The secret behind maximum plant height—water

Physiological coordination between plant height and xylem hydraulic traits is aligned with habitat water availability across Earth's terrestrial biomes, according to a new study. Ecologists from the South China Botanical ...

Q&A: Designing a better local tsunami warning system

On a Friday afternoon in the spring of 2011, the Tōhoku-Oki earthquake shook northeastern Japan for six minutes and shifted the country's main island by 8 feet. Minutes later, residents began receiving tsunami warnings through ...

It's not so easy to gain the true measure of things

I teach measurement – the quantification of things. Some people think this is the most objective of the sciences; just numbers and observations, or what many people call objective facts.

More glaciers in East Antarctica are waking up

East Antarctica has the potential to reshape coastlines around the world through sea level rise, but scientists have long considered it more stable than its neighbor, West Antarctica. Now, new detailed NASA maps of ice velocity ...

Greenland ice loss quickening

Using a 25-year record of ESA satellite data, recent research shows that the pace at which Greenland is losing ice is getting faster.

New tool to predict which plants will become invasive

Around the world, over 13,000 plant species have embedded themselves in new environments—some of them integrate with the native plants, but others spread aggressively. Understanding why some plants become invasive, while ...

U.S. desert areas to become even more arid

Geologists from the University of Innsbruck study rainfall patterns in the distant past to better understand how deserts in the southwest United States will be impacted by future climate change.

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