Environment

Microbes

Scientists stumbled across the first known manganese-fueled bacteria

A jar left soaking in an office sink helped scientists answer a century-old question of whether bacteria can use manganese for energy.

Earth

Agriculture and fossil fuels are driving record-high methane emissions

Releases of the heat-trapping gas methane from human activities have ramped up in the 21st century, especially in Africa and Asia.

Earth

Smoke from Australian fires rose higher into the ozone layer than ever before

The catastrophic wildfires in Australia around New Year’s generated a massive smoke plume that still hasn’t dissipated in the stratosphere.

Environment

How giving cash to poor families may also save trees in Indonesia

Indonesia’s poverty reduction program also reduced deforestation by 30 percent, researchers say.

Earth

Up to 220 million people globally may be at risk of arsenic-contaminated water

A new world map highlights possible hot spots of arsenic contamination in groundwater.

Climate

How to protect your home from disasters amplified by climate change

How people can make their homes and communities more resilient to the effects of climate change, including floods, fires, heat and drought.

Oceans

Deep-sea mining may damage underwater ecosystems for decades

Microbe communities in the seabed off Peru still haven’t fully recovered from being disturbed by a deep-sea mining experiment 26 years ago.

Environment

50 years ago, American waterways were getting more protections

A 1970 bill that became the Clean Water Act helped to double the number of U.S. waterbodies clean enough for swimming and fishing. In January, the U.S. administration changed how waters were defined, effectively removing those protections for half the country’s wetlands.

Environment

A year long expedition spotlights night life in the Arctic winter

Scientists anchored to an ice floe near the North Pole are investigating how life survives polar night and what changes will occur as the Arctic continues to warm.

Climate

These women endured a winter in the high Arctic for citizen science

Two women have spent the winter on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard to collect data for climate scientists around the world.

Environment

Legos may take hundreds of years to break down in the ocean

Sturdy types of plastic may persist in seawater for much long than scientists previously thought.

Climate

How Hurricane Maria’s heavy rains devastated Puerto Rico’s forests

Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc on Puerto Rican forests in some unexpected ways.