All Stories by Maria Temming
- Environment
Let’s learn about plastic pollution
The world is cluttered with plastic waste. All that junk kills animals far and wide.
- Chemistry
Lots of makeup may contain potentially harmful ‘forever chemicals’
Hints of PFAS compounds have turned up in about half of tested makeup products. Waterproof mascaras and lipsticks were very likely to contain them.
- Animals
Uncovering secrets of the glasswing butterfly’s see-through wings
The tricks of its transparency include sparse, spindly scales and a waxy coated membrane.
- Earth
‘Tree farts’ make up about a fifth of greenhouse gases from ghost forests
Heat-trapping gases from dead trees play an important role in the environmental impact of “ghost” forests.
- Space
Stars made of antimatter could lurk in our galaxy
Fourteen sources of gamma rays in our galaxy look like they could be antistars — celestial bodies made of antimatter.
- Earth
Here’s how lightning may help clean the air
Airplane observations show that storm clouds can generate huge quantities of air-cleansing chemicals known as oxidants.
- Physics
Why big nuts always rise to the top
X-rays scans of a box of mixed nuts now reveal why large Brazil nuts rise to the top.
- Chemistry
New recycling technologies could keep more plastic out of landfills
Recycling plastics is really hard — especially into useful materials. But new chemical tricks could make recycling easier.
- Earth
Rock rising from below the Atlantic may drive continents apart
Molten rock rising from the deep mantle at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge may drive plate tectonics there more than had been expected.
- Archaeology
Unusual mud shell covers an Egyptian mummy
In ancient Egypt, commoners may have been mummified and then encased in mud to repair damage to the body or to imitate royal techniques used with royals.
- Climate
2020 was warmest year on record for Earth’s oceans
2020 continued the trend of record-breaking heat for the world’s oceans. The three previous warmest years on record were 2019, 2017 and 2018.
- Earth
Space station sensors saw how weird ‘blue jet’ lightning forms
A mysterious type of lightning in the upper atmosphere has been traced to a brief, bright flash of light at the top of a storm cloud.
