Helium: South Africa strikes new 'gold'
In a grassy plain in South Africa, once the world's largest gold producer, prospectors have stumbled upon a new treasure: helium.
Environment
Oct 20, 2021
2
3422
Earth news
Study reveals environmental impact of artificial sweeteners
The human body's inability to break down sucralose, an artificial sweetener found in many zero-calorie food and drink products, is well established by scientific research. The compound is so stable that it escapes wastewater ...
Environment
Jul 8, 2024
0
3384
Tardigrades: The last survivors on Earth
The world's most indestructible species, the tardigrade, an eight-legged micro-animal, also known as the water bear, will survive until the Sun dies, according to a new Oxford University collaboration.
Earth Sciences
Jul 14, 2017
14
3376
High-fidelity record of Earth's climate history puts current changes in context
For the first time, climate scientists have compiled a continuous, high-fidelity record of variations in Earth's climate extending 66 million years into the past. The record reveals four distinctive climate states, which ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 10, 2020
32
5589
Giant kraken lair discovered
Long before whales, the oceans of Earth were roamed by a very different kind of air-breathing leviathan. Snaggle-toothed ichthyosaurs larger than school buses swam at the top of the Triassic Period ocean food chain, or so ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 10, 2011
66
3359
Study uncovers safety concerns with ionic air purifiers
The market for air purifiers is booming, but a new study has found that some air cleaning technologies marketed for COVID-19 may be ineffective and have unintended health consequences.
Environment
Mar 16, 2021
4
3346
Geologist uncovers 2.5 billion-year-old fossils of bacteria that predate the formation of oxygen
Somewhere between Earth's creation and where we are today, scientists have demonstrated that some early life forms existed just fine without any oxygen.
Earth Sciences
Nov 29, 2016
4
10612
How cutting down on junk food could help save the environment
Looking for a new reason to cut down on "junk" food? Besides the obvious health-related benefits, I showed in a recent study that discretionary or junk foods make up a significant proportion of food-related environmental ...
Environment
Oct 5, 2016
2
3290
Geochemical study confirms cause of end-Permian mass extinction event
The most severe mass extinction event in the past 540 million years eliminated more than 90 percent of Earth's marine species and 75 percent of terrestrial species. Although scientists had previously hypothesized that the ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 21, 2021
5
6372
'Frozen in time' landscape discovered under Antarctic ice
Scientists revealed Tuesday that they had discovered a vast, hidden landscape of hills and valleys carved by ancient rivers that has been "frozen in time" under the Antarctic ice for millions of years.
Earth Sciences
Oct 24, 2023
2
3272
