One of the world’s richest biodiversity hot spots is Peru’s Madre de Dios, a region of the Amazon nestled at the base of the Andes mountains. When biogeochemist Jacqueline Gerson first traveled there in 2017, she found herself on a boat headed downstream through the forest. As the riverbanks passed by, she observed a scenic … Read more
A barrage of intense, wild swings in climate conditions may have fueled the largest mass extinction in Earth’s history. A re-creation of how ancient sea surface temperatures, ocean and atmosphere circulation, and landmasses interacted revealed an Earth plagued by nearly decade-long stints of droughts, wildfires and flooding. Researchers knew that a spike in global temperatures … Read more
As dust from the Sahara blows thousands of kilometers across the Atlantic Ocean, it becomes progressively more nutritious for marine microbes, a new study suggests. Chemical reactions in the atmosphere chew on iron minerals in the dust, making them more water soluble and creating a crucial nutrient source for the iron-starved seas, researchers report September … Read more
Some tadpoles don’t poop for the first weeks of their lives. At least, that’s the case for Eiffinger’s tree frogs (Kurixalus eiffingeri), scientists report September 22 in Ecology. Eiffinger’s tree frogs are tiny frogs that live in Taiwan and on two Japanese islands: Ishigaki and Iriomote. The tree-dwelling amphibians lay their eggs in puny puddles, … Read more
A perfect storm of climate, geologic and geographic conditions have combined to make Hurricane Helene one of the most devastating storms to ever hit the United States. Days after it slammed into Florida’s Big Bend region on September 26 and traveled hundreds of kilometers inland, Helene’s destructive impact has continued to grow. Fueled by warm … Read more
One of the widest hurricanes on record slammed into Florida’s Gulf Coast on September 26 as a powerful Category 4 storm, inundating Florida’s coast with meters-high storm surge and sending tropical storm–force winds as far as 500 kilometers from its eye. Helene — like so many hurricanes in recent years — seemed to spin up … Read more
This video was supported by funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. TRANSCRIPT David Johnson: So, in 2014, we were on a mud bank in the marsh here in Massachusetts, and I saw this little crab that came crashing through the mud bank and into a hole. And so I dug up the crab and … Read more
When strained by earthquakes, underground networks of quartz veins can generate enough tension to leach gold from passing fluids, researchers report Sept. 2 in Nature Geoscience. The findings explain how fluids carrying small amounts of gold can fabricate large pieces, even in chemically inert environments. “You find a quartz vein 2 meters wide, and there’s … Read more
Extreme Climate Survey Scientific news is collecting readers’ questions about how to navigate our planet’s changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? McCall: Argivoltaics is a term for the co-location of solar and agricultural activities, such as grazing, crop production and also … Read more
Flicking the dimmer switch can help some indoor farmers curb one of their biggest challenges: rising electricity costs. Growing crops in stacked rows indoors under fixed-intensity artificial lights can produce more food per square foot using less land and water than traditional outdoor farms. But this vertical farming technique is also energy intensive and expensive … Read more