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Water

BlueGreen Water Technologies treats a harmful algal bloom in Doctors Lake in Clay County, Florida.

How Cleaning Up Harmful Algal Blooms Could Help Fight Climate Change

A company called BlueGreen Water Technologies aims to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while also fighting algae’s toxic effects on people and the environment

The endangered Woodville Karst cave crayfish (Procambarus orcinus)

Freshwater Animals Are More Fragile Than Thought, With Nearly a Quarter Threatened With Extinction, Study Finds

Species in Lake Victoria, Lake Titicaca, Sri Lanka’s Wet Zone and the Western Ghats of India are particularly vulnerable to the effects of agriculture, human infrastructure and climate change, per the paper

Jimmy Carter tries to comfort 6-year-old Ruhama Issah at Savelugu Hospital in Ghana as a Carter Center technical assistant dresses Issah's Guinea worm wound. In May 2010, Ghana reported its last case of Guinea worm disease and announced it had stopped transmission a year later.

Jimmy Carter Worked to Eradicate the Vicious Guinea Worm Parasite, Slashing Cases by the Millions

The 39th U.S. president aimed to quash the debilitating water-based infection before he died. Through the Carter Center’s work, he came tantalizingly close, lowering the number of yearly cases from 3.5 million to just 14

Though small, the snail darter has played an outsize role in American law, conservation and biology.

A Tiny, ‘Endangered’ Fish Delayed a Dam’s Construction in the 1970s. Now, Scientists Say the Snail Darter Isn’t So Rare After All

A lawsuit to protect the snail darter from the Tellico Dam in Tennessee offered the first real test of the 1973 Endangered Species Act. But a new study disputes the fish’s status as a distinct species

For several months, archaeologists carried fragments of the shipwreck to the surface.

Divers Recover Ancient Shipwreck That Sank 2,600 Years Ago Off the Coast of Spain

Piece by piece, experts carefully transported the Phoenician vessel to dry land, where it will be studied and preserved

Southern sea otters are making a comeback along the coast of California—and they're chowing down on invasive European green crabs.

Hungry Sea Otters Are Taking a Bite Out of California’s Invasive Crab Problem, New Study Finds

Researchers estimate southern sea otters eat up to 120,000 European green crabs per year at the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve

One in ten southern right whales lives past the age of 131, new research suggests.

Some Whales Live Much Longer Than Previously Thought, a Discovery That Could Change How We Protect Them

In a new study, researchers use novel techniques to uncover more accurate life expectancy estimates of southern and North Atlantic right whales

Over the centuries, mollusks have eaten away at the ship's hull, which was constructed using the "on the shell" technique.

Divers Discover 2,500-Year-Old Shipwreck Off the Coast of Sicily

Dating to the fifth or sixth century B.C.E., the vessel could provide new insights into the relationship between the ancient Greeks and Carthaginians

Sombrero ground lizards (Pholidoscelis corvinus) are endemic to Sombrero Island, north of Anguilla, which means they're found nowhere else on the planet.

This Once-Rare Lizard Bounced Back From the Brink of Extinction After ‘Painstaking’ Restoration Efforts in the Caribbean

In 2018, fewer than 100 Sombrero ground lizards remained on Sombrero Island—but now, more than 1,600 of the critically endangered reptiles are scampering around the limestone landscape

Robert Smithson created Spiral Jetty on Utah's Great Salt Lake in 1970.

Utah’s Spellbinding ‘Spiral Jetty’ Has Been Added to the National Register of Historic Places

Robert Smithson constructed the famous 1,500-foot-long land artwork on the shore of the Great Salt Lake in 1970

The world's largest iceberg, A23a, is on the move again after spending the last few months stuck in an ocean vortex.

The World’s Largest Iceberg Is Free-Floating Again, and It Could Help Build ‘Thriving Ecosystems’

After spending months stuck in a swirling ocean vortex, iceberg A23a is once again drifting through the Southern Ocean, offering scientists a glimpse into how it might affect waters in new regions

Artist Jean Charles Blais and his contractor discovered the engraving behind a layer of plaster on his studio wall.

Cool Finds

An Artist Noticed a Leak in His Studio. The Repairs Revealed a Mysterious Ancient Engraving Hidden Inside the Walls

Jean Charles Blais had no idea that his studio in southern France was hiding a Roman funerary inscription dating to the first or second century C.E.

Computer simulated global view of Venus' northern hemisphere. 

Did Venus Have Oceans? This Surprising New Study Suggests Not, a Theory That Could Upend the Search for Extraterrestrial Life

The astronomers behind the research looked to the output from the nearby planet’s toxic volcanoes for clues

Ships float in Aasiaat’s harbor.

As Greenland’s Ice Sheet Melts, an Island Town Rises

Geologists are working with local communities to determine how residents can adapt as the area’s sea level, in effect, goes down

Lake Tahoe's Emerald Bay is one of the sites where telephone cables were recently removed from.

Crews Remove Miles of Abandoned, Lead-Coated Telephone Cables From the Bottom of Lake Tahoe

The cables have been resting on the lakebed for decades, raising fears from environmentalists and residents about possible lead contamination

The letter inside the glass bottle was dated September 4, 1892.

Cool Finds

Read the 132-Year-Old Message in a Bottle Found Hidden Inside the Walls of a Scottish Lighthouse

Engineers discovered the mysterious missive while working on repairs at Corsewall Lighthouse last month. Now, they plan to write their own note for future generations to find

Bottlenose dolphins are highly social and typically live in pods.

A Solo Dolphin Is Chattering Away Off Denmark’s Coast—Is He Talking to Himself?

Marine biologists are perplexed by the lone bottlenose dolphin’s vocalizations, because some resemble sounds typically used for communication

Divers recovered rye seeds from the James R. Bentley shipwreck in Lake Huron.

Scientists Are Trying to Make Whiskey Using Rye Seeds That Were Submerged in a Lake Huron Shipwreck for Nearly 150 Years

Divers, distillers and researchers recently recovered grain from the “James R. Bentley,” a wooden schooner that sank during a storm in 1878

Gus did not hesitate to belly flop into the ocean.

Gus, the Young Emperor Penguin Who Made a Surprise Appearance in Australia, Is Now Heading Home

Wildlife caretakers released the bird into the Southern Ocean after he’d put on some weight and regained his strength

Makenzie Van Eyk (second from right) holds the message in a bottle that she wrote 26 years ago. Roland St. Pierre (far left) was her teacher at the time. Her daughter Scarlet (second from left) and son Huxley (far right) are enrolled in the same school she attended.

Cool Finds

A Little Girl Dropped a Message in a Bottle Into a Lake. Her Daughter’s Classmate Found It 26 Years Later

Makenzie Van Eyk wrote the letter as part of a class project in 1998, when she was in fourth grade. Recently, the note was discovered by a boy who goes to school with her daughter—who is now in fourth grade herself

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