Earth
Earth encompasses geographical and geological locations and the human environment, including cities and public and private structures
Watch Out: This Year’s Fire Season Will Be Another Bad One for the West
A warm, dry winter has set the stage for another bad year of forest fires in the western U.S.
May 14, 2013 |
By Colin Schultz
Mount Everest Is Not Immune to Climate Change
Over the past 50 years, the snow line has receded nearly 600 feet up the mountain and glaciers in the region have shrunk by 13 percent
May 14, 2013 |
By Rachel Nuwer
You Can Now Get a College Degree in Rock
In Nottingham, England, you can now get a college degree studying Heavy Metal
May 14, 2013 |
By Colin Schultz
Police Could Soon Get Their Hands on the U.S. Military’s ‘Pain Ray’
This high frequency microwave weapon makes you feel like your skin is burning, but leaves no scars
May 14, 2013 |
By Colin Schultz
Jury-Rigged iPhone Microscope Can See Parasitic Worms Just Fine
The new contraption detected giant roundworm eggs 81 percent of the time and roundworm eggs 54 percent of the time in village samples in Tanzania
May 14, 2013 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Buried Pig Bodies Help Scientists Refine Search Methods for Mass Graves
Currently, the science of detecting mass graves is hit or miss, though the remains of thousands of missing persons may be stashed in clandestine graves
May 14, 2013 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Mayan Pyramid Destroyed to Get Rocks for Road Project
The construction company building the road appears to have extracted crushed rocks from the pyramid to use as road fill
May 14, 2013 |
By Rose Eveleth
Curses! The Four-Letter Word Renaissance Speakers Wouldn’t Flinch At
Back in the ninth century, the S-word referred to excrement in a matter-of-fact, not a vulgar, way
May 13, 2013 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Scientists Map Britain’s Most Famous Underwater City
Researchers have created a 3D visualization of Dunwich using acoustic imaging
May 13, 2013 |
By Rose Eveleth
$18 for a Dozen Eggs by 2010? Inflation Fears in 1982
The Omni Future Almanac predicted that a gallon of gas would be cheaper than a quart of milk
May 10, 2013 |
By Matt Novak
Shell Is Drilling the World’s Deepest Offshore Oil Well in the Gulf of Mexico
The new well contains around 250 million barrels of recoverable oil total - or just over three percent of the oil used by the U.S. each year
May 09, 2013 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Could Lightning Come From Space?
Cosmic rays may cause a "runaway breakdown" of electrons when they collide with highly charged particles in thunderclouds
May 09, 2013 |
By Rachel Nuwer
The Deep Seafloor Turns Out to Be a Treasure Trove for Ancient DNA
DNA preserved in the the ocean floor could provide a unique view of ancient animals that aren't represented in the fossil record
May 08, 2013 |
By Rachel Nuwer
You Totally Would Have Wanted This Little Dome-Headed Dinosaur as a Pet
Just 90 pounds and 6 feet tall, this newly discovered dinosaur is the oldest of its kind
May 08, 2013 |
By Colin Schultz
Feel What It’s Like to Live on an Antarctic Icebreaker for Two Months
In February 2013 Cassandra Brooks, a marine scientist with Stanford University, landed at McMurdo Station, a U.S. research station on the shores of Antarctica’s Ross Sea. For two months she worked on a ship, the icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer, cruising through the Antarctic sea. Brooks documented her life on the ship for National Geographic, and now she’s [...]
May 07, 2013 |
By Colin Schultz
U.S. Gives Mongolia Its Tyrannosauras Skeleton Back
The U.S. government is returning a Tyrannosaurus skeleton to Mongolia and the Metropolitan Museum of Art is giving two statues back to Cambodia
May 07, 2013 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Mapping the Routes of Invasive Stowaways
Singapore, Honk Kong, New York, Long Beach, CA, and the Panama and Suez canals are the areas most at risk from invasive species
May 07, 2013 |
By Rachel Nuwer
The History of Baseball Stadium Nachos
From a Mexican maitre 'd's mishap in 1943 to the gooey, orange stuff you put on your chips at the baseball game today.
May 07, 2013 |
By K. Annabelle Smith
Nearly 4,500 Kids Are Injured on Amusement Park Rides Each Year
Based on current trends in the amusement park market, these injury numbers probably won't go down any time soon
May 06, 2013 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Seahorses Inspire New Armor Designs
The plates that line seahorse tails have to be both flexible enough to grasp and rigid enough to defend themselves from predators
May 06, 2013 |
By Rose Eveleth
