Earth

  1. Climate

    Expanding ice slabs are increasing Greenland’s contribution to sea level rise

    Since 2001, melting and refreezing have created vast ice layers near the surface that could drastically amp up meltwater runoff and sea level rise.

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  2. Life

    Climate change may be throwing coral sex out of sync

    Several widespread corals in the Red Sea are flubbing cues to spawn en masse.

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  3. Agriculture

    Birds fed a common pesticide lost weight rapidly and had migration delays

    Scientists have previously implicated neonicotinoid pesticides in declining bee populations. Now a study suggests that songbirds are affected, too.

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  4. Earth

    Ancient crystal growths in caves reveal seas rose 16 meters in a warmer world

    The Pliocene era cave formations on the Spanish coast of Mallorca offer hints about how oceans could respond to human-driven climate change.

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  5. Earth

    How Kilauea’s lava fed a massive phytoplankton bloom

    Kilauea’s heavy flow of lava into the ocean in 2018 added both food and heat to fuel a sudden bloom of ocean algae.

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  6. Earth

    Hurricane Dorian’s slow pace makes it dangerous and hard to predict

    Hurricane Dorian is one of several recent hurricanes that moved extremely slowly. Whether that's due to climate change isn't yet clear.

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  7. Earth

    How ancient oceans of magma may have boosted Earth’s oxygen levels

    Chemical reactions involving iron could have increased the amount of oxygen-rich compounds in the early Earth’s mantle, lab experiments suggest.

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  8. Earth

    Ocean acidification could weaken diatoms’ glass houses

    Ocean acidification may lead to smaller, lighter diatoms in seawater, which could also shrink how much carbon the tiny ocean algae can help sequester.

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  9. Life

    How a newly identified bacterium saps corals of their energy

    A parasitic bacterium that preys on corals quickly reproduces when it senses more nutrients in its host.

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  10. Earth

    Brazil’s Amazon has burned this badly before. This year’s fires are still bad

    An environmental scientist discusses possible impacts from the thousands of fires burning across the Brazilian Amazon rainforest.

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  11. Science & Society

    ‘End Times’ explores the catastrophic events that could kill us all

    A new book looks at the threats that could wipe out humankind and what can be done to counteract them.

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  12. Climate

    Climate change may make El Niño and La Niña less predictable

    Atlantic Niñas and Niños have been fairly reliable bellwethers for severe El Niño and La Niña events in the Pacific. A warming world may change that.

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