and unconventional types.
- Animals
Gorgeous eco-bullies
‘Foreign’ lionfish — aquarium castoffs — have been invading American coastal waters at an alarming rate and gobbling up the natives.
- Climate
Climate change: The long reach
Scientists who study the environment to better gauge Earth’s future climate now argue that current changes may not reverse for a very long time.
- Tech
Explainer: What is fracking?
Energy companies have found new use for hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas from shale rock.
- Earth
Quakes cause faraway sloshing
Right after a magnitude-9 quake in Japan, scientists knew that its tremors had set distant waters in northern Europe sloshing. Now they know how.
- Earth
Nature’s coast guards
Barrier islands aren’t just for beach vacations — they protect coasts from storms and flooding.
- Earth
How Earth’s surface morphs
Partly melted rock acts like grease to help huge masses of the planet’s surface slip up, around and down.
- Earth
Fracking waste and quakes
Underground storage of liquid waste from these mining operations can make an area more vulnerable to tremors.
- Animals
Animals under Antarctic ice?
Data suggest a web of lake organisms might thrive deep under ice; scientists struggle to make sense of the new report.
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- Agriculture
The cabbage’s clock
A newly harvested plant, fruit or vegetable does not turn off — like a switch — and die, scientists report. Instead, an internal “clock” inside the fresh-picked plant continues to tick away. It responds to light and darkness, just as when it had been rooted in the soil.
