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Environmental Science
Out of sight, but not out of mind.
What we've learning from the world’s coldest, most forbidding, and most peaceful continent.
Carnivores, herbivores, omnivores — and now virivores.
Laser-guided lightning systems could someday offer much greater protection than lightning rods.
Why would the Earth suddenly start vomiting forth huge quantities of mud?
Passing chunks of ice can fertilize ocean waters and play a role in the planet’s carbon cycle.
We are still new at this.
Merely 256 genetically engineered mice could make an island's pest population go extinct.
It’s an agricultural moonshot: Scientists hope to increase plant yields by hacking photosynthesis, the process that powers life on Earth.
Sight helps you see a room, but interoception lets you sense it from inside your own body.
It's on a 100,000-year timescale, though, so the next few centuries might not be so comfortable.
Methane is a shorter-lived but more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Cleaning it up could have a quick impact on global warming.
One possible vision of the distant future.
All American and European eels originate in the same place.
The crabs' blue blood contains an ancient immune defense mechanism that has helped save countless human lives.
Since our arrival, humans have driven a seven-fold drop in the mass of wild land mammals.
The new material may make marine uranium extraction economically feasible.
Anyone up for a crisp, blonde ale?
Scientists turn to nature to improve a ubiquitous building material.
A team of scientists hopes deep-earth lithium could sustain America's vast demand for batteries. But extracting it won't be easy.
The length of a day oscillates slightly every six years. This was a surprising discovery made last decade. We might now know why.
Some ozone experts seriously doubt the findings.
A marine scientist explains the threat of the Loop Current, a 800-pound gorilla of Gulf hurricane risks.
Science and the sacred both allow us to retain our sense of wonder, even as disaster seems to swirl around us.
Photosynthesis is powerful but very inefficient. Humans can improve on this biochemical process to help the planet.
There's a fatal prion infection killing deer and elk across North America.