Global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are set to drop by up to seven percent in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, but even this dramatic decline—the sharpest since WWII—would barely dent longterm global warming, researchers reported Tuesday.

After sending its first astronaut to space last year, the United Arab Emirates is to launch a probe to Mars in July, state news agency WAM announced Tuesday.

People living along two mid-Michigan lakes and parts of a river were evacuated Tuesday following several days of heavy rain that produced flooding and put pressure on dams in the area.

A Russian paleontologist visiting the Natural History Museum in London desperately wanted a good look at the skeleton of an extinct aquatic reptile, but its glass case was too far up the wall. So he attached his digital camera to a fishing rod and—with several clicks—snagged a big one, scientifically speaking.

Scientists are using light waves to accelerate supercurrents and access the unique properties of the quantum world, including forbidden light emissions that one day could be applied to high-speed, quantum computers, communications and other technologies.

Call them "super polluters"—the handful of industrial facilities that emit unusually high levels of toxic chemical pollution year after year. There are only a few of them, but together they account for the majority of annual industrial pollution.

By studying the chemical elements on Mars today—including carbon and oxygen—scientists can work backwards to piece together the history of a planet that once had the conditions necessary to support life.

Nearly all the countries of the world ratified the Paris Agreement in 2016. The accord aims to limit the increase of the world's temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures. To do this, global greenhouse gas emissions would have to decrease roughly 25% below 2010 levels by 2030 and reach almost zero by 2070. As one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, the...

Discussions of drought often center on the lack of precipitation. But among climate scientists, the focus is shifting to include the growing role that warming temperatures are playing as potent drivers of greater aridity and drought intensification.

The challenge of diversifying STEM fields may get a boost from the results of a new study that show field courses help build self-confidence among students—especially those from underrepresented groups.

When the Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core satellite passed over the western North Atlantic Ocean, it captured rainfall data on Tropical Storm Arthur as the storm was transitioning into an extra-tropical storm.

Early on May 18, 2020, Tropical Cyclone Amphan was a Category 5 storm in the Northern Indian Ocean. On May 19, satellite data from NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite revealed that the storm has weakened and the eye was covered by high clouds.

When early tetrapods transitioned from water to land the way they breathed air underwent an evolutionary revolution. Fish use muscles in their head to pump water over their gills. The first land animals utilized a similar technique—modern frogs still use their head and throat to force air into their lungs. Then another major transformation in vertebrate evolution took place that shifted...

Psychedelics such as LSD and magic mushrooms have proven highly effective in treating depression and post-traumatic stress disorders, but medical use of these drugs is limited by the hallucinations they cause.

To better understand and mitigate the health risks faced by astronauts from exposure to space radiation, we ideally need to be able to test the effects of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) here on Earth under laboratory conditions. An article publishing on May 19, 2020 in the open access journal PLOS Biology from Lisa Simonsen and colleagues at the NASA Langley Research Center, USA, describes how NASA...

Botswana is probing the mysterious deaths of a dozen elephants in the country's famed Okavango Delta, the tourism ministry said Tuesday, ruling out poaching because the animals' valuable tusks were not missing.

Bacteria can still develop antibiotic resistance even in the face of challenging genetic tradeoffs, or compromises, associated with varying antibiotic concentrations, says a new study published today in eLife.

What drives the evolution of new species of sharks and rays? Traditionally, scientists thought it required species to be separated by geographic or spatial barriers, however a new study of elasmobranchs (the group of sharks and rays) has challenged this expectation—and found evolution is happening faster than many think.

A tiny sail made of the thinnest material known—one carbon-atom-thick graphene—has passed initial tests designed to show that it could be a viable material to make solar sails for spacecraft.

Millions of acres of natural habitat in the U.S. and the wildlife that inhabit these large swaths of private and public lands depend on people who support a myriad of conservation activities. Recreational hunters are an important group of people whose licenses, taxes and fees directly pay for conservation efforts. However, the number of people who hunt as a sport has steadily declined since the...

Researchers are enlisting mighty microbes in the fight against food waste.

New research from the University of Aberdeen and the University of Western Australia has looked at the basis of trust and what makes some of us trust more readily than others.

As the COVID-19 pandemic threatens public health around the world, misinformation regarding its treatment, causes and cures has abounded. A University of Kansas study has found that vulnerable populations, often those most severely affected by such crises, are also at a high risk of consuming and sharing such misinformation online, while also struggling to assess information's credibility.

The "PaNDiv" experiment, established by researchers of the University of Bern on a 3000 m2 field site, is the largest biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiment in Switzerland and aims to better understand how increases in nitrogen affect grasslands. The first article from this experiment has just been published in the scientific journal Functional Ecology after more than four years of work.