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Climate Change Chronicles

A photo of Levi Draheim on a sunny day standing in front of a beach. His green shirt says "Climate Change is Real"

Twenty-one young people — including Levi Draheim, 11, from Satellite Beach, Fla. — have sued the U.S. government for actions that they say contributed to climate change.

Robin Loznak/Our Children’s Trust

Science & Society
Teens and tweens sue United States over climate change
a mailbox is almost underwater in front of a house during a flood from Harvey

Hurricane Harvey caused flooding in many areas around Houston, Texas, in 2017. Scientists now know that climate change made the storm wetter.

Revolution Messaging/Flickr (PUBLIC DOMAIN MARK 1.0)

Weather & Climate
The odd ways that weather can unfold in a warming world
A nightime photo of a wildfire engulfing a forest across a lake. Everything is tinged bright red and orange from the flames.

Extreme wildfires are becoming more common in many parts of the world.

Pinderphoto/iStockphoto

Environment
Is climate change fanning megafires?
A photo of Folsom Lake in California from October 2015. There is no water to be seen. A white pick-up truck is driving diagonally from the left to the right along a dry path.

A photo of Folsom Lake in California from October 2015. There is no water to be seen. A white pick-up truck is driving diagonally from the left to the right along a dry path.

MCMLXXXI/iStockphoto

Weather & Climate
Fingerprint of climate change shows up in some extreme weather
an aerial image of the Maldives

Due to impending sea level rise, this island nation in the Indian Ocean — the Maldives — is among the most threatened anywhere by climate change.

SHAHEE ILYAS/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Weather & Climate
Half a degree can make a world of difference
a mailbox is almost underwater in front of a house during a flood from Harvey
Top Story
The odd ways that weather can unfold in a warming world
There may be more rainfall and droughts — as well as colder winters in Siberia
a fire truck heading towards the Carr Fire
Weather & Climate
 
California’s Carr Fire spawned a true fire tornado
Not a common fire-whirl, these are amazingly rare freaks of nature
a photo of thale cress, a bioengineered plant, with small white flowers
Plants
 
Plants don’t grow well when always on high alert
Scientists bred a weed to make insect-repelling chemicals all the time
Technology
 
Super-water-repellent surfaces can generate energy
They might even boost the efficiency of some batteries
a photo of the skeleton of Sue, a T. rex skeleton at Chicago's Field Museum, against a white background
Fossils
 
T. rex pulverized bones with an incredible amount of force
A strong bite and powerful teeth let the dinosaur get at nutritious marrow and salts

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Editor's Picks
Voting sticker
Behavior
4 research-backed ways to get people to vote
Voting buttons
Science & Society
How computers get out the vote
Behavior
4 reasons why many people don’t vote
Trending
a photo of the Impossible Burger, a meat-free burger on a bun, against a purple background.

Scientists are exploring very different ways to produce a “ground beef” alternative for burgers. One approach grows just the edible parts of the animal. The other tries to simulate meat using plants. Shown here, Impossible Burger’s meat-free burger.

IMPOSSIBLE FOODS INC.

Cells
Designing tomorrow’s burger
three zombies
Behavior
Zombies are real!
A nightime photo of a wildfire engulfing a forest across a lake. Everything is tinged bright red and orange from the flames.

Extreme wildfires are becoming more common in many parts of the world.

Pinderphoto/iStockphoto

Environment
Is climate change fanning megafires?
a mailbox is almost underwater in front of a house during a flood from Harvey

Hurricane Harvey caused flooding in many areas around Houston, Texas, in 2017. Scientists now know that climate change made the storm wetter.

Revolution Messaging/Flickr (PUBLIC DOMAIN MARK 1.0)

Weather & Climate
The odd ways that weather can unfold in a warming world
A black and white illustration of a cross section of the brain. The hippocampus is highlighted in blue.
Brain
 
How your brain is like a film editor
The hippocampus may slice our lives into ‘scenes’ suitable for storing as memories
a gray rat and a white rat sitting right next to each other and looking toward the right of the screen
Brain
 
The immune system has a say in how hard ‘teen’ rats play
As the brain’s immune cells chomp up the ends of neurons, male rats stop wrestling — and grow up
a picture of a pile of dietary supplement pills, a pill bottle, and a backdrop showing nutritional information
Health
 
Many food supplements unlawfully contain drugs
Manufacturers removed fewer than half of the offending products from store shelves
warning doctor
Health
 
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Quarantine
Sometimes when people or animals are sick — or might be sick — isolating them is part of the solution
a girl using a smartphone while sitting outside
Behavior
 
Less screentime linked to better memory, learning in kids
Kids aged eight to 11 in the United States spend an average of 3.6 hours a day on some digital device
Blogs
bubble universe

The multiverse is the idea that there are loads of other universes out there. They might have nothing to do with us. Or they might be alternate versions of our reality.

fotojog/iStockPhoto

Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Multiverse
warning doctor

To stop an illness from spreading, doctors may keep those exposed to the illness in a small area. This is called a quarantine.

