Earth
- Oceans
Blooming phytoplankton seed clouds in the Southern Ocean
Booming phytoplankton populations spark cloud formation in the Southern Ocean.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
