Gray whales that migrate along the West Coast of North America continued to decline in number over the last 2 years, according to a new NOAA Fisheries assessment. The population is now down 38 percent from its peak in 2015 and 2016, as researchers probe the underlying reasons.

As residents of southwest Florida begin the arduous process of rebuilding their lives in the wake of Hurricane Ian, Tulane University experts who have studied long-term impacts of storms in New Orleans have one piece of advice: don't ignore your mental health.

NASA's InSight mission, which is expected to end in the near future, saw a recent drop in power generated by its solar panels as a continent-size dust storm swirls over Mars' southern hemisphere. First observed on Sept. 21, 2022, by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), the storm is roughly 2,175 miles (3,500 kilometers) from InSight and initially had little impact on the lander.

A giant kangaroo that once roamed on four legs through remote forests in the Papua New Guinea Highlands may have survived as recently as 20,000 years ago—long after large-bodied megafauna on mainland Australia went extinct, new research indicates.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken a major step to curb the largest remaining source of airborne lead pollution.

The Mauna Loa summit at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is closed until further notice due to the volcano "experiencing heightened unrest," according to an advisory posted by the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on Thursday.

Ana Gore grew up learning English and Spanish simultaneously. At home, her Peruvian mother would primarily talk to her in Spanish, while her American father spoke to her in English.

In order to comply with a provision of the climate, tax and health care law signed in August the Interior Department announced Thursday it would move forward with onshore and offshore oil and gas lease sales on federal lands and waters.

California has enacted an ambitious package of legislation to aggressively combat the climate crisis—a bold move by the world's fifth-largest economy that could inspire action in other states.

An unusually long period of warm waters caused invasive species of algae to completely replace a community of native kelp surrounding a Mexican island, according to results published in Botanica Marina.

Whereas the shortest way between two points is a straight connection, it might not be the most efficient path to follow. Complex currents often affect the motion of microswimmers and make it difficult for them to reach their destination. At the same time, making use of these currents to navigate as fast as possible is a certain evolutionary advantage.

In the past decade, the marginal seas of Japan frequently experienced extremely high sea surface temperatures (SSTs). A new study led by National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) researchers revealed that the increased occurrence frequency of extreme ocean warming events since the 2000s is attributable to global warming due to industrialization.

Tardigrades are excellent at adapting to harsh environmental conditions. Back in 2019, Ralph Schill, a professor at the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomolecular Systems at the University of Stuttgart, proved that anhydrobiotic (dried) tardigrades can survive undamaged for many years without absorbing water. Whether they age faster or slower in a frozen state, or whether aging even comes to a...

The meltwater from glaciers carries thousands of tiny rock fragments into the sea. Using a special camera, researchers at the University of Oldenburg can make these mineral particles visible in all their diversity—and investigate their impact on ecosystems.

Researchers from the Turku PET Centre, Finland, have observed that the length of daylight hours impacts opioid receptor levels in brown fat. When daylight hours shorten, the receptor activity levels elevate. A similar phenomenon also takes place in the brain. Both phenomena help people and animals in the adaptation to seasonal changes.

It's only natural to look at the moon and wonder what it would be like to live there. Thanks to Buzz Aldrin who landed there in 1969, we know it's a magnificent desolation. Even before the Apollo missions science fiction writers and scientists knew how desolate the place was. But, as far back as the late 19th century, they also saw it as a natural outpost. So did NASA, the former Soviet Union, and...

Uganda's Owen Falls hydropower plant has a rich history that predates the country's independence in 1962. The plant is located across the White Nile and sits between the towns of Jinja and Njeru on the shores of Lake Victoria. It is about 85 kilometers east of Kampala.

Australians along the east cost are bracing for yet another round of heavy rainfall this weekend, after a band of stormy weather soaked most of the continent this week.

The Nobel Prize in physics this year has been awarded "for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science."

Global demand for exotic pets is increasing, a trend partly caused by social media and a shift from physical pet stores to online marketplaces.

Politicians have long been fond of tree-planting ceremonies, but today, well-thought-out forest restoration schemes are increasingly important. Indeed, a host of international initiatives aim to substantially increase the world's forest area by bringing back to life millions of hectares of degraded and deforested land.

The 2022 Nobel Prize in physics recognized three scientists who made groundbreaking contributions in understanding one of the most mysterious of all natural phenomena: quantum entanglement.

Despite the fact that poorer people generally have lower emissions, taxes on the carbon dioxide (CO₂) our activities emit tend to affect people on low incomes more than richer people. Having less money means you can ill afford a switch to an untaxed alternative, like an electric car, or pay for carbon-saving measures like home insulation. You are also more likely to struggle to use less of an...

To "doodle" means to draw or scrawl aimlessly, and the history of the word goes back to the early 20th century. Scribbling haphazard words, squiggly lines and mini-drawings, however, is a much older practice and its presence in books tells us a lot about how people engaged with literature in the past.