Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Stories from Alex Fox

A researcher holds a golden-crowned spadebill in Brazil. Seventy-seven rainforest bird species in the country showed a decrease in body weight over the last four decades.

Climate Change Is Transforming the Bodies of Amazonian Birds

A 40-year study found 77 species of rainforest birds weigh less on average, and many have longer wings, than they used to

Hermit crabs are essential scavengers in the ocean. They may crawl into discarded tires looking for food or shelter, and become trapped and die of starvation.

Discarded Tires Are ‘Ghost Fishing’ Hermit Crabs

New research suggests these shell-swapping crustaceans are vulnerable to becoming trapped inside human debris

But when severe drought and extreme heat collide, as they have this year, states like California that rely heavily on hydropower can be forced to buy extra power to meet demand, which tends to spike when temperatures soar.

Western Drought Drives Decline in Hydroelectric Power Generation

A new report predicts hydropower in the U.S. will fall by nearly 14 percent compared to last year

Facebook’s move comes as threats to the Brazilian Amazon from logging and land clearing only appear to be growing.

Facebook Addresses Illegal Sales of Amazon Rainforest Lands on Its Platform

The embattled social media company is taking steps to curb sales of protected lands via its marketplace following a BBC News investigation

NOAA and Saildrone deployed the fleet of five hurricane-class vessels in the Atlantic’s “hurricane belt” in the summer months leading up to this year’s tropical storm season.   

‘Saildrone’ Captures First-Ever Video From Inside a Category 4 Hurricane

This uncrewed, remote-controlled vessel gathered valuable scientific data that could help researchers better understand and predict these violent storms

This event isn’t the first time river otters have acted aggressively toward humans and their pets, but it’s not considered common.

A Group of River Otters Is Attacking People and Dogs in Alaska

Officials are searching for the culprits after three reported incidents in September

Workers collect oil from the water's surface at Talbert Marsh in Huntington Beach, California. 

Major Spill Washes Crude Oil Onto Southern California Beaches

At least 126,000 gallons of oil have gushed out of a leak in an underwater oil pipeline about three miles offshore

Olive sea snakes are among the largest marine snake species and sometimes make contact with divers.

Venomous Sea Snakes That Charge Divers May Just Be Looking for Love

A new study suggests apparent attacks are actually fleeting cases of mistaken identity

A fox squirrel perched on part of an experiment designed to test its agility and decision-making. Researchers used peanuts to entice the rodents to participate.

Squirrels Use Parkour Moves and Savvy to Stick Tricky Landings

A new study finds these acrobatic rodents quickly weigh variables like bendy branches to figure out how to safely clear big distances high in the treetops

A juvenile scarlet snake stuck in the web of a brown widow spider in Georgia.

In a Spider vs. Snake Battle, These 40 Arachnids Would Defeat and Devour Their Serpentine Foes

At least 40 arachnid species kill and eat certain slithering predators, which can be up to 30 times the eight-legged critters’ size

Emperor penguins are the world's largest penguin, standing almost four feet tall and weighing around 88 pounds. They live almost exclusively in Antarctica and need sea ice to survive.

Climate Change Poised to Push Emperor Penguins to the Brink of Extinction

Study estimates 98 percent of colonies will be quasi-extinct by 2100 unless the world drastically reduces its greenhouse gas emissions

Poland's coal-fired Belchatow Power Station released 38 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2018.

Just 5 Percent of Power Plants Release 73 Percent of Global Electricity Production Emissions

Targeting the world’s worst emitters could offer disproportionate benefits when it comes to fighting climate change

An adult male transient or Bigg's killer whale.

Stranded Killer Whale Survives With the Help of Humans

The whale was spotted stuck among the rocks of an island in Southeast Alaska, but after about six hours on dry land the whale was able to swim off

A new article suggests that cats have been underutilized in studies of genetic disease and that studying their genomes, which are structured similarly to humans', could yield new treatments.

Human Genomes Are Surprisingly Cat-Like

Cat genomes are more similar to ours than those of mice and dogs, yet researchers say felines are underutilized in genetic studies of disease

This map shows how land and ocean temperatures have changed from June 2021 relative to the 1951-1980 base period. High values (darker red colors) indicate temperatures that are higher than those in the base period. The number in the top right is an estimate of the global mean temperature increase. All temperatures are in Celsius.

Study Measuring Earth’s Vital Signs Warns of Climate Tipping Points

The authors say tropical coral reefs, the Amazon rainforest, and the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets may have passed dangerous tipping points

A 3D image of the spiral-shaped intestine of a Pacific spiny dogfish shark. In life, food would move through this intestine left to right.

Sharks’ Intestines Spiral Like a Valve Invented by Nikola Tesla

Tesla’s ingenious valve promoted a one-way flow of fluid without the need for moving parts, but, it turns out, evolution got there first

A map from NOAA showing parts of the country that are under heat advisory as of July 27 (orange), excessive heat watch (brown) and excessive heat warning (fuchsia). The shaded areas of the map with heat related advisories or warnings encompass more than 30 million people.

‘Heat Dome’ Descends on Central United States

Forecasts suggest more than 30 million people could see temperatures topping 100 degrees this week

Researchers extracting an ice core from the Guliya Ice Cap in the Tibetan Plateau in 2015.

Scientists Extract 15,000-Year-Old Viruses From Tibetan Glacier

Researchers say the ancient pathogens are unlikely to cause humans any harm, but 28 out of the 33 viruses found are new to science

Feral hogs wreak havoc on the ecosystems they invade, and new research suggests they're also contributing to climate change by releasing 1.1 million cars-worth of carbon dioxide every year.

Feral Pigs Release 1.1 Million Cars-Worth of Planet-Warming Carbon Dioxide Every Year

The study’s results add exacerbating climate change to the list of environmental impacts ascribed to this invasive species

This is the 93-year-old Xerces blue butterfly specimen that researchers collected tissue samples from for this study.

This Butterfly Is the First U.S. Insect to Be Wiped Out by Humans

Genetic tests using museum specimens suggest that the Xerces blue was a distinct species and that it disappeared in 1941

Page 2 of 24