Earth
-
Animals
Climate change may be deadly for snowshoe hares
The mismatch between coat color and the landscape can be deadly for a snowshoe hare.
-
Environment
Converted milk proteins clean pollution, strike gold
A new membrane uses sticky amyloid proteins to trap contaminants in water.
-
Earth
Earth’s inner secrets divulged in ‘Into the Heart of Our World’
A scientific journey to the center of the Earth includes just as much excitement and mystery as Jules Verne’s classic novel, a new book demonstrates.
-
Agriculture
Just adding pollinators could boost small-farm yields
Adding pollinators could start closing gap in yields for small farms.
By Susan Milius -
Climate
2015 smashed heat records
Spurred by global warming and a “super El Niño,” 2015 now ranks as the warmest year since record-keeping began in 1880.
-
Climate
Atmospheric tides alter rainfall rate
Atmospheric tides caused by the moon’s gravitational pull ever-so-slightly alter rainfall rates on Earth by producing rises and falls in atmospheric pressure.
-
Animals
Whales are full of toxic chemicals
For decades, scientists have been finding troublesome levels of PCBs, mercury and other toxic chemicals in whales and dolphins.
-
Oceans
Ocean heating doubles
Earth’s oceans now absorb twice as much heat as they did 18 years ago, with more than a third of that warmth going into the ocean depths.
-
Environment
PCB levels still high in Europe’s killer whales, smaller dolphins
PCBs banned for decades still show up at extremely high concentrations in Europe’s killer whales and other dolphins.
By Susan Milius -
Earth
Succession of satellites keep eye on Earth
50 years after plans were laid for the first Earth-observing spacecraft, the youngest Landsat satellites are still flying and imaging the planet’s surface.
-
Animals
The moon drives the migration of Arctic zooplankton
In the darkness of the Arctic winter, the moon replaces the sun as the driver of zooplankton migration, a new study finds.
-
Cosmology
‘Origins’ offers science-based account of creation
In Origins, a science writer compiles an ambitious yet concise history of the universe and life on Earth.
By Sid Perkins