Despite billions of years of life on Earth, humans first arose only ~300,000 years ago. It took all that time to make our arrival possible.
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A marine reptile fossil from Svalbard challenges ideas about evolution and Earth’s greatest mass extinction.
Based on data since 2000 alone, global warming is still occurring at a whopping 7-sigma significance. How hot will planet Earth get?
Deep underwater, temperatures are close to freezing and the pressure is 1,000 times higher than at sea level.
Catastrophes are difficult to predict because they are so rare. But AI using active learning can make predictions from very small data sets.
Each year, several trillion pounds of microscopic silicon-based skeletons fall down the water column to pile up into siliceous ooze.
Although early Earth was a molten hellscape, once it cooled, life arose almost immediately. That original chain of life remains unbroken.
Dead whales inspire a way to find extraterrestrial life on Mars.
Cement production currently accounts for 8% of global carbon emissions.
Popular media often frame scientists as having a cold, sterile view of the world. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
Scientists have discovered enzymes from several plastic-eating bacteria. So, why are our oceans still full of plastic pollution?
Humanity is never fully in control of its creations. This lesson from Mary Shelley has remained relevant for over 200 years.
The natural wonders of Mauritius include the spectacular sight of an underwater waterfall. Here's the science of how it works.
Out of the four rocky planets in our Solar System, only Earth presently has plate tectonics. But billions of years ago, Venus had them, too.
Wind farms seem less productive when scientists incorporate more realistic atmospheric models into their output predictions.
What was this mammoth tusk doing on the ocean floor 150 miles from land?
Left to their own devices, yeast cells will consume all available resources and poison themselves to death. Is humanity smarter than that?
Valles Marineris is the Solar System's grandest canyon, many times longer, wider, and deeper than the Grand Canyon. What scarred Mars so?
What do you call it when the Earth shakes for three decades?
"Superhabitable" planets might be real, but Earth is probably as good as it gets.
The 557-million-year-old specimen challenges the theory that animal body plans were laid out in the Cambrian explosion.
Your brain is wired for trauma. And it can be hot-wired to forget it.
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Ancient helium-3 from the dawn of time leaks from the Earth, offering clues to our planet’s formation. A key question is where it leaks from.
The new material may make marine uranium extraction economically feasible.
A floating platform the size of Rome collapsed off of Antarctica.
Book Club
Former NASA astronaut Ron Garan enlightens listeners with lessons from space to ignite a sense of purpose to unlock potential, navigate change, and create opportunity.
One possible vision of the distant future.
At the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society in Michigan, retrieving sunken vessels is the order of the day. Here’s how they do it.