Earth & Climate News
June 17, 2025
Top Headlines
June 15, 2025 — Underground fungi may be one of Earth s most powerful and overlooked allies in the fight against climate change, yet most of them remain unknown to science. Known only by DNA, these "dark taxa" make up a shocking 83% of ectomycorrhizal species fungi ...
June 15, 2025 — Atmospheric rivers, while vital for replenishing water on the U.S. West Coast, are also the leading cause of floods though storm size alone doesn t dictate their danger. A groundbreaking study analyzing over 43,000 storms across four decades found ...
June 15, 2025 — Ten thousand years after mastodons disappeared, scientists have unearthed powerful fossil evidence proving these elephant cousins were vital seed spreaders for large-fruited trees in South America. ...
June 15, 2025 — UC San Diego engineers have created a passive evaporative cooling membrane that could dramatically slash energy use in data centers. As demand for AI and cloud computing soars, traditional cooling systems struggle to keep up efficiently. This ...
June 14, 2025 — A pioneering study reveals how archaeologists' satellite tools can be repurposed to tackle climate change. By using AI and satellite LiDAR imagery from NASA and ESA, researchers have found a faster, ...
June 13, 2025 — Despite falling global mercury emissions, mercury levels in Arctic wildlife continue to rise. A new study reveals that ocean currents are delivering legacy mercury pollution from distant regions like China to the Arctic, where it accumulates in ...
June 13, 2025 — Where do microplastics really go after entering the environment? MIT researchers discovered that sticky biofilms naturally produced by bacteria play a surprising role in preventing microplastics from accumulating in riverbeds. Instead of trapping ...
June 12, 2025 — Ancient carbon thought to be safely stored underground for millennia is unexpectedly resurfacing literally. A sweeping international study has found that over half of the carbon gases released by rivers come from long-term, old carbon sources like ...
June 12, 2025 — Mercury contamination is surfacing as a serious concern in parts of Georgia and South Carolina, particularly in regions like the Okefenokee Swamp. University of Georgia researchers found alarmingly high levels of the neurotoxic metal in alligators, ...
June 10, 2025 — What if all life on Earth followed a surprisingly simple pattern? New research shows that in every region, species tend to cluster in small hotspots and then gradually thin out. This universal rule applies across drastically different organisms and ...
June 10, 2025 — Some volcanoes erupt with little to no warning, posing serious risks to nearby communities and air traffic. A study of Alaska's Veniaminof volcano reveals how specific internal conditions like slow magma flow and warm chamber walls can create these ...
June 9, 2025 — For millions of years, large herbivores like mastodons and giant deer shaped the Earth's ecosystems, which astonishingly stayed stable despite extinctions and upheavals. A new study reveals that only twice in 60 million years did environmental ...
Latest Headlines
updated 3:09am EDT
June 15, 2025 — A University of Queensland-led project has developed a tool to standardise genetic testing of koala populations, providing a significant boost to ...
June 8, 2025 — Beneath Earth s surface, nearly 3,000 kilometers down, lies a mysterious layer where seismic waves speed up inexplicably. For decades, scientists ...
June 8, 2025 — In a world where over a billion smartphones are produced yearly, a team of researchers is flipping the script on electronic waste. Instead of tossing out older phones, they ve demonstrated a ...
June 7, 2025 — Scientists have built a lab model that visually tracks how microscopic contact points between fault surfaces evolve during earthquake cycles, ...
June 6, 2025 — Frogs, salamanders, and other amphibians are not just battling habitat loss and pollution they're now also contending with increasingly brutal heat waves and droughts. A sweeping 40-year study shows ...
June 3, 2025 — UC Davis researchers found that video telehealth visits help cat owners better care for arthritic cats without the stress of clinic visits. Owners appreciated personalized tips to improve their cat s ...
June 3, 2025 — Australia can reach net-zero emissions and still protect its natural treasures but only if everyone works together. New research from Princeton and ...
June 3, 2025 — To satisfy the seafood needs of billions of people, offering them access to a more biodiverse array of fish creates opportunities to mix-and-match ...
June 3, 2025 — A new study found exposure to specific tiny particles in air pollution during pregnancy are associated with increased risk of various negative birth ...
June 3, 2025 — A new study details processes that keep pollutants aloft despite a drop in ...
Earlier Headlines
June 3, 2025 — Researchers asked patients, some of whom had experienced lower back pain for up to 40 years, if being in nature helped them coped better with their lower back pain. They found that people able to ...
June 3, 2025 — Collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could be triggered with very little ocean warming above present-day, leading to a devastating four meters of global sea level rise to play out over hundreds ...
June 3, 2025 — A new study has finally confirmed the theory that the cause of extraordinary global tremors in September -- October 2023 was indeed two mega tsunamis in Greenland that became trapped standing waves. ...
June 3, 2025 — Environmental DNA from the air, captured with simple air filters, can track everything from illegal drugs to the wildlife it was originally designed to ...
June 2, 2025 — Electronics often get thrown away after use because recycling them requires extensive work for little payoff. Researchers have now found a way to change the ...
