LaBrea Letson, 8, sells lemonade made with bottled water outside her grandmother’s home near the derailment site. A van passing by tests the air for hazardous chemicals.

See 26 Captivating Images From the World Press Photo Contest

In stark black-and-white and stunning color, this year’s winning photographs capture global events on a human scale

People gather on Kaanapali Beach, a popular tourist destination near Lahaina, Hawaii, in August 2024.

Destinations Hit by Natural Disasters Need Tourists Back—but Maybe Not in the Same Way as Before

Places like Maui and Asheville, North Carolina, rebuilding after wildfires and hurricanes, are doing so with a mind to sustainable tourism

Biomass will monitor the Earth's tropical forests over the next five years.

A New Satellite Will Map the Carbon Content of Rainforests From Space, and It’s Set to Launch This Month

The European Space Agency’s new probe, Biomass, will spend five years orbiting the planet and gathering radar imagery of forests across multiple continents

In 2022, Just Stop Oil protesters threw tomato soup onto the glass protecting Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers.

Climate Activists Say They Will Stop Throwing Soup and Halt Disruptive Protest Tactics

Members of Just Stop Oil made headlines for their controversial demonstrations involving valuable artworks and artifacts. Now, they say they’ve achieved their initial goal

Photographs of the Rhône glacier and the attempts to save it

Art Meets Science

Art Exhibition Immortalizes Switzerland’s Rhône Glacier, Predicted to Disappear by 2050

Ohan Breiding’s “Belly of a Glacier” combines experimental film and photography to reflect on a moment of loss—and to fight against it

An 1896 illustration of Coffea stenophylla in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, which noted the species’ “superior flavor” and market potential.

How a Forgotten Bean Could Save Coffee From Extinction

One leading botanist is scouring remote corners of the earth to find new species that could keep our mugs full

Almost all the buildings at the Buddhist Gounsa Temple complex were destroyed in the fires

South Korea’s Worst Ever Wildfires Ravage Ancient Buddhist Temples and Menace Historic Villages

One monk said his old temple was ‘reduced to heaps of ashes,’ as the fires continue to rage across the country

A NASA image of Florida in 1992. Coastal communities are most the vulnerable to the effects of sea level rise.

Sea Levels Rose More Than Expected in 2024, According to a NASA Analysis

Ocean warming and thus thermal expansion played a major role in last year’s increase

The Barry Arm landslide in Alaska’s Prince William Sound

Studying This Slow-Moving Alaskan Landslide May Help Avert Future Disaster

If the landslide at the Barry Arm fjord collapses, its falling ice and rock could generate a devastating 650-foot-high tsunami

Greenhouse gas emissions will decrease the amount of satellites that can safely orbit Earth, according to a new study.

Climate Change Might Increase Satellite Collisions, Limiting How Many Can Safely Orbit Earth, Study Finds

Greenhouse gas emissions could reduce drag in the upper atmosphere, leaving more space debris in orbit and making satellites more vulnerable to damage, according to new research

Reno’s downtown, where paved surfaces gather heat and buildings block cooling breezes, can feel stifling on a hot summer day.

Citizen Scientists Are Hitting the Streets of the Country’s Fastest-Warming Cities to Collect Detailed Temperature Data

The heat mapping of metros like Reno, Nevada, could be key to taming urban heat, saving lives and designing for a cooler future

Individual Antarctic krill are small, but the animals live in gigantic groups that can be seen from space.

Tiny Antarctic Krill Benefit the Planet in Big Ways, but Face a Barrage of Threats

The bountiful creatures sequester carbon and are a vital food source for marine predators, but their future is uncertain

Researchers studied the impact of extreme heat on older adults' "epigenetic clocks," which measure aging-related changes to DNA.

Extreme Heat Could Make Older Adults Age Faster by Altering Their DNA, Study Finds

Researchers compared genetic markers of aging to daily temperature records in areas across the United States and found that elderly people exposed to more hot days showed more rapid biological aging

Ice calves off the Breidamerkurjokull, a glacier in Iceland. Some scientists suggest prehistoric glaciers hold the answers to how life evolved on Earth.

How Enormous Glaciers on the Frozen ‘Snowball Earth’ Might Have Bulldozed the Path to Complex Life on Our Planet

A new study suggests glaciers carved metals out from the Earth’s surface 700 million years ago, leading to chemical reactions in the oceans that set the stage for early animal evolution

The Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles experiences slow-moving landslides that accelerated last fall, according to recent research.

Parts of California Are Sinking, and It Could Worsen the Effects of Sea-Level Rise, NASA Study Finds

The ground in many parts of the state—including Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Central Valley—is subsiding due to groundwater withdrawal, landslides and compacting of sediment

The iceberg A23a, seen in the South Atlantic Ocean near South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in November 2024

The World’s Largest Iceberg Runs Aground, Potentially Averting a Collision With Penguin and Seal Breeding Areas

After months of floating, the “megaberg” known as A23a has finally come to a halt roughly 50 miles from South Georgia Island

An illustration of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, with branches connecting to other ocean currents

Earth’s Strongest Ocean Current Could Slow 20 Percent by 2050 Because of Climate Change, Study Finds

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is involved in everything from storing carbon to guarding Antarctica from invasive marine species, and a slower current could have far-reaching consequences

In October 2024, scientists created dozens of man-made nests and deposited 300,000 Chinook salmon eggs. Now, those eggs are hatching.

Chinook Salmon Are Swimming in This California River for the First Time in More Than 80 Years

The juvenile fish recently hatched from eggs that scientists deposited in the gravelly riverbed of the North Yuba River last fall

Mother polar bears spend months inside snowy dens with their cubs. Then, the family emerges together in the spring.

Rare Footage Shows Baby Polar Bears Emerging From Their Den in the Arctic

In a new study, researchers used remote cameras and data from GPS tracking collars to learn more about this vulnerable period in the early lives of these marine mammals

Train Smoke, Edvard Munch, 1900

See the Breathtaking Landscape Paintings Inspired by the Boreal Forest, From Europe to North America

Titled “Northern Lights,” a new exhibition in Switzerland showcases artworks of the taiga made between 1888 and 1937

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