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'It cuts both ways': Positive tipping points can restore wrecked ecosystems — we just need to trigger them, Earth system scientist Tim Lenton saysLive Science spoke with Tim Lenton, founding director of the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter, about human actions that can trigger positive, self-propelling changes in nature.
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Thríhnúkagígur: The only volcano on Earth where you can descend into a magma chamberThríhnúkagígur is a volcano near Reykjavík in Iceland with an empty magma chamber decorated with vivid colors that scientists and tourists can access via an open cable elevator.
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'A completely new reality': Bolder measures are needed to prevent extreme water shortages in cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas that depend on the Colorado RiverCities fed by the Colorado River have taken huge steps to reduce their water consumption over the past few decades, yet water shortages are projected to grow more intense. What can be done?
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'Iran's Maldives' could drown in oil due to spills from air strikes, satellites showAir strikes on oil facilities and oil tankers in the Persian Gulf have unleashed what is set to become an ecological catastrophe, satellite images show.
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Florida is facing its most intense drought in 15 years. Here's how it got so bad and how long it will last.More than 70% of the state is under "extreme" to "exceptional" drought conditions, and other parts of the U.S. Southeast are similarly affected. But why, and what are the impacts?
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Ancient process that created rare earth elements discovered — and it could help us locate desperately needed depositsA new study suggests rare earth elements form in magma above ancient subduction zones, as that magma reacts with substances that are released when one tectonic plate dives beneath another.
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Aoshima: Japan's tiny 'Cat Island' where felines hugely outnumber humansOnce a thriving sardine fishing island, today Aoshima is home to roughly 80 cats and just a handful of people who look after the felines with the help of food donations from around Japan.
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'In every continent where humans are present, water bankruptcy is manifesting itself': Exiled Iranian scientist Kaveh Madani on our desperate need to preserve our most precious resourceLive Science spoke with Kaveh Madani, director of the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health and recipient of the 2026 Stockholm Water Prize, about "water bankruptcy" and what countries should do to avoid catastrophe.
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Earth's energy imbalance is much more extreme than climate models show — but scientists aren't sure whyFor reasons that are still unclear, climate models underestimate the growing gap between the amount of energy Earth receives from the sun and the amount the planet radiates into space.
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Extreme wildfires, droughts and storms could happen even under moderate global warming, study findsNew research suggests devastating climate outcomes that are typically associated with extreme global warming could hit even we limit heating to 3.6 F above preindustrial levels.
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Scientists discover potentially huge freshwater reservoir hidden beneath Great Salt LakeResearchers have found a layer of fresh water beneath Utah's Great Salt Lake that reaches up to 2.5 miles deep and could turn out to be as big, or bigger, than the lake.
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Lençóis Maranhenses: Brazil's dune-filled expanse that sits at the intersection of 3 biomesLençóis Maranhenses National Park hosts sand-dune fields that fill up with lagoons every wet season, but the reserve also has mangrove swamps where species such as the scarlet ibis thrive.
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Iran war has already released a staggering amount of CO2 — and the destruction of schools, homes and buildings is the biggest sourceIn a new analysis, researchers estimated direct, indirect and future greenhouse gas emissions that were created in the first two weeks of the Iran war, between Feb. 28 and March 14.
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Antarctica could warm 1.4 times faster than the rest of the Southern Hemisphere in the coming decades, study findsAntarctica could warm much faster than its surroundings over the next few decades due to a phenomenon known as polar amplification that is well established in the Arctic.
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Watch sperm whale headbutt another for no apparent reasonResearchers have captured extraordinary footage of sperm whales randomly headbutting each other, confirming anecdotal reports from mariners and whalers in the 18th and 19th centuries.
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'Dark oxygen' discovery on the seafloor is 'fundamentally at odds with thermodynamics' and should be retracted, experts sayIn a recent opinion article, marine scientists and electrochemists listed a number of reasons why it's unlikely that metallic nodules on the deep seafloor could produce oxygen in total darkness.
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'We got evidence of boars, deer, bears, aurochs': Ancient DNA reveals sunken realm Doggerland had habitable forests during the last ice ageA landmass that once connected Britain to mainland Europe had temperate forests that could have sustained Stone Age people for millennia before the landmass was flooded, a new study suggests.
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Sørvágsvatn: The lake that 'floats' above the ocean thanks to a unique optical illusionSørvágsvatn, also called Leitisvatn, is the largest lake in the Faroe Islands. Viewed from a certain angle, one side appears to hover above the Atlantic Ocean.
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'Blackwater' lakes and rivers in the Congo Basin are now emitting ancient carbon into the atmosphereCarbon that has been buried in the Congo Basin's peatlands for millennia is seeping into lakes and rivers. Why this is happening remains unclear, but researchers warn that tropical peatlands could be nearing a tipping point.
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Early warning indicator hidden within the Gulf Stream could signal the collapse of key Atlantic currents, study findsShifts in the Gulf Stream could help researchers predict the human-driven failure of a huge system of ocean currents known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.
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Scientists find 2 marsupial species, thought to have gone extinct 6,000 years ago, living in the forests of New GuineaThe pygmy long-fingered possum and the ring-tailed glider, two marsupials believed to have died out thousands of years ago, are still alive in Papuan Indonesia.
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Permafrost thaw and 'shrubification' have tipped Alaska's North Slope into a wildfire regime not seen for 3,000 yearsAn analysis of peatland soil samples and satellite images has found that wildfires on Alaska's North Slope are more frequent and severe now than they were at any point over the past 3,000 years.
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China has planted so many trees around the Taklamakan Desert that it's turned this 'biological void' into a carbon sinkHuge-scale ecological engineering around the edges of one of the world's largest and driest deserts has turned it into a carbon sink that absorbs more CO2 than it emits, research suggests.
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The largest reservoir of hydrogen on Earth may be hiding in its coreEarth's core contains nine to 45 times more hydrogen than the planet's oceans do, according to a new study that could settle a debate about when and how hydrogen was delivered to Earth.
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