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Science / Our Planet

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VIDEO: Mantis Shrimp vs. Octopus

Watch as the popular crustacean gets snared by its predator’s tentacles. Will it survive?

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Toxic Runoff Yellow and Other Paint Colors Sourced From Polluted Streams

An engineer and an artist at Ohio University team up to create paints made of sludge extracted from streams near abandoned coal mines

Nuclear power produces a great deal of energy–and waste.

Energy Innovation

Is Shale the Answer to America’s Nuclear Waste Woes?

With the plans for a Yucca Mountain waste repository scrapped, scientists suggest that clay-rich rocks could permanently house spent nuclear fuel

New work suggests that dolphins each have their own distinctive whistle, and respond to hearing their sound made by calling right back.

Do Dolphins Use Whistles to Call Themselves by Unique Names?

Audio experiments show that the marine mammals each have their own whistle, and respond to hearing their distinct whistle by calling right back

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The End of the World Might Just Look Like This

Artist Ron Miller presents several scenarios—most of them scientifically plausible—of landscapes imperiled and of Earth meeting its demise

ARBIMON—a system of distributed recording stations and centralized analysis software—was used to track populations of the endangered plains coqui frog, in Puerto Rico.

A New Technology Can Remotely Analyze an Ecosystem’s Species By its Sound

By distributing networks of microphones to wetlands and forests around the world, biologists could track biodiversity in a whole new way

A community of glass sponges under Antarctica’s ice.

Glass Sponges Move In As Antarctic Ice Shelves Melt

Typically slow-growing glass sponge communities are popping up quickly now that disappearing shelf ice has changed ocean conditions around Antarctica

What do you see?

Fruits and Veggies Get a Close-Up

In the darkroom, photographer Ajay Malghan creates abstract art by casting light through thin slices of produce

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Powering the 21st Century

Tour the Country’s Energy Infrastructure Through A New Interactive Map

Examining the network of power plants, transmission wires, and pipelines gives new insights into the inner workings of the electrical grid

Harnessing the swift tides of the Pentland Firth, a waterway along Scotland’s Northern coast, could generate enough electricity to meet half of the country’s needs.

Energy Innovation

Is Scotland the “Saudi Arabia” of Tidal Power?

The Pentland Firth, a seaway along Scotland’s Northern coast, could generate enough electricity to meet half of the country’s needs, new research finds

Plant impressions found underneath a pair of ancient humans (at left) indicate they were buried atop a bed of flowers (as depicted at right).

Archaeologists Find Evidence of Flowers Buried in a 12,000-Year-Old Cemetery

Plant impressions found underneath a pair of ancient humans in Israel indicate they were buried ceremonially, atop a bed of flowers

Less conspicuous than the rugged Rocky, Cascade and Coast Mountain Ranges in this photograph are the markings of agriculture, in the bottom center.

It’s a Green, Green, Green, Green World

NASA and NOAA release satellite images of Earth and all its vegetation

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This Bumpy-Faced Reptile Ruled the Prehistoric Desert

Newly excavated fossils tell us more about the cow-sized, plant-eating Bunostegos akokanensis, which roamed Pangea around 260 million years ago

Who do you think is the bigger threat in this picture?

A Turn in the Tide for Sharks and Their Public Image

Nearly 40 years after Jaws gave sharks a bad rap, the fish are the ones that need saving, not the beachgoers

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Sloth Cub Hank Says Hello at the National Zoo

At six months, the Zoo’s first sloth cub in seven years made his public debut

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This Incredible Art Installation Makes It Rain, Everywhere But On You

“Rain Room,” on display at MoMA, is an indoor downpour that detects the presence of people and adjusts to keep them dry

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Your Fruits and Vegetables Can Tell Day from Night—and Even Get Jet Lag

New science shows that cabbage, carrots and blueberries experience circadian rhythms, with potential consequences for nutrition

One bionic ear, fresh off the printer.

How One Day Everything Could Be Recycled

Mix 3-D printers and biomimicry and what do you get? Products that are as strong, resilient, versatile—and biodegradable—as most things in nature

The Larsen Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula has seen vast reaches of ice crumble into the ocean. New research suggests that this and other dramatic episodes of ice shelf collapse might be caused by the ocean below eating away at the ice above.

Antarctica’s Ice Shelves Dissolve Thanks to Warm Water Below

The ocean bathing the underside of massive sheets of floating ice is slowly melting ice shelves, making them vulnerable to collapse

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Saving the World’s Largest Old Growth Red Pine Forest

Located in Ontario, Canada, Wolf Lake faces the threat of mining for the next 21 years

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