Environment
- Environment
Explainer: Urban heat islands and how to cool them
Cities transform landscapes covered in plants to ones covered in heat-absorbing asphalt and concrete. But ways exist to cool these urban heat islands.
- Environment
Let’s learn about plastic pollution
The world is cluttered with plastic waste. All that junk kills animals far and wide.
- Earth
Let’s learn about Antarctica
This continent is dry, windy and very cold — and home to penguins, ice and a lot of scientific research.
- Environment
‘Zombie’ wildfires can reemerge after wintering underground
Climate change may make these not-quite-dead blazes more common. Scientists are learning to predict where a zombie might emerge.
- Climate
U.S. records reveal the last 30 years were the hottest on record
New ‘climate normals’ show that average temperatures increased notably just since 1990.
- 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.
- Environment
Pond scum can release a paralyzing pollutant into the air
New study finds blooms of blue-green algae can seed the air with a poisonous pollutant.
- Health & Medicine
Warning: Wildfires might make you itch
Western wildfires are on the rise due to climate change and land use. Now a study adds eczema to the list of health risks that smoke might trigger.
- Agriculture
New technologies might help keep drought-prone farms green
After learning how much damage drought can do to crops, two teens designed ways to detect a thirsty plant and make sure it gets enough water.
- Environment
Local glacier could be gone in a decade, young scientist finds
A teen calculated the volume of a glacier by drilling into it with jets of steam — then used that to estimate how long before all its ice will be gone.
- 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.
- Climate
Surfing the winds would make future jet travel greener
Simple route changes could drastically cut fuel use and greenhouse-gas emissions, a new study finds.