Thiago Santos/iStockPhoto

Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Quarantine
A zombie stumbling towards the viewer with arms outstretched. Other zombies can be seen backlight by a bright light farther down a hallway.

Don’t panic! Biology is here to save you from the zombie hordes.

leolintang/iStockPhoto

Technically Fiction
Bacteria and bugs will save us from the zombie apocalypse
tapeworm gut

This is a tapeworm in a person’s gut. It’s attached itself to the gut wall and will feed off the food the person eats — making it a parasite.

selvanegra/iStockPhoto

Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Parasite
Body & Brain
A black and white illustration of a cross section of the brain. The hippocampus is highlighted in blue.

In a new study, the hippocampus (blue) was active during parts of films when one event ended and another began. Marking such boundaries may help the brain package ongoing experiences as separate memories.

Henry Vandyke Carter - Henry Gray/Wikimedia Commons (PubDom)

Brain
How your brain is like a film editor
a gray rat and a white rat sitting right next to each other and looking toward the right of the screen

When rats are the human equivalent of teenagers, they love to wrestle with their BFFs. As they grow up, they chill out. A new study now offers clues to why. 

GlobalP/iStockPhoto

Brain
The immune system has a say in how hard ‘teen’ rats play
a picture of a pile of dietary supplement pills, a pill bottle, and a backdrop showing nutritional information

Of nearly 800 dietary supplements that the FDA found tainted with potentially harmful drugs, most were normally prescribed by doctors to aid male sexual “enhancement,” weight loss or muscle-building.

Monticello/iStockphoto

Health
Many food supplements unlawfully contain drugs
a girl using a smartphone while sitting outside

How much screen time is too much? Kids who spend less than two hours a day on screens perform better on cognitive tests.

filipefrazao/iStockPhoto

Behavior
Less screentime linked to better memory, learning in kids
an underwater photo of mosquito larvae
Pollution
 
Microplastics take flight in the bellies of mosquitoes
The pollution stays in these insects as they grow from larvae to adults, putting birds at risk
a map showing all the major 2018 storms that trekked across the Eastern Pacific to North America's West Coast
Weather & Climate
 
Eastern Pacific records its most energetic hurricane season
Scientists suspect this may be a symptom of climate change — and more scary storms to come
tapeworm gut
Ecology
 
Scientists Say
Scientists Say: Parasite
These organisms benefit while their hosts suffer
A photo of an Anopheles gambiae mosquito on human skin
Genetics
 
Gene editing wiped out a population of mosquitoes in lab tests
Success with the genetic engineering tool raises hopes of eliminating this carrier of malaria
cobra cannibalizing another cobra
Animals
 
How Hannibal the cannibal led to a discovery about cobra diet
A sighting of one cape cobra eating another sparked a study of cannibalism
Space
an illustration of the Kepler space telescope in space

Here’s an artist’s depiction of the Kepler space telescope at work scouting planets orbiting distant stars. Over its lifetime, this spacecraft turned up more than 2,700.

NASA

Space
R.I.P. Kepler, the planet-hunting telescope
a photo of the Arecibo radio telescope from the air

The Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico (here) has been used for decades in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). But these efforts have searched only a very tiny portion of the skies, new calculations suggest.

Courtesy NAIC-Arecibo Observatory, an NSF facility

Space
Only a small fraction of space has been searched for aliens
a screen capture from the film "First Man" showing Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong before boarding the Apollo 11 spacecraft

In this image from First Man, Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong walks to the Apollo 11 spacecraft before taking off for his historic moon landing.

Universal Pictures

Space
The movie ‘First Man’ captures early spaceflight's terror
an illustration of a dark exomoon orbiting a bright Jupiter-sized planet

The Hubble Space Telescope may have spotted a Neptune-sized moon orbiting a Jupiter-sized planet, as shown in this illustration.

Dan Durda

Space
Hubble may have spotted a possible ‘exomoon’
Invention & Innovation
860_hydrophobic_power.png

When water droplets bead up on a surface, it’s because that surface has features that repel the water. The water doesn’t penetrate the surface or flatten out across it like a pool. This concept is key to a new energy technology.

