Life as we know it requires phosphorus. It's one of the six main chemical elements of life, it forms the backbone of DNA and RNA molecules, acts as the main currency for energy in all cells and anchors the lipids that separate ...
Environment
Dec 30, 2019
15
831
Kathleen Ferris stared across a desert valley dotted with creosote bushes, wondering where the water will come from to supply tens of thousands of new homes. In the distance, a construction truck rumbled along a dirt road, ...
Environment
Dec 29, 2022
2
180
Though humans, along with other vertebrate and invertebrate organisms, don't photosynthesize, we're definitely the downstream beneficiaries of the life forms that do. Phototrophic organisms at the bottom of the food chain ...
Fish will mate with a species outside their own if the male's colouring is attractive enough or if the female can't see him properly, according to new research.
Plants & Animals
Dec 3, 2019
7
1446
Climate change is reaching all the way down to the depths of one of Earth's largest lakes.
Environment
Mar 22, 2021
6
384
Usually when a geologist walks up to a sedimentary rock outcrop and starts scanning the layers of sand, mud and silt now turned to rock, they're looking through millions of years of deep time to deduce what happened in that ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 5, 2022
1
452
The first scientific analysis of images taken by NASA's Perseverance rover has now confirmed that Mars' Jezero crater—which today is a dry, wind-eroded depression—was once a quiet lake, fed steadily by a small river some ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 7, 2021
15
14393
In the 15 years since Adam Dailey began boating on Lake Mead, the shoreline has receded hundreds of meters, the result of more than two decades of punishing drought that is drying out the western United States.
Environment
Jul 3, 2022
0
67
Global warming is not just a modern issue, but has occurred numerous times over Earth's history, with one such event happening 304 million years ago during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (which spanned from 340 to 290 million ...
Today, the Salton Sea is an eerie place. Its mirror-like surface belies the toxic stew within. Fish skeletons line its shores and the ruins of a once thriving vacation playground is a reminder of better days. But long before ...
Earth Sciences
May 31, 2022
0
487