June 2, 2025 — New research adds to our understanding of how rapidly rising sea levels due to climate change foreshadow the end of the Great Barrier Reef as we know it. The findings suggest the reef can withstand ...
June 2, 2025 — Global warming is continuously advancing. How quickly this will happen can now be predicted more accurately than ever before, thanks to a method developed by climate researchers. Anthropogenic global ...
June 2, 2025 — Flooding in coastal communities is happening far more often than previously thought, according to a new study. The study also found major flaws with the widely used approach of using marine water ...
June 2, 2025 — Some microbes living on sand grains use up all the oxygen around them. Their neighbors, left without oxygen, make the best of it: They use nitrate in the surrounding water for denitrification -- a ...
June 2, 2025 — Researchers have developed a deep learning model called LSTM-SAM that predicts extreme water levels from tropical cyclones more efficiently and accurately, especially in data-scarce coastal regions, ...
June 2, 2025 — California Central Valley, which is known for the agriculture that produces much of the nation's fruits, vegetables and nuts, is a major contributor to a growing dust problem that has profound ...
June 2, 2025 — New research shows that the presence of solar panels in Colorado's grasslands may reduce water stress, improve soil moisture levels and -- particularly during dry years -- increase plant growth ...
June 2, 2025 — Researchers showed that hydrogen sulfide, which is associated with numerous health conditions, is emitted from California's largest lake at levels far higher and more frequently than previously ...
May 30, 2025 — While scientists have long studied currents of large eddies, the smaller ones -- called submesoscale eddies -- are notoriously difficult to detect. These currents, which range from several kilometers ...
May 30, 2025 — Laboratory could improve crop resilience In a discovery three decades in the making, scientists have acquired detailed knowledge about the internal structures and mode of regulation for a specialized ...
May 30, 2025 — Researchers proposed a novel strategy for using a magnetic field to boost the efficiency of single-atom catalysts -- thus speeding up helpful reactions used for ammonia production and wastewater ...
May 30, 2025 — Ozone pollution is a global environmental concern that not only threatens human health and crop production, but also worsens global warming. While the formation of ozone is often attributed to ...
May 30, 2025 — To achieve the European Green Deal's goal of 25% organic agriculture by 2030, researchers argue that new genomic techniques (NGTs) should be allowed without pre-market authorization in organic ...
May 30, 2025 — A new method for predicting underwater landslides may improve the resilience of offshore ...
May 29, 2025 — The fossils of ancient salamander-like creatures in Scotland are among the most well-preserved examples of early stem tetrapods -- some of the first animals to make the transition from water to land. ...
Tuesday, June 3, 2025
- Being in Nature Can Help People With Chronic Back Pain Manage Their Condition
- Scientists Say Next Few Years Vital to Securing the Future of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
- First Direct Observation of the Trapped Waves That Shook the World in 2023
- DNA Floating in the Air Tracks Wildlife, Viruses -- Even Drugs
Monday, June 2, 2025
- Researchers Develop Recyclable, Healable Electronics
- Geological Time Capsule Highlights Great Barrier Reef's Resilience
- Still on the Right Track? Researchers Enable Reliable Monitoring of the Paris Climate Goals
- Coastal Flooding More Frequent Than Previously Thought
- Nitrogen Loss on Sandy Shores: The Big Impact of Tiny Anoxic Pockets
- Researchers Use Deep Learning to Predict Flooding This Hurricane Season
- Human-Caused Dust Events Are Linked to Fallow Farmland
- Research Shows How Solar Arrays Can Aid Grasslands During Drought
- Air-Quality Monitoring Underestimates Toxic Emissions to Salton Sea Communities, Study Finds
Friday, May 30, 2025
- Small Currents, Big Impact: Satellite Breakthrough Reveals Hidden Ocean Forces
- Scientists Find a New Way to Help Plants Fight Diseases
- Single-Atom Catalysts Change Spin State When Boosted by a Magnetic Field
- Rising Soil Nitrous Acid Emissions, Driven by Climate Change and Fertilization, Accelerate Global Ozone Pollution
- The EU Should Allow Gene Editing to Make Organic Farming More Sustainable, Researchers Say
- Predicting Underwater Landslides Before They Strike
Thursday, May 29, 2025
- Long Shot Science Leads to Revised Age for Land-Animal Ancestor
- Save Twice the Ice by Limiting Global Warming
- Birds Nested in Arctic Alongside Dinosaurs
- Anthropologists Spotlight Human Toll of Glacier Loss
- 2021's Hurricane Ida Could Have Been Even Worse for NYC
- Rock Record Illuminates Oxygen History
- An Iron Oxide 'oxygen Sponge' For Efficient Thermochemical Hydrogen Production
- 'Future-Proofing' Crops Will Require Urgent, Consistent Effort
- Atlantic Ocean Current Unlikely to Collapse With Climate Change
- Living Libraries Could Save Our Food
- EV Battery Recycling Key to Future Lithium Supplies
- Does Planting Trees Really Help Cool the Planet?
