Earth

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.

Animals

Radioactive animals don’t glow — but do show the power of radiation

Wild species exposed to nuclear contamination help show how radiation affects living things — including its risks to people.

Environment

Nuclear weapons tests many decades ago have left a radioactive legacy

Decades of aboveground nuclear weapons tests, starting in the 1950s, lightly littered the planet with toxic fallout, which appears to have sickened some people.

Animals

Some Antarctic fish arrange their nests into odd shapes

Scientists found nests organized into curves, clusters and ovals on the Antarctic seabed. Such groupings may protect the fish eggs from predators.

Health & Medicine

Air pollution might harm children’s eye health

Scientists used machine learning to understand air pollution’s role in eye health and vision. They found children have better eyesight in cleaner air conditions.

Materials Science

Scientists Say: Tenebrescence

Under ultraviolet light, some minerals adopt long-lasting new hues.