Earth

  1. Oceans

    Blooming phytoplankton seed clouds in the Southern Ocean

    Booming phytoplankton populations spark cloud formation in the Southern Ocean.

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  2. Climate

    Current El Niño coming on strong

    Meteorologists expect the ongoing El Niño to strengthen in the coming months and alter weather patterns worldwide, including bringing potential drought relief to California.

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  3. Climate

    Wildfire seasons have gotten almost 20 percent longer

    The average length of wildfire seasons has increased 18.7 percent since 1979, new research shows.

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  4. Earth

    Bringing mammoths back, life on early Earth and more reader feedback

    Readers debate the pros and cons of reviving extinct species, discuss the odd light-processing machinery of the eye and more.

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  5. Plants

    Flowers’ roles considered in ecosystems and economics

    In ‘The Reason for Flowers’, a pollination ecologist chronicles the science and culture of blossoms from the dawn of humanity.

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  6. Earth

    Natural concrete keeps lid on Italian volcano

    Naturally occurring, concretelike rock allows the ground around Italy’s Campi Flegrei caldera to bulge without bursting.

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  7. Climate

    Bumblebee territory shrinking under climate change

    Climate change is shrinking bumblebee habitat as southern territories heat up and bumblebees hold their lines in the north.

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  8. Climate

    Greenland’s out-of-sync climate explained

    Small variations in the sun’s activity cause big changes in Greenland’s temperatures decades later by altering ocean currents, new research suggests.

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  9. Climate

    Pink salmon threatened by freshwater acidification

    Ocean acidification gets more attention, but freshwater systems are also acidifying. That’s a problem for young salmon, a new study finds.

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  10. Earth

    Leap second helps us with the reality of time

    A leap second will be inserted at the end of the day on June 30.

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  11. Life

    Alison Jolly’s last book chronicles efforts to save lemurs

    In ‘Thank You, Madagascar,’ primatologist Alison Jolly, who spent decades studying lemurs, provides an insider’s account of the struggles that conservationists face.

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  12. Astronomy

    Super-Earths are not a good place for plate tectonics

    The intense pressures inside super-Earths make plate tectonics less likely, new research suggests.

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