- Waste to Foundation: Transforming Construction Waste Into High-Performance Material
- Portable Sensor Enables Community Lead Detection in Tap Water
- Amphibian Road Mortality Drops by Over 80% With Wildlife Underpasses, Study Shows
- Cotton Virus Circulated Undetected for Nearly 20 Years, Study Finds
- Thousands of Sensors Reveal 3D Structure of Earthquake-Triggered Sound Waves
- When Climate Disasters Hit, They Often Leave Long-Term Health Care Access Shortages
- A Cheap and Easy Potential Solution for Lowering Carbon Emissions in Maritime Shipping
- Does Outdoor Air Pollution Affect Indoor Air Quality? It Could Depend on Buildings' HVAC
- Agriculture in Forests Can Provide Climate and Economic Dividends
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
- Too Much of a Good Thing: Consequences of Overplanting Bt Corn in the US
- Huge Sea-Urchin Populations Are Overwhelming Hawaii's Coral Reefs
- Synthetic Molecular Rings Re-Create Energy Flow Found in Plants
- Humans Are Seasonal Creatures, According to Our Circadian Rhythms
- New Velvet Worm Species a First for the Arid Karoo
- Europe's Most Complete Stegosaurian Skull Unearthed in Teruel, Spain
- Chemists Recreate How RNA Might Have Reproduced for First Time
- Coastal Alaska Wolves Exposed to High Mercury Concentrations from Eating Sea Otters
- When the Forest Is No Longer a Home -- Forest Bats Seek Refuge in Settlements
- Involving Communities in Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Challenges Leads to Greater Innovation, Study Shows
- Even Birds Can't Outfly Climate Change
- Electric Buses Struggle in the Cold, Researchers Find
Tuesday, May 27, 2025
- New Study Analyzes Air Quality Impacts of Wildfire Smoke
- Cryogenic Hydrogen Storage and Delivery System for Next-Generation Aircraft
- Just Add Iron: Researchers Develop a Clever Way to Remove Forever Chemicals from Water
- How Does Digestion Affect Molecular Analysis of Owl Pellets?
- Rapid Simulations of Toxic Particles Could Aid Air Pollution Fight
- Cryo-Em Freezes the Funk: How Scientists Visualized a Pungent Protein
- Home Water-Use App Improves Water Conservation
- Nordic Studies Show the Significance of Old-Growth Forests for Biodiversity
- Without Public Trust, Effective Climate Policy Is Impossible
- The Ocean Seems to Be Getting Darker
- Stirling Research Could Extend Biopesticide Effectiveness
- Oldest Whale Bone Tools Discovered
Monday, May 26, 2025
- A Root Development Gene That's Older Than Root Development
- Flowers Unfold With Surprising Precision, Despite Unruly Genes
Friday, May 23, 2025
- How Marine Plankton Adapts to a Changing World
- El Niño and La Niña Climate Swings Threaten Mangroves Worldwide
- Modulation of Antiviral Response in Fungi Via RNA Editing
- When the Sea Moves Inland: A Global Climate Wake-Up Call from Bangladesh's Delta
- Managing Surrogate Species, Providing a Conservation Umbrella for More Species
Thursday, May 22, 2025
- New Study Reveals How Competition Between Algae Is Transforming the Gulf of Maine
- Ancient DNA Used to Map Evolution of Fever-Causing Bacteria
- Why Europe's Fisheries Management Needs a Rethink
- A New Approach Could Fractionate Crude Oil Using Much Less Energy
- Tapping Into the World's Largest Gold Reserves
- New Atom-Swapping Method Applied to Complex Organic Structures
- Scientists Say Microplastics Are 'silently Spreading from Soil to Salad to Humans'
- Diversity Is Key to Ecosystem Stability
- Ox-Eye Daisy, Bellis and Yarrow: Flower Strips With at Least Two Sown Species Provide 70 Percent More Natural Enemies of Pests
- How Property Owners Can Work to Prevent Flooding
- Breakthrough AI Model Could Transform How We Prepare for Natural Disasters
- Climate Change May Make It Harder to Reduce Smog in Some Regions
- AI Is Good at Weather Forecasting. Can It Predict Freak Weather Events?
- Climate Change Poses Severe Threat to Bowhead Whale Habitat
- Mathematical Prediction of Seismic Wave Propagation in Magma Containing Crystals and Bubbles
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
- When Lightning Strikes: Gamma-Ray Burst Unleashed by Lightning Collision
- Engineers Discover a New Class of Materials That Passively Harvest Water from Air
- Personal Space Chemistry Suppressed by Perfume and Body Lotion Indoors
- Imaging Technique Removes the Effect of Water in Underwater Scenes
- Something's Fishy Here
- Enormous Boulder Washed Inland a Sign of Pacific Tsunami History
- Yeast Reveals How Species Adapt to a Warmer Climate
- Why Some Spiders Are More Venomous Than Others
- Scientists Invent Breakthrough Device to Detect Airborne Signs of Disease
- How to Use AI to Listen to the 'heartbeat' Of a City
- Natural Algal Communities Can Inhibit Aquaculture Pathogens
- Wind-Related Hurricane Losses for Homeowners in the Southeastern U.S. Could Be Nearly 76 Percent Higher by 2060
- Songbirds' Great Risk Results in Great Genetic Reward
- Fool's Gold: A Hidden Climate Stabilizer