Life
Fog — it’s alive!
Low-lying fog clouds host living microbes. That may be good news, because some of them can remove toxic air pollutants, such as formaldehyde.
By Lily Burton
MS-ESS3-4
Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.
More Stories in MS-ESS3-4
- Climate
An ancient log shows how burying wood can fight climate change
A blanket of clay soil helped the wood hold onto the carbon it had absorbed — for thousands of years.
- Climate
Let’s learn about how much climate change is to blame for extreme weather
Scientists can find out whether a natural disaster was more frequent or severe due to human-caused climate change. Here’s how.
- Earth
Many natural underground stores of freshwater are shrinking
A lot of these aquifers are quickly disappearing due to climate change and overuse. Fortunately, there is growth in some of the world’s major aquifers.
- Environment
Bottled water hosts many thousands of nano-sized plastic bits
The finding emerges from tests of a new tool that identified smaller-than-ever tiny plastic bits in three brands of bottled water.
- Artificial Intelligence
To ‘green’ AI, scientists are making it less resource-hungry
Energy demands of ChatGPT and similar AI tools can threaten Earth’s climate. So researchers have begun redesigning how to run data centers and build AI.
- Ecosystems
The Amazon is in trouble. Here’s why — and why it matters
Challenges from human-caused climate change, deforestation and degradation leave the fate of this vast forest uncertain.
- Agriculture
Crops are being engineered to thrive in our changing climate
Plants are already the best carbon catchers on Earth. New research could make them even better.
- Climate
Let’s learn about why summer 2023 was so hot
Human-caused climate change has played a big role in this summer’s historic heat.
- Oceans
Summer 2023 is when the ocean first turned ‘hot tub’ hot
Unfortunately, scientists worry that this atypical sea warming may actually be the beginning of an unwelcome new ‘normal.’
