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If you've ever seen one up close you probably know that corals are insanely beautiful, but not exactly action packed -- these animals live at their own pace, one so slow that to a human being they might seem frozen in time. But what would coral look like if it lived in 'normal' speed?
A new collaboration study between NASA and Harvard University found that climate change is breaking an important link between droughts and the grape harvests in France and Switzerland.
On the heels of the warmest winter on record, a Gallup poll found a record number of Americans perceive global warming as a serious threat. It doesn't sound like a coincidence.
About 55.8 million years, the rate of carbon emissions grew abruptly, leading to a period of massive warming. But today's rate of emissions is ten times higher.
The European Meteorological Satellite Organization (EUMETSAT) in collaboration with the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a time-lapse 4K video of the weather of 2015 -- and it's awesome.
The International Renewable Energy Agency claims doubling worldwide renewable energy capacity fifteen years from now would provide savings which far exceed the costs.
Despite solar cells made with perovskite recently crossed the 20 percent efficiency mark, researchers say there's still room to improve if only they knew how charge flows at the nanometer scale. They just had to ask.
. University of East Anglia researchers say storks prefer to live in Spain and Portugal because there's plenty of junk food lying around landfill sites. The latest surveys suggests the birds now live and nest there all year long.
If we want to ensure food security for humanity in the future, then curbing out food waste is essential. Tesco is taking steps in the right direction, agreeing to a deal to donate all unsold food from its stores to charity.
A new study analyzing sea level rise forecasts as well as population growth projections found that we've underestimated just how many people would be impacted by rising waters. Anywhere from 4.3 to 13.1 million people from the US alone will face the risk of inundation by 2100, according to their estimate.
It's easy to understand why climate change deniers want to cut NASA's climate research funding - because it keeps proving them wrong.
Spiders' diets aren't limited to juicy insect bits. They spice up their menus with vegetarian courses too, zoologists from the US and UK have found.
Researchers have manipulated the genome of chicken embryos so that they develop dinosaur-like bones in their lower legs.
A new study measuring the forces that shape bacterial genomes determined that a difference in efficiency of hundredth of a percent is sufficient to determine the winners and losers in the evolutionary race.
It costs $20,000 to shoo a leopard, and foreign hunters flock to South Africa every year to kill leopards for trophy hunting. This year, because leopard numbers remain nuclear, South Africa has decided to ban hunting for the year. The South African National Biodiversity Institute, a government research organisation, recommended the temporary ban because they […]
New concerns are being voiced in Japan after it was discovered that a significant geological fault line passes right under a nuclear plant - and the fault is active.
Japanese researchers have identified a bacteria that eats PET, a kind of plastic widely employed for bottles. This is the first time such an organism has been found, and others like it -- maybe more versatile in their preference for plastic -- might be found.
In just 7 years, a disease called white-nose syndrome has killed more than 5 million North American bats, almost wiping out entire colonies across 25 states. In Asia however, bats that are exposed to the same disease-carrying fungus are infected in far lesser numbers.
The Dallas Zoo has taken an active role in the protection of Texas Horned Lizards, also known as horny toads. Now, they’ve released adorable pictures of the new hatchlings, which will help ensure the survival of this iconic species. Affectionately called “horny toads”, they are in fact lizards, not moist-skinned toads or frogs. The Texas Horned Lizard, […]
Making bottles to meet America’s demand for bottled water uses more than 17 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel 1.3 million cars for a year. Instead of petroleum, Stanford researchers have found a creative way to make plastic for bottles sourced from CO2 and inedible plants like waste agriculture or grasses.
It's common for species to be named after a person, most often the scientist who first discovered them. Recently, many biologists have resorted to naming new species to science after celebrities to spark interest among laymen, especially if the new species is endangered.
The Japanese great tit, a bird closely related to the more familiar North American chickadee, uses complex calls in different contexts to convey different meaning. These "words" are stringed together to form compound messages -- evidence of a sophisticated communication system based on syntax. This is the first time syntax has been shown to occur in non-human animals.
A study conducted by Australian researchers found that scientific journals discourage the study of ‘ugly’ rodents and bats.
India's massive investment into solar energy is already starting to pay off - much earlier than anticipated.
A new paper suggests that we've been overlooking how two key human responses to climate -- the total area farmed and the number of crops planted -- will impact food production in the future.
The largest floating solar array in the world is to be unveiled later this month, on the Queen Elizabeth II reservoir, at Walton-on-Thames. The array is estimated to generate almost 6 million kWh in its maiden year of operations. The energy will be used to power London's water treatment plants.
Seals from colonies on the North Atlantic island of North Rona that had higher levels of the hormone oxytocin in their blood stay closer to pups. This suggests that the hormone, often called the love hormone because of its role in love and in female reproductive biological functions, is paramount to forming mother-child bond.
