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Evolution doesn’t proceed in a straight line
If you go by cartoons and T-shirts, you might think evolution proceeds as an orderly march toward a preordained finish line. But evolution has no endpoint in mind.
September 4, 2019
Hurricane Dorian viewed from space
NASA astronaut Christian Koch snapped this image of Hurricane Dorian from the International Space Station on Monday, September 2, 2019. The station orbits more than 200 miles (300 km) above Earth.
September 2, 2019
Why the Amazon is burning: 4 reasons
Nearly 40,000 fires are burning in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, the latest outbreak in an overactive fire season. Don’t blame dry weather, say environmentalists. These Amazonian wildfires are a human-made disaster.
August 27, 2019
Snow algae thrives in extreme conditions
On tall ice structures high in the Chilean Andes, researchers found algae growing on snow. They don’t entirely understand how the algae are able to bloom.
August 19, 2019
Large 2019 dead zone in Gulf of Mexico
This year's Gulf of Mexico dead zone of oxygen-depleted waters is the 8th largest ever recorded.
August 16, 2019
It’s raining plastic in the Rocky Mountains
A USGS study identified plastic in more than 90% of rainwater samples taken from across Colorado.
August 15, 2019
Microplastics found in Lake Tahoe
Research at one of the world's clearest, cleanest lakes suggests the problem of microplastics is widespread in freshwater systems and not just in oceans.
August 15, 2019
How do monarch butterflies know when it’s time to migrate?
Overwintering monarch butterflies rely on a temperature-sensitive internal timer to wake them up to make the trip back north, researchers report.
August 7, 2019
A big earthquake in the US Pacific Northwest?
Most people don’t associate the US Pacific Northwest with earthquakes, but maybe they should. It’s home to the 600-mile (1,000-km) Cascadia megathrust fault, stretching from northern California to Canada’s Vancouver Island.
August 5, 2019
How mosquitoes find us
For mosquitoes, finding the next blood meal is all about smelling and seeing. It's our breath that gives us away.
August 5, 2019
