Earth & Space
Turning on the lights: how long did it take for the Sun to form?
Prehistoric cave dwellers adorned their homes with drawings of the Sun, stars, and planetary bodies of the Solar System, so it is safe to say that objects beyond Earth have been fascinating humans since long before our species could even express their awe in written... click to read more
Hidden in plain sight: how an invisible ring in the sky uncovered a past cosmic collision
Our understanding of the universe relies on what we see and what we make of it. For millennia, humans studied the cosmos based on what our eyes can see. Yet, the colors and light our eyes pick up make up only a small sampling of... click to read more
How to fight climate change? Let forests grow
The world is waking up to the potential for trees to help in the fight against climate change. Forests have always absorbed substantial carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. Still, the human disturbance has relegated forests to approximately half their pre-historic extent, with more forests... click to read more
A mysterious reawaking of the world’s tallest geyser from decades of sleep
The geysers in Yellowstone National Park enthrall millions of visitors each year. Geysers are hot springs that erupt tumultuous mixtures of liquid water and steam. Although the park contains about half of the roughly 1000 geysers that exist worldwide, major geyser fields also occur in... click to read more
Where do plants and animals live in the tropics?
Biologists have understood for a long time that plant and animal species are not evenly distributed among the world's tropical areas, and wondered why. Africa has spectacular numbers of primate and hoofed mammal species. Southeast Asia is much smaller in size than Africa, but has... click to read more
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