Earth
- Earth
Scientists Say: Cave Popcorn
This type of cave formation can occur as glossy, soaplike bubbles or as a bristly, cauliflower-like clusters.
- Agriculture
This engineer designed a device to make farm work easier
Juan Espinoza engineered a device to help ease physical demands on workers at citrus farms.
- Oceans
The sea surface covered by seaweed is now as big as South America
The first global mapping of macroalgae blooms in the ocean, last year, reveals rapid growth and a new record for the area seaweed blankets.
- Ecosystems
The Okefenokee’s dark waters hold secrets about climate and more
This Georgia peat swamp’s vast stores of carbon and water are under threat from mining and pollution. Scientists and locals are fighting to protect it.
- Science & Society
Volcanic ash might have helped spread the Black Death to Europe
A volcanic eruption might have triggered events that led Italy to import grain — food that arrived in ships infested with plague-infected rats.
- Earth
Build your own seismograph with this science activity
By recording earthquakes, seismographs help scientists better understand and hopefully predict quakes.
- Physics
Scientists Say: Equilibrium
This steady state may look like a total standstill, but it’s actually an equal opposition of forces.
- Climate
Microbes that dwell in tree bark devour major climate gases
Hidden in plain sight, this huge community of tree-bark microbes dines on gases — such as methane — that warm Earth’s atmosphere.
- Environment
Antarctica faces a green and weedy future
Warming is allowing alien species to invade a land that had been isolated for 30 million years. They now threaten local ecosystems unique to Antarctica.
- Climate
As winters warm, athletes must cope with harder snow and tricky ice
Ice arenas and artificial snow now dominate the winter Olympics. Athletes there — and everywhere — may need to adjust how they train and perform.
- Earth
Experiment: How does the tilt of Earth’s axis affect the seasons?
Seasons have nothing to do with Earth’s distance from the sun. The real reason for the seasons is the tilt of Earth’s axis.
- Earth
Scientists Say: Haboob
Thunderstorms in the desert create downdrafts that lift desert sand into a moving, wall-like cloud.
