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Science / Our Planet

Crews clean up debris in a neighborhood flooded by Hurricane Harvey in Beaumont, Texas, Sept. 26, 2017

The Next Pandemic

How Do Scientists Measure the Public Health Impacts of Natural Disasters?

In the wake of this year’s hurricanes, epidemiologists are assessing the effects of mold, toxic leaks and other threats

How Flowers Manipulate Light to Send Secret Signals to Bees

Come-hither blue haloes are just one of the effects employed by nature’s first nanotechnologists

A southern New Hampshire pine forest was entirely blown down in the hurricane of 1938.

The 1938 Hurricane That Revived New England’s Fall Colors

An epic natural disaster restored the forest of an earlier America

This NASA Landsat image shows the Mackenzie River surrounding the town of Inuvik, and the uniquely pock-marked landscape of this delta.

With Federal Funds Dwindling, Climate Scientists Turn to Unusual Partnerships to Study Methane in a Warming Arctic

As the urgency of climate change becomes tangible to those in the Arctic, federal funds are growing harder to come by

The elusive Vangunu giant rat lives in trees, a habitat under attack from deforestation in the Solomon Islands.

New Research

Fall in Love With This Newly Discovered Giant Island Rat

The Vangunu rat is the first rodent species to come to light on the Solomon Islands in 80 years—and it’s already endangered

Rescue workers search for survivors among the rubble of a collapsed building in Mexico City. Structures throughout the capital were devastated during yesterday's earthquake.

How Mexico City’s Unique Geology Makes Deadly Earthquakes Even Worse

The entire country—but especially the capital—has all the ingredients for seismic catastrophe

Sunita Narain has been working for climate justice with the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment since 1982.

How an Environmental Activist Became a Pioneer for Climate Justice in India

Reducing India’s emissions will take more than science—it will take a new paradigm of de-colonialism, says Sunita Narain

In an era of rapid change, the managers of our nation's wild spaces are asking: What counts as natural anymore?

The National Parks Face a Looming Existential Crisis

Political uncertainty and a changing climate converge to forge the park system’s biggest challenge yet

Despite the predicted declines, at least five species of bees would survive in areas that would still be suitable for growing coffee, says the new study.

With Smart Planning, Coffee and Bees Can Survive Climate Change

In a new study, a Smithsonian scientist says coffee-growers have options

We hear a lot about the over-extraction of oil, but less about the consequences of the sand trade.

New Research

The World is Running Out of Sand

The little-known exploitation of this seemingly infinite resource could wreak political and environmental havoc

Taxonomic vandalism can have disastrous consequences for wildlife conservation—but it could also impact human health. Shown here, an African spitting cobra poised to strike.

A Few Bad Scientists Are Threatening to Topple Taxonomy

Naming species forms the foundation of biology—but these rogue researchers are exposing the flaws in the system

For tree poachers, sometimes known as "midnight burlers," redwoods can present a lucrative opportunity for theft. New research recommends ways to deter this hard-to-trace wildlife crime.

New Research

How Forest Forensics Could Prevent the Theft of Ancient Trees

To track down timber thieves, researchers are turning to new tech and tried-and-true criminal justice techniques

Water water everywhere, and not a day to think.

How Coastal Cities Are Evolving to Deal With Extreme Rain

Facing the specter of more and worse rainstorms, these vulnerable areas are turning to innovative urban design

Scientists can study stress in these petite primates with simply a few strands of their hair.

New Research

Stress Is Killing These Teeny Lemurs, and The Story Is In Their Hair

Sampling the fur of Madagascar’s gray mouse lemurs reveal a bevy of environmental pressures

Costa Rica's Guanacaste region is among the country's many beautiful ecological zones—and the waste from local juice company is helping keep it that way.

Costa Rica Let a Juice Company Dump Their Orange Peels in the Forest—and It Helped

How a controversial experiment actually bore fruit

A geologist looks out into a caldera in Nevada's McDermitt Volcanic Field.

Future of Energy

Will Supervolcanoes Help Power Our Future?

Vast new deposits of lithium could change the global politics of battery production—if we can get at them

Humpback whales sounding in Windham Bay, Alaska.

What Humpback Whales Can Teach Us About Compassion

Are these orca-fighting, seal-saving good Samaritans really just in it for themselves?

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