All Stories
- Climate
Yes, you can blame climate change for the LA wildfires
Weather data show how humankind’s burning of fossil fuels made the hot, dry, windy weather more likely, setting the stage for the Los Angeles wildfires.
- Ecosystems
Like flyways for birds, we need to map swimways for fish
Mapping fish migration routes and identifying threats is crucial to protecting freshwater species and their habitats, ecologists argue.
- Animals
Cricket frogs belly flop their way across water
Cricket frogs were once thought to hop on the water’s surface. They actually leap in and out of the water in a form of locomotion called porpoising.
- Earth
Ghostly white northern lights present new auroral mystery
These mysterious whitish-gray glows in the northern lights might be cousins of the mauve light streak known as STEVE.
- Astronomy
A cosmic ‘Platypus’ might link two astronomical mysteries
A flash of light called the Platypus has hallmarks of a mid-sized black hole shredding a star and a type of burst thought to be a stellar explosion.
- Animals
Fever’s link with a key kind of immunity is surprisingly ancient
When sick, Nile tilapia seek warmer water. That behavioral fever triggers a specialized immune response, hinting the connection evolved long ago.
- Earth
Another danger looms after the LA fires: Devastating debris flows
As wildfires burn the landscape, they prime slopes for debris flows: powerful torrents of rock, mud and water that sweep downhill with deadly momentum.
- Animals
Mole or marsupial? This subterranean critter with a backward pouch is both
Genetic analyses have solved the riddle of where a marsupial mole fits on the tree of life: It’s a cousin to bilbies, bandicoots and Tasmanian devils.
- Health & Medicine
Trump is withdrawing the U.S. from WHO. Here’s what that means
When Trump’s move to leave WHO takes effect in a year, it may gut funding for global public health and limit U.S. access to crucial data, experts warn.
- Astronomy
Galactic chaos at cosmic noon may have stunted Milky Way planet formation
High radiation during a time of frenzied star formation in the Milky Way left one stellar population with few chances to form planets, a study reports.
- Paleontology
A mysteriously large pterosaur finally has an identity
A Jurassic pterosaur fossil, known to paleontologists for over 160 years, isn’t a new species. It is an odd specimen of Rhamphorhynchus muensteri.
- Climate
Unearthed ice may be the Arctic’s oldest buried glacier remnant
Thanks to climate change, thawing permafrost in the Canadian Arctic has revealed the buried remnant of a glacier that’s 770,000 years old.
