All Stories by Erin Wayman
- Earth
Faults can reseal months after quakes
Measurements in southern China find quick healing of fractured rock.
- Animals
Elephant diets changed millions of years before their teeth
The animals fed on grasses long before their molars could grind the tough plants.
- Animals
Oysters may struggle to build shells as carbon dioxide rises
Ocean acidification could hamper larvae's growth.
- Life
Primitive fish could nod but not shake its head
Ancient fossils reveal surprises about early vertebrate necks, abdominal muscles.
- Climate
Southwest’s monsoon season may heat up with the climate
Warmer temperatures may bring stronger rainy seasons over the long term, study finds.
- Plants
Mosses frozen in time come back to life
Buried under a glacier for hundreds of years, plants regrow in the lab.
- Oceans
Glacier melt causes large fraction of sea level rise
From 2003 to 2009, thawing ice nearly as large a contributor to oceans as massive sheets at poles, researchers find in new analysis.
- Earth
Groundwater isolated for eons
At least 1.5 billion years after it last saw the surface, flowing liquid may host life.
- Climate
Warming may not release Arctic carbon
Element could stay locked in soil, 20-year study suggests.
- Humans
Eruption early in human prehistory may have been more whimper than bang
If Hollywood’s right, the apocalypse will be brutal. Aliens, nuclear war, zombies, plague, enslavement by supersmart robots — none of them are good endings. Some archaeologists, however, believe an apocalypse has already come and gone. About 75,000 years ago, they say, a monster volcanic eruption nearly wiped out humankind, leaving behind only a few thousand people to […]
- Climate
Carbon dioxide in atmosphere reaches landmark level
At 400 parts per million, greenhouse gas concentration is now higher than it has been for millions of years.
- Earth
Japan’s 2011 earthquake upped Tokyo’s risk
Chance more than doubled that capital city will soon experience big temblor, researchers calculate.
