Doomsday Clock stands at 100 seconds to midnight By Mindy Weisberger The Doomsday Clock — a hypothetical clock that measures our nearness to utter annihilation, represented by the midnight hour — maintains last year's time.
Rock collector finds rare gemstone that looks like Cookie Monster By Stephanie Pappas An agate discovered in Brazil bears a remarkable resemblance to the Sesame Street muppet Cookie Monster.
Mystery of Greenland's expanding 'dark zone' finally solved By Harry Baker Scientists have discovered what causes the algal blooms that are responsible for the "dark zone" in Greenland's melting ice sheet.
Ice covers the Sahara Desert for just 4th time in 50 years By Brandon Specktor The dunes of the northwestern Sahara desert were streaked with ice on Tuesday, creating a surreal landscape
Hundreds of never-before-seen life-forms live in this 6,000-foot-deep volcano's acid jets By Brandon Specktor Researchers discover 300 novel microbes living near the blazing hot jets of an underwater volcano near New Zealand
Striking new video captures moment when Mount Etna recently erupted By Nicoletta Lanese The eruption lit up the night sky and dropped ash miles away.
Earth's outer shell ballooned during massive growth spurt 3 billion years ago By Harry Baker Zircon crystals found in stream sediments in Greenland have revealed how the Earth's crust rapidly grew during peak mantle activity.
Broiling 2020 was the hottest year ever, NASA climate scientists say By Mindy Weisberger Researchers with NASA and NOAA released their annual assessments of global temperatures and climate trends, finding 2020 to be one of the hottest years in 140 years of record-keeping.
The planet is dying faster than we thought By Brandon Specktor A triple-threat of climate change, biodiversity loss and overpopulation is bearing down on Earth, a new paper from 17 scientists warns.
First life could have evolved on ancient islands By Stephanie Pappas Earth could have hosted islands as long as 4 billion years ago, leaving open the possibility that the first life could have evolved on land rather than near hydrothermal vents.
Atmospheric CO2 will pass an alarming milestone in 2021 By Harry Baker In 2021, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration will be 50% higher than preindustrial levels, despite reduced emissions during the pandemic and a natural cooling event.
Gargantuan 'Tsar Icicle' collapses on tourists in Russia, killing one By Brandon Specktor The 130-foot-tall (40 meter) 'Tsar Icicle' waterfall collapsed on four tourists in Russia, killing one.
Towering ice arches in the Arctic are melting, putting 'Last Ice Area' at risk of vanishing By Harry Baker The ice arches, responsible for keeping the ecologically important 'Last Ice Area' intact, are in danger of collapsing due to increased melting.
Wandering polar vortex may cause a wild, snowy winter By Laura Geggel A polar vortex disruption may cause snowy, cold weather in about two weeks.
We've already blown past the warming targets set by the Paris climate agreement, study finds By Rafi Letzter A new study shows that due to pollution already released, Earth will eventually blow past Paris goals. But that doesn't mean all is lost.
Earth is whipping around quicker than it has in a half-century By Stephanie Pappas It could mean a "negative" leap second.
Hikers find ghostly 'hair ice' clinging to trees in an Irish forest By Brandon Specktor Hair ice has appeared on rotting trees all over the world, and fungus may be to blame.
Yellowstone's reawakened geyser won't spark a volcanic 'big one' By Laura Geggel Why a reawakened geyser isn't worrying geologists.
What