There is a frozen soup of viruses, bacteria and fungal spores lurking beneath the frigid Arctic soil. Unlike the icy leftovers in the back of your freezer, some of these microbes haven’t interacted with a cell since well before ancient Egyptians built the Pyramids of Giza. As climate change continues to cook the planet, however, … Read more
Sea levels are likely rising faster than previously thought, meaning low-lying coastal cities in the U.S. could flood far more regularly in the coming decades, a NASA study has revealed. According to the study, which analyzed three decades of satellite observations, by 2050, sea levels along the coastlines of the contiguous U.S. could rise as … Read more
J. Scott Coatsworth has a new queer sci fi collection out: Androids & Aliens. And there’s a giveaway. Androids & Aliens is Scott’s third short story collection – eight sci fi and sci-fantasy shorts that run the gamut from cyborgs to (comedic) alien invasions: Rise: Because of the rise in sea levels associated with climate … Read more
A river longer than England’s Thames flows beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, draining an area the size of France and Germany combined, new research reveals. This under-ice river was discovered using ice-penetrating radar mounted on aircraft. In a series of aerial surveys, researchers discovered a river system snaking 285 miles (460 kilometers) and draining into … Read more
When lightning flashes above, plants on the ground may respond in kind. Scientists have long been aware that plants and trees can emit small, visible electric discharges from the tips of their leaves when the plants are trapped beneath the electrical fields generated by thunderstorms high overhead. These discharges, known as coronas, are sometimes visible … Read more
Hydrogen and natural gas are among the alternative fuels starting to get more attention as car companies work to reduce emissions. But Audi is exploring another option that you may not have heard much about yet: e-fuels. The German automaker, which aims to develop synthetically engineered e-fuels as a viable alternative to gasoline and diesel, … Read more
Ancient microbial life on Mars could have destroyed the planet’s atmosphere through climate change, which ultimately led to its extinction, new research has suggested. The new theory comes from a climate modeling study that simulated hydrogen-consuming, methane-producing microbes living on Mars roughly 3.7 billion years ago. At the time, atmospheric conditions were similar to those … Read more
DNA from ancient microorganisms, some of which dates back to roughly 1 million years ago, has been discovered beneath the seafloor in Antarctica. The DNA is the oldest ever discovered from seafloor sediments, a new study shows. Scientists accidentally collected the unusual genetic samples, known as sedimentary ancient DNA or sedaDNA, up to 584 feet … Read more
Climate tipping points — the “points of no return” past which key components of Earth’s climate will begin to irreversibly break down — could be triggered by much lower temperatures than scientists previously thought, with some tipping points potentially already reached. There are also many more potential tipping points than scientists previously identified, according to … Read more
Antarctica’s so-called Doomsday Glacier is losing ice at its fastest rate in 5,500 years, raising concerns about the ice sheet’s future and the possibility of catastrophic sea level rise caused by the frozen continent’s melting ice. The finding comes from a study of prehistoric sea-deposits found on the shores surrounding the “doomsday” Thwaites Glacier and … Read more