These predatory amoebas are usually very good at finding enough to eat by themselves, but when food is short they do something astonishing.
A new study of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), a deadly fungus which affects amphibians worldwide, found that it spreads by making males' mating calls more attractive to females. The pathogen alters the reproductive habits of different species of amphibians, explaining why frogs and related species continue to disappear across the globe.
Breeding birds and alligators have developed an unlikely partnership, where the birds build their nests on alligator territory for protection.
This week Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio won his very first Academy award for best actor. Of course, he was there and took the stage for his acceptance speech. What happened next didn't surprise those familiar with DiCaprio's concerns outside the movie business: he spoke about the imminent threat of climate change, calling it ‘the most existential crisis our civilization has ever known.’
Four shelter dogs rescued from the slums around Sao Paulo, Brazil, were trained as “ball dogs” for an exhibition match at the Brazil Tennis Open tournament. Not only was it a heartmelting and emotional moment, but it also went pretty well, as you can see: The dogs seemed to enjoy the task, despite the stressful environment […]
A research team from University College in London has calculated that in the last five years, the ten biggest cities have increased their climate adaptation spending by a quarter. But they also found that it’s capital, not people, that we’re investing the most to protect. Beyond the moral implications this entails, it also means that poor […]
Many consumers now choose to exclusively buy products labeled with an eco-certificate which supposedly testifies that manufacturing was made in sustainable manner. Do these actually work? One of the few studies on the subject seems to suggest that the impact is positive, at least in Chile and related to deforestation.
Unearthed in southern China, this ancient fossil bears the most detailed and well preserved nervous system ever found.
In the 1990s, a famous study found animals in Yellowstone National Park, like elk, bred in fewer numbers and ate less after wolves were re-introduced. That seems like something bound to happen when you introduce an apex predator in a new ecosystem. However, what the study pointed out, in fact, was that most of the elk population suffered not as a result of attack from wolves, but rather simply due to them knowing wolves where now sharing the same park. In other words, fear produced such intense ripples that it altered the entire ecosystem. This was very controversial, and a team of Canadian researchers sought to replicate the findings on an island of fearless raccoons.
An MIT research team has developed a new technology that will allow for the creation of lighter and thinner solar cells than ever before. While the team says there is still work to be done before making them commercially available, the panels already proved their efficacy in laboratory settings. They hope that their work will power […]
DiCaprio took to the stage to present his acceptance speech, and tackled climate change in front of millions of people watching the Academy Awards, calling it 'the most existential crisis our civilisation has ever known.'
Massachusetts' state officials plan to designate the uninhibited island Mount Zion as a safe haven for the endangered timber rattlesnakes. The 1,350-acre wide site will be populated with adult snakes and authorities will keep a close watch on their progress.
A large biotech lab is now under a government animal welfare investigation after thousands of animals went "inexplicably" missing from their facilities.
Can you fly through water? It's a silly thought, but that's exactly what this snail butterfly, called Limacina helicina, seems to be doing. Researchers at Georgia Tech report that these sea snails flap their wings in a figure eight pattern very much akin to that used by airborne insects, like flies or bees.
For the first time, natural gas installations were also surpassed by PV arrays despite the shale boom, which says a lot about the momentum solar energy is currently gathering.
MIT researchers have created a powerful new tool for energy monitoring: a citywide urban building energy model of unprecedented scale and detail.
A study ten years in the making found that sea levels are rising at the fastest rate in the last 2,800 years. The researchers say that greenhouse gas emissions that build up in the atmosphere and heat the planet, melting glaciers and ice sheets, are to blame for this sharp rise.
The voracious reputation of sharks might soon change as marine biologists uncover that most coral reef sharks eat pray smaller than a cheeseburger.
A laboratory study on rats found that the animals that breathed Beijing's notoriously polluted air gained weight and showed sighs of cardio-respiratory and metabolic dysfunctions after three to eight weeks of exposure.
According to a 2009 report, around "60 percent of Americans live in areas where air pollution has reached unhealthy levels that can make people sick"
Two major oil spills in the course of only one month are threatening Amazonian wildlife and local communities. Peru’s General Directorate of Environmental Health issued a water quality emergency last Wednesday, but critics voice that this is a tad late -- more than three weeks since the first spill spewed more than 2,000 barrels in the regions of Amazonas and Loreto. Shockingly, a third spill has been reported by the local media in Peru, but this has been refuted by the the oil company responsible for the pipelines.
In late 2015, Volkswagen (VW) admitted to cheating on US tests to make its diesel cars seem more green than they actually were.
They may not look like much, but coffee pods are a big problem.
