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Science / Our Planet

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What Does the Unbelievably Bad Air Quality in Beijing Do to the Human Body?

The level of soot in Beijing’s air is off the charts, leading to higher risks of lung cancer, heart attacks and other health problems

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Photos: The Uneasy Conflict Between Artificial and Natural Light

Artist Kevin Cooley has traveled the world capturing landscapes where one light shines on the horizon

Jeffrey Post, curator of the Smithsonian’s National Gem and Mineral Collection, says the size of the Dom Pedro Aquamarine is “unprecedented.”

Introducing the Dom Pedro Aquamarine

The one gem that can rival the Hope Diamond is finally on display at the Natural History Museum

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Could Solar Panels on Your Roof Power Your Home?

Researchers at MIT are investigating how to turn houses in Cambridge, Massachusetts, into mini-power plants

How Did Plants Develop Photosynthesis?

For a large chunk of the Earth’s existence, flora have used the Sun’s light to turn the planet green

Dust lofted up from the Sahara can be blown across the Pacific and seed clouds over California.

Dust from the Sahara Can Seed Rain and Snow Clouds Over the Western U.S.

Clouds above California contain dust and bacteria from China, the Middle East and even Africa, new research shows

Wild bees, such as this Andrena bee visiting highbush blueberry flowers, provide crucial pollination services to crops across the globe.

Could Disappearing Wild Insects Trigger a Global Crop Crisis?

Three-quarters of the world’s crops—including fruits, grains and nuts—depend on pollination, and the insects responsible are disappearing

Portion of the cover of the February 1989 issue of Life magazine

In 1989, ‘Life’ Magazine Said Goodbye To Video Stores, Mailmen and Pennies…

In 1989, “Life” magazine predicted that, by the year 2000, many staples of modern American life might find themselves on the scrapheap of history

The AirWaves mask by Frog Shanghai

How to Survive China’s Pollution Problem: Masks and Bubbles

The air quality in China’s biggest cities is famously atrocious, but designers think they may have found a way to combat the issue

High temperatures and high levels of humidity reduce the human body’s ability to do work.

Climate Change is Reducing Our Ability to Get Work Done

Increased temperature and humidity have already limited humankind’s overall capacity for physical work—and it will only get worse in the future

Ice melt in Greenland will significantly affect water levels throughout the world, most of all the equatorial Pacific and South Africa.

Melting Polar Ice Will Spike Sea Levels at the Equator

Expect higher sea levels in the equatorial Pacific and lower ones near the poles by 2100, according to new research

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Will the Next Lake-Effect Snowstorm be Severe? Ask Mountains Far Far Away

Scientists use computer simulations to test how geographic features help create intense snowstorms that blanket cities near lake shores with snow

Artist's conception of asteroid 2012 DA14 passing through the Earth-moon system on Feb. 15, 2013.

What Can We Do About Big Rocks From Space?

Last week’s close encounters with space rocks have raised concerns about how we deal with dangerous asteroids. Here’s how we would try to knock them off course.

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Parched Middle East Faces Severe Water Crisis

Drought and over-pumping has led to groundwater losses in the Middle East that equal almost the entire volume of the Dead Sea, a new study shows.

A new project examines how a warming climate will effect Canada’s tradition of backyard skating rinks.

Climate Change’s Latest Victim: Canada’s Outdoor Ice Rinks

A new project asks citizens to monitor their backyard rinks, helping to track how a warming climate is affecting Canada’s skating tradition

A study shows that wild perch are less fearful, eat faster and are more anti-social when exposed to a common pharmaceutical pollutant.

Flushing Your Anti-Anxiety Pills Down the Toilet Could Affect the Behavior of Wild Fish

A study shows that wild perch are less fearful, eat faster and are more anti-social when exposed to a common pharmaceutical pollutant

Two waved albatrosses, the only tropical albatross species, courting one another on the Galapagos Islands.

Is It Love? Why Some Ocean Animals (Sort Of) Mate For Life

A look at the mating systems of some monogamous ocean animals show that finding life partners helps species protect themselves and their young

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This Sea Slug Discards Its Penis After Sex and Grows Another

Chromodoris reticulata, native to the Pacific, engages in mating behavior previously unknown in the rest of the animal kingdom

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Trash Threatens Fragile Antarctic Environment

Decaying field huts, open pits of trash and oil-slicked beaches mar King George Island, a logistical hub for Antarctic research

A rendering of Asteroid 2012 DA14, which will pass within 17,200 miles of Earth’s surface.

An Asteroid Will Skim Right By the Earth on Friday Afternoon

The 147-foot-wide rock will pass a scant 17,200 miles from Earth’s surface, under the orbits of some telecom satellites

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