Antonistock/iStockphoto

Technology
Super-water-repellent surfaces can generate energy
860_Lem_tree_tape.png

Tape is convenient but not environmentally friendly. A new adhesive for tape comes from trees instead of crude oil.

angintaravichian/iStockphoto

Materials Science
Adhesive from trees could make tape more eco-friendly
Tarzan the robot swinging over a field of crops

Tarzan, shown here, travels over crop fields with an energy-efficient swinging motion. One day, such robots might help with farm work.

Georgia Tech Research Institute

Robotics
Tarzan the robot was actually inspired by a sloth
a photo of a man watching tv with his hands clasped behind his head

A TV delivers content through images and sound. But for those who cannot see or hear, watching TV is impossible without special technology.

BrianAJackson/iStockphoto

Computers & Electronics
New tech helps deaf-blind people ‘watch’ TV
Science & Society
 
Teen vaping of marijuana raises concerns about addiction
This experimentation puts developing brains at risk
a screen capture from the film "First Man" showing Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong before boarding the Apollo 11 spacecraft
Space
 
The movie ‘First Man’ captures early spaceflight's terror
This Neil Armstrong biopic takes a surprisingly somber tone
A photo of Folsom Lake in California from October 2015. There is no water to be seen. A white pick-up truck is driving diagonally from the left to the right along a dry path.
Weather & Climate
 
Fingerprint of climate change shows up in some extreme weather
Climate change can’t cause an event, but it has been influencing a growing number of them
an aerial image of the Maldives
Weather & Climate
 
Half a degree can make a world of difference
Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius versus 2 has big benefits, the IPCC says
an illustration of a dark exomoon orbiting a bright Jupiter-sized planet
Space
 
Hubble may have spotted a possible ‘exomoon’
Unusually large, the moon tests theories on how such orbs form
Latest Headlines
a fire truck heading towards the Carr Fire

Dramatic image of a fire truck going in to fight the Carr Fire outside Redding, Calif., in late July. On July 23, the intense heat and debris from this fire created a fire tornado.

E.L. Karey

Weather & Climate
California’s Carr Fire spawned a true fire tornado
a photo of thale cress, a bioengineered plant, with small white flowers

Scientists engineered a plant called thale cress (above) to be nearly always on alert to leaf-eating predators. In the lab, these plants grew smaller and made fewer viable seeds than normal.

ROBERT VIDÉKI, DORONICUM KFT./BUGWOOD.ORG (CC BY-NC 3.0 US)

Plants
Plants don’t grow well when always on high alert
860_hydrophobic_power.png

When water droplets bead up on a surface, it’s because that surface has features that repel the water. The water doesn’t penetrate the surface or flatten out across it like a pool. This concept is key to a new energy technology.

Antonistock/iStockphoto

Technology
Super-water-repellent surfaces can generate energy
a photo of the skeleton of Sue, a T. rex skeleton at Chicago's Field Museum, against a white background

T. rex didn’t have the ability to clamp its jaws to crush bones, like some mammals do today. Instead, it used its powerful bite and strong teeth to pulverize the bones of its prey.

Connie Ma/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Fossils
T. rex pulverized bones with an incredible amount of force
Math & Technology
860_hydrophobic_power.png

When water droplets bead up on a surface, it’s because that surface has features that repel the water. The water doesn’t penetrate the surface or flatten out across it like a pool. This concept is key to a new energy technology.

Antonistock/iStockphoto

Technology
Super-water-repellent surfaces can generate energy
A photo of Folsom Lake in California from October 2015. There is no water to be seen. A white pick-up truck is driving diagonally from the left to the right along a dry path.

A photo of Folsom Lake in California from October 2015. There is no water to be seen. A white pick-up truck is driving diagonally from the left to the right along a dry path.

MCMLXXXI/iStockphoto

Weather & Climate
Fingerprint of climate change shows up in some extreme weather
a horse stuffed animal with white wraps around its legs is walking across a the screen against a black background, electric wires trail behind it

A new bendable, stretchable skin can wrap around inanimate objects — such as this stuffed horse’s legs — creating a soft robot.

J.W. Booth et al./Sci Robotics 2018

Robotics
Soft robots get their power from the skin they’re in
860_main_SN_wildfires_Carr.png

The Carr Fire burned 930 square kilometers, destroyed more than 1,000 buildings and killed seven people during the summer of 2018. That made it one of the most destructive wildfires in California history.

Eric Coulter, Bureau of Land Management/Flickr

Weather & Climate
Wilder wildfires? Computing helps predict their path and fury