Recent science missions and results are bringing the search for life closer to home, and scientists at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) and the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) may have figured out how to determine whether life is—or was—lurking deep beneath the surface of Mars, the Moon, and other rocky objects in the universe.

In a new climate modeling study that looked at the impacts of accelerated ice melt from the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) on future climate, a team of climate scientists reports that future ice-sheet melt is expected to have significant effects on global climate.

The colloidal diamond has been a dream of researchers since the 1990s. These structures—stable, self-assembled formations of miniscule materials—have the potential to make light waves as useful as electrons in computing, and hold promise for a host of other applications. But while the idea of colloidal diamonds was developed decades ago, no one was able to reliably produce the structures....

Amazonia is closer to a catastrophic ecological tipping point than any time in the last 100,000 years, and human activity is the cause.

Bringing the power of the sun to Earth requires sound theory, good engineering, and a little finesse. The process entails trapping charged, ultra-hot gas known as plasma so its particles can fuse and release enormous amounts of energy. The most widely used facilities for this process are doughnut-shaped tokamaks that hold plasma in place with strong magnets that are precisely shaped and...

Evidence continues to accumulate about human and wildlife exposure to chemical compounds called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, collectively referred to as PFAS, and their deleterious effects on the environment. The latest study, by a University of Rhode Island graduate student, found high levels of the compounds in seabirds from offshore Massachusetts and coastal Rhode Island and North...

For weeks, smoke has blanketed the west coast. The Bay Area has seen a vast improvement in the past few days, but terrible air lingers in Portland and Seattle. Millions of people have been furiously checking the air quality ratings in their neighborhood regularly. On the worst days, in some places the Air Quality Index (AQI) measured 600. Readings over 150 trigger emergency health warnings if a...

Got a cat that always seems hungry? New University of Guelph research suggests you might want to reduce—not increase—how often you feed them.

California officials took the unusual step Tuesday of granting temporary endangered species status to the western Joshua tree, but will allow 15 solar energy firms to raze Joshua trees that stand in the way of their shovel-ready projects.

Minnesota state authorities have unleashed a four-legged investigator specifically trained to sniff out digital electronics commonly used by sexual predators to exploit children and others.

Misconceptions about child marriage (marriage under 18) appear widespread among the American public, potentially hampering efforts to address the practice globally. David Lawson and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara, present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on September 23, 2020.

In a new study of volcanic processes, Bristol scientists have demonstrated the role nanolites play in the creation of violent eruptions at otherwise 'calm' and predictable volcanoes.

Emerging use of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) makes it possible to continuously measure shallow changes in elevation of Earth surface. A study by the University of Bonn now shows that the quality of these measurements may have improved significantly during the pandemic, at least at some stations. The results show which factors should be considered in the future when installing GPS...

University of Alberta scientists have uncovered the formation mechanism behind a class of mineral deposits that have been hotly contested until now. The findings shed new light on how iron deposits, among others, form—and this new understanding can aid geologists in the hunt for more ore.

Hurricane Teddy has transitioned to a large post-tropical cyclone over eastern Canada. Using a NASA satellite rainfall product that incorporates data from satellites and observations, NASA estimated Teddy's rainfall rates. In addition to the heavy rainfall, Teddy causing destructive waves and strong winds today, Sept. 23, for portions of Atlantic Canada.

In the wake of outrage across the nation and racial justice protests spurred by the deaths and injuries of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake and other Black Americans, more than half of Americans believe policing in the country is not fair, according to a new national poll released today by the UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion.

A small subpopulation of polar bears lives on what used to be thick, multiyear sea ice far above the Arctic Circle. The roughly 300 to 350 bears in Kane Basin, a frigid channel between Canada's Ellesmere Island and Greenland, make up about 1-2% of the world's polar bears.

Increasing environmental challenges have led scientists to rethink how protein can be produced. Traditional processes require a lot of space on land or sea, resulting in a high carbon footprint and reduced resources. A new article in Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, details how some start-ups are revolutionizing protein production by using...

NASA's Terra satellite passed over post-tropical storm Paulette after it had transitioned for a second time. Using infrared imagery, Terra found no strong storms remained.

A small near-Earth asteroid (or NEA) will briefly visit Earth's neighborhood on Thursday, Sept. 24, zooming past at a distance of about 13,000 miles (22,000 kilometers) above our planet's surface. The asteroid will make its close approach below the ring of geostationary satellites orbiting about 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) away from Earth.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has recognized a temperature of -69.6°C (-93.3°F) at an automatic weather station in Greenland on 22 December 1991 as the coldest ever recorded in the Northern Hemisphere.

Slow-moving post-tropical storm Beta continues to drop large amounts of rainfall in Texas as it moves into the Lower Mississippi Valley on Sept. 23. A NASA satellite rainfall product that incorporates data from satellites and observations estimated Beta's rainfall rates.

Genome duplications play a major role in the development of forms and structures of plant organisms and their changes across long periods of evolution. Heidelberg University biologists under the direction of Prof. Dr. Marcus Koch made this discovery in their research of the Brassicaceae family. To determine the scope of the different variations over 30 million years, they analyzed all 4,000...

New species of microbial life are continually being identified, but localizing them on a phylogenetic tree is a challenge. Now, researchers at the University of Tsukuba have pinpointed barthelonids, a genus of free-living heterotrophic biflagellates typified by Barthelona vulgaris, and clarified their ancestry as well as evolution of their ATP-generation mechanisms.