Earth

  1. Climate

    19th century chronicles offer clues to mystery volcano

    Meteorological records narrow down the time and place of a massive volcanic eruption that helped trigger a decade of extreme cold.

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  2. Earth

    Supervolcano blast would blanket U.S. in ash

    A new simulation illustrates the explosiveness of the volcano that lurks beneath Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

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  3. Environment

    Crops take up drugs from recycled water

    Plants irrigated with recycled wastewater can soak up tiny amounts of pharmaceutical compounds but what this means for human health is unclear.

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  4. Plants

    Borrowed genes raise hopes for fixing “slow and confused” plant enzyme

    Inserting some bacterial Rubisco chemistry into a plant might one day boost photosynthesis and help raise crop yields.

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  5. Earth

    Shrinking ancient sea may have spawned Sahara Desert

    The Saharan Desert probably formed 7 million years ago as the ancient Tethys Sea, the forerunner of the Mediterranean Sea, shrank.

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  6. Agriculture

    Drug-resistant staph can cling to farm workers for days

    Agricultural exposure to staph bacteria could threaten the health of laborers and people who live near farms, a study of pig farm workers suggests.

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  7. Earth

    Warming alone triggered Antarctic ice shelf collapse

    Warming surface temperatures, not an unstable foundation, probably doomed Antarctica’s Larsen B ice shelf.

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  8. Climate

    Greenhouse gases reached new records in 2013

    Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose more last year than any other year since 1984, according to a September 9 report by the World Meteorological Organization.

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  9. Earth

    Feedback

    Readers discuss Tibetan genetics, how Saharan dust built the Bahamas and why people don't like being left alone with their thoughts.

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  10. Oceans

    Plastic may take unexpected routes to marine garbage patches

    By redefining ocean boundaries, researchers offer new insight to how litter moves through the oceans and who’s to blame for the floating clumps of trash.

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  11. Physics

    Unusual turbulence seen along North Carolina coast

    Storm winds in Currituck Sound, North Carolina, may have created just the right conditions for scientists to see a rare type of turbulence in ocean waves for the first time.

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  12. Earth

    Death Valley’s sailing stones caught on the move

    Mysterious sailing stones wandering around Death Valley are powered by ice and wind.

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