Earth

  1. Climate

    A stunning visualization of Alaska’s Yukon Delta shows a land in transition

    Water and ice helped form the Yukon River’s delta. Now, climate change is reshaping it.

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  2. Paleontology

    3.42-billion-year-old fossil threads may be the oldest known archaea microbes

    The structure and chemistry of these ancient cell-like fossils may hint where Earth’s early inhabitants evolved and how they got their energy.

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  3. Animals

    How intricate Venus’s-flower-baskets manipulate the flow of seawater

    Simulations show that a deep-sea glass sponge’s intricate skeleton creates particle-trapping vortices and reduces the stress of rushing water.

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  4. Microbes

    Missing Antarctic microbes raise thorny questions about the search for aliens

    Scientists couldn’t find microbial life in soils from Antarctica, hinting at a limit for habitability on Earth and other worlds.

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  5. Animals

    Climate change may be leading to overcounts of endangered bonobos

    A changing climate in Congo is affecting how scientists count bonobos’ nests, possibly skewing estimates of the great ape population, a study suggests.

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  6. Earth

    Mixing trees and crops can help both farmers and the climate

    Agriculture is a major driver of climate change and biodiversity loss. But integrating trees into farming practices can boost food production, store carbon and save species.

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  7. Climate

    Hurricanes may not be becoming more frequent, but they’re still more dangerous

    A new study suggests that there aren’t more hurricanes now than there were roughly 150 years ago.

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  8. Climate

    The first step in using trees to slow climate change: Protect the trees we have

    In all the fuss over planting trillions of trees, we need to protect the forests that already exist.

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  9. Earth

    Satellites show how a massive lake in Antarctica vanished in days

    Within six days, an Antarctic lake with twice the volume of San Diego Bay drained away, leaving a deep sinkhole filled with fractured ice.

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  10. Environment

    Why planting tons of trees isn’t enough to solve climate change

    Massive projects need much more planning and follow-through to succeed – and other tree protections need to happen too.

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  11. Plants

    How Romanesco cauliflower forms its spiraling fractals

    By tweaking just three genes in a common lab plant, scientists have discovered the mechanism responsible for one of nature’s most impressive fractals.

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  12. Climate

    Human-driven climate change sent Pacific Northwest temperatures soaring

    As scientists dissect what pushed temperatures up to 5 degrees Celsius above previous records, they may have to revamp how to predict heat waves.

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