Environment

The changes and wonders of the natural world—and how human interaction influences animals, the ocean, and the rest of the environment.

Latest in Environment

Doctor and patient in office
Health

Should doctors and nurses discuss the dangers of heat?

By Martha Bebinger/KFF Health News

Scientists are using AI to track coal train dust
Environment

Scientists are using AI to track coal train dust

By Emma Foehringer Merchant / Undark

Scania solar powered semi-truck on road
Technology

Sweden is testing a semi-truck trailer covered in 100 square meters of solar panels

By Andrew Paul

The CLARI mini-robot created by Kaushik Jayaram, assistant professor, mechanical engineering and Heiko Kabutz, PhD student, mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder
Technology

This small, squishy robot is cuter than its cockroach inspiration

By Andrew Paul

A kākāpō sitting in its burrow. They can live up to 90 years and forage on the ground for food since they are flightless birds.
Environment

The next frontier in saving the world’s heaviest parrots: genome sequencing

By Laura Baisas

Why machines don’t work as well in extreme heat
Technology

Why machines don’t work as well in extreme heat

By Srinivas Garimella and Matthew T. Hughes/The Conversation

Two Atlantic puffins stand on a white rock above the ocean, with another group of puffins in the background, Atlantic puffins are sometimes nicknamed “sea parrots,” and their chicks hatch in Maine in early July.
Environment

Maine’s puffins show another year of remarkable resiliency

By Laura Baisas

A billowing cloud of white, orange, and brown smoke behind fir trees.
Environment

There’s one nasty wildfire pollutant we’ve been ignoring

By Carla Delgado

Lithium samples from the proposed Thacker Pass mining site in the McDermitt Caldera lithium deposit
Environment

What’s the most sustainable way to mine the largest known lithium deposit in the world?

By Rahul Rao

A truck passes through flooded streets caused by Hurricane Idalia passing offshore on August 30, 2023 in Tarpon Springs, Florida.
Environment

Category 3 Hurricane Idalia makes landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast

By Laura Baisas

A manatee swims through blue water, surrounded by a school of fish
Science

Florida’s aquatic animals prepare early for storms like Hurricane Idalia

By Helen Bradshaw

California high speed railcar concept art
Technology

A high-speed rail line in California is chugging along towards 2030 debut

By Andrew Paul

An artistic reconstruction of Kylinxia, a relative of present day insects and crustaceans. It has two extended forelimbs, a round and segmented body, and three eyes on its head.
Environment

A three-eyed organism roamed the seas half a billion years ago

By Laura Baisas

Sunset over pacific ocean
Environment

The Pacific heat blob’s aftereffects are still warping ocean ecosystems

By Ethan Freedman/Hakai Magazine

Close-up of witch hazel plant
Environment

Future leaping robots could take a cue from seed-launching witch hazel plants

By Andrew Paul

A magnetic resonance image of the patient’s brain by fluid-attenuated inversion recovery showing an enhancing right frontal lobe lesion (left). A live third-stage larval form of Ophidascaris robertsi removed from the patient’s right frontal lobe (right).
Health

‘Alive and wriggling’ worm survived in woman’s body and brain for at least a year

By Laura Baisas

Cows being breed to have slicker hair to resist heat
Environment

Farmers are breeding heat-resistant cows

By Katherine Rapin/Nexus Media

Coral reef with a variety of hard and soft corals and tropical fish
Technology

Scientists are intentionally bleaching and ‘cryopreserving’ coral

By Andrew Paul

Lush and green mint leaves growing in a garden. To keep disruptive “jumping genes” quiet, some plant species use a process called methylation, which adds regulatory markers to the specific sites in the DNA and can be passed down through epigenetic memory.
Environment

We’re finally figuring out how plants pass on genetic memories

By Laura Baisas

Seafarers are unknowingly working with oil smugglers
Environment

Seafarers are unknowingly working with oil smugglers

By Nathaniel Peutherer/Hakai Magazine

A DIY citronella candle in a small metal candle tin on a black surface outside.
DIY

