Earth
- Climate
A ‘super’ El Niño appears to be emerging. What’s the big deal?
The climate pattern could bring “shockingly high” temps this winter, plus extreme weather. Some scientists are looking into an engineering “fix.”
- Earth
Scientists Say: Subsidence
This word describes land that sinks after water, minerals, oil or other materials are removed below ground.
- Oceans
Big waves shape this surfer-scientist’s research and life
Professor and pro surfer Cliff Kapono studies human-ocean interactions through the lens of a surfer, from molecular to macro scales.
- Microbes
Fuzzy microbes may fuel cows’ methane burps
Production of this potent greenhouse gas is triggered by a newfound feature of these microbes — one with a funny name: hydrogenobody.
- Earth
Earth’s crust under Africa is thinning in a way never seen before
Africa’s Turkana Rift Zone has been caught in the act of “necking" — a key point in breakup of continental crust.
- Agriculture
Scientists Say: Corn Sweat
Cornfields release moisture into the air — or “sweat” — a couple of ways. One is evaporation. The other is transpiration.
- Animals
Giant school bus–sized octopuses may have once ruled the oceans
Some of these predators were as long as whales. Roaming the seas more than 72 million years ago, the octopuses appear to have been the largest invertebrates ever known.
- Environment
Experiment: Remove microplastics from water with yeast
Learn how yeast can be used to remove microplastics from contaminated water with this experiment.
- Earth
Analyze This: A rocket reentry spiked metal levels in the atmosphere
Detection of lithium from a SpaceX rocket reentering the atmosphere offers new evidence that space debris could harm the ozone layer.
- Earth
Scientists Say: Snow line
On Earth, this line marks the edge of snow-covered ground. In space, it marks a spot where a certain molecule might freeze.
- Earth
Could a storm last forever?
Thunderstorms help fix imbalances found in our atmosphere. For constant storms, those imbalances would have to persist.
- Agriculture
Deeply plowing farm fields can do more harm than good
Heavy plowing can impair water’s flow through the ground. The problem was found by “listening” to tiny seismic signals caused by rain infiltrating the soil.
