LIVE SCIENCE - Astronomers have found the strongest evidence yet that a rocky planet beyond our solar system has managed to hold onto an atmosphere — a crucial ingredient for life as we know it. The discovery marks the first time scientists have detected an atmosphere surrounding a rocky planet orbiting in the habitable zone...
SCIENCE ALERT - Earth's climate systems are inexorably and often unexpectedly interconnected. Dust from North Africa's Sahara Desert drifts thousands of miles to fuel food webs in the Amazon and the ocean's depths, while pollution-eating microbes hitch a ride through the atmosphere on gusts of wind or wisps of fog. Among the most influential planet-shaping...
YAHOO NEWS - Fossils from South Australia are offering a surprising clue about the deep history of animal behavior. Spriggina floundersi, an ancient organism that lived about 550 million years ago, may represent the oldest known example of "right-handedness" in animals, suggesting a preference for turning right emerged long before hands, feet, or widespread complex...
EARTH.COM - A slowdown in one of Earth’s most important ocean currents could reshape weather far beyond the Atlantic. Weakening of the ocean current could strengthen storms that slam into California while reducing the snowfall that helps keep Greenland’s massive ice sheet intact. A new study shows how changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation...
EUREKA ALERT! - Scientists have uncovered what may be the earliest evidence of “right-handedness” in the animal kingdom, dating back more than half a billion years. The discovery comes from the fossil record of Spriggina floundersi, an organism from the Ediacaran Period that lived about 550 million years ago. New research published today in the...
THE NEW YORK TIMES - Any large earthquake can be dangerous, but the residents of Caracas and Venezuelan coastal cities like La Guaira and Catia La Mar were victims of several unlucky factors. Two quakes in rapid succession, a fault that ruptured toward more populated areas, soft ground and the shallow depth of the temblors...
By James Glanz, Helmuth Rosales and Marco Hernandez | The New York Times |
USA TODAY - Scientists have linked an unusual "cold blob" in the North Atlantic — one eerily similar to the one featured in the film "The Day After Tomorrow," that has a major impact on global weather. While the findings weren't that extreme, a recent study showed the area has cooled by up to 1...
LADBIBLE - Scientists are concerned about a patch of unusually cold water in the North Atlantic Ocean, referred to as the 'cold blob' or 'warming hole'. While a particularly powerful El Niño is on the horizon, this patch of ocean near Greenland has cooled by about 1°C over the past few decades. A new study...
METRO UK - The science of climate change is complex, but the overall effect is pretty simple – the planet is getting warmer. Except, however, for a cool ‘blob’ just southeast of Greenland that no one has ever been able to properly explain. The blob, also called the ‘warming hole’, is a large patch of...
GIZMODO - Early this year, researchers confirmed why one part of Antarctica bleeds red. In similar yet arguably more concerning news about Earth’s poles, Arctic rivers are turning orange—and scientists now know the real reason behind this shift. In a study published last year, the same team initially documented the orange slush—toxic iron particles fatal...