How to Frankenstein old wax scraps into a totally new candle

By Rachel Feltman

small dog in a plaid dog jacket in a corn field
Gear

The best dog coats of 2024

By Billy Cadden

Japan begins releasing treated Fukushima waste water into the Pacific Ocean
Technology

Japan begins releasing treated Fukushima waste water into the Pacific Ocean

By Andrew Paul

A woman holds a red smoothie in a glass with a handle on it and a stainless steel straw sticking out. A group of ‘forever chemicals’ commonly called PFAS were not detected on the stainless steel straws in this study, but were on 18 out of 20 brands of paper straws.
Environment

‘Forever chemicals’ detected in paper and plastic straws

By Laura Baisas

Offshore wind turbines
Environment

We can’t ignore that offshore wind farms are part of marine ecosystems

By Becki Robins / Undark

Famous, debunked black and white 'Surgeon's Photo' of Loch Ness Monster
Technology

The largest search of Loch Ness in more than 50 years will deploy drones and hydrophones

By Andrew Paul

Two Emperor penguin chicks standing on sea ice in Antarctica.
Environment

Emperor penguins suffer ‘unprecedented’ breeding failure as sea ice disappears

By Laura Baisas

An illustration showing three abelisaurs on a beach, with a dead dinosaur and another smaller dinosaur. Fossils have been found of several types of abelisaur showing the diversity of dinosaurs in Morocco at the end of the Cretaceous period.
Science

T. rex cousins with shorter arms were thriving right up until the asteroid hit

By Laura Baisas

Scientists brew stronger concrete with coffee grounds
Technology

Scientists brew stronger concrete with coffee grounds

By Andrew Paul

A hogfish swims near the Florida Keys. It has spikes on top and a pointy snout.
Environment

Hogfish ‘see’ using their skin

By Laura Baisas

This is what happens when feral cows take over a remote Alaskan island
Environment

This is what happens when feral cows take over a remote Alaskan island

By Jude Isabella/Hakai Magazine

Inside the fight to reclaim California’s biggest freshwater lake from algae
Environment

Inside the fight to reclaim California’s biggest freshwater lake from algae

By Tien Nguyen/Knowable Magazine

The best invisible dog fences composited
Gear

The best invisible dog fences

By John Alexander

Shipping container used as passive cooling test chamber
Technology

Ancient Egyptian ‘air conditioning’ could help cool modern buildings

By Andrew Paul

Illustration of two elephants on one side and an ant holding up other ants on the other side.
Environment

Is bigger better? Not when it comes to the world’s strongest animals.

By Annie Roth

A coral reef just off of an island in Palau. Coral reefs in Palau provide critical habitats for a number of species and provide a storm barrier.
Environment

Some Pacific coral reefs can keep pace with a warming ocean

By Laura Baisas

Pyxis Ocean retrofitted with WindWings setting sail for its maiden voyage, August 2023
Technology

A cargo ship with 123-foot ‘WindWing’ sails has just departed on its maiden voyage

By Andrew Paul

A vehicle drives through a flooded street as Tropical Storm Hilary moves through the area on August 20, 2023 in Cathedral City, California. A wave of water pushes onto the street and palm trees shake in the wind.
Environment

Tropical Storm Hilary soaks the Southwest

By Laura Baisas

The new ethanol? Biogas producers are pushing livestock poop as renewable.
Technology

The new ethanol? Biogas producers are pushing livestock poop as renewable.

By John McCracken / Grist

The truth behind animal resistance memes
Environment

The truth behind animal resistance memes

By Alexandra Isfahani-Hammond / The Conversation

Brown-skinned child with black braids at the grocery store holding ripe fruit like pineapple and papaya in arms
Environment

Pick the sweetest, ripest fruit with this science-based guide

By Sara Chodosh

Elkhorn coral fragments in lab
Environment

The heroic effort to save Florida’s coral reef from a historic heatwave

By Michael Childress/The Conversation

Seedlings in yellow pots at a plant nursery in Glacier National Park
Environment

We need billions more baby trees to regrow US forests

By Carla Delgado

Metal mesh with water droplets
Technology

Titanium dioxide-coated mesh can purify contaminated fog

By Andrew Paul

Dead humback whale on beach from aerial view
Environment

Dead whales and dinosaur eggs: 7 fascinating images by researchers

By Popular Science Team

Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) on a flower in Markham, Ontario, Canada, on August 27, 2022.
Environment

These invasive bugs are a nightmare for Washington’s cherries and hops

By Natalia Mesa/High Country News

A many tentacled feather star.
Environment

Behold a 20-armed, strawberry-shaped Antarctic sea creature

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Members of the Dutch Tall Ship Oosterschelde wave goodbye from the quay in Rotterdam on August 4, 2023. The Rotterdam ship departs for a two-year world tour that scientist Charles Darwin made two centuries ago.
Environment

Mission to recreate Darwin’s scientific Beagle voyage sets sail

By Laura Baisas

Artist impression of the stem pinniped Potamotherium valletoni swimming in his natural, freshwater environment. Grasses and plants grow below the animal, that has whiskers, legs, and flippers.
Environment

Hungry seals may have begun following their whiskers 23 million years ago

By Laura Baisas

Wildfire smoke drifts over western Canada, as seen from a satellite. On August 8, 2023, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of dense plumes of smoke streaming from dozens of large fires in the Northwest Territories. Several of these fires raged around Yellowknife, the province’s capital and largest city. These fires follow major outbreaks of fire in Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Quebec, in May, June, and July.
Environment

Canadian territory capital ordered to evacuate due to approaching wildfire

By Laura Baisas

White dog inhaling colorful waves that represent smells. Illustrated.
Environment

Why your dog needs to smell the world

By Brandon Keim

A new snake species named Tachymenoides harrisonfordi was discovered during an expedition in Peru in May 2022. The copper scaled snake is seen here coiled on some brown grass.
Environment

Harrison Ford’s latest namesake is an Andean snake species

By Laura Baisas

Elemental chromium
Technology

The same metal found on hot rods and Harleys could revolutionize solar panels

By Andrew Paul

pregnancy test in hands
Health

Extreme heat could be a threat to contraception

By Shefali Luthra/The 19th

Pipeline connection at an oil refinery
Environment

The US is investing more than $1 billion in carbon capture, but big oil is still involved

By Andrew Paul

Four bivalve species found along the Maine coast, including the Northern Quahog, Eastern Oyster, a steamer clam, and a blue mussel presented together in a bed of seaweed at low tide.
Environment

Popular shellfish resist extinction in surprising ways

By Laura Baisas

Lead claimant Rikki Held, 22, confers with members of Our Children's Trust legal team before the start of the nation's first youth climate change trial at Montana's First Judicial District Court on June 12, 2023 in Helena, Montana.
Environment

Judge sides with youth activists in groundbreaking climate change lawsuit

By Laura Baisas

A burnt out car lies in the driveway of charred apartment complex in the aftermath of a wildfire in Lahaina, western Maui, Hawaii on August 12, 2023.
Environment

The health hazards from wildfires will linger in Maui for years

By Andrew J. Whelton/The Conversation

The best dog cameras of 2024
Gear

The best dog cameras of 2024

By Stacey L. Nash

Keep your dog healthy and happy with the best dog toys.
Gear

The best dog toys of 2024

By Maddy Morris

A gray wolf howling in the woods. The wolves come in many colors including white, tan, black, and brown.
Environment

A new pack of endangered gray wolves is roaming Northern California

By Laura Baisas

3D printed fake calamari ring on tin foil
Technology

3D-printed vegan calamari rings could be next on the menu

By Andrew Paul

Talpa hakkariensis, found in the Hakkari region of southeastern Turkey, was identified as a new species of mole, highly distinctive in terms of both its morphology and DNA. The mole is peeking out of an underground burrow.
Environment

These moles may have been hiding for 3 million years

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of an ancient whale against a sea-blue background.
Science

This tiny, 8-foot long whale swam off Egypt’s coast 41 million years ago

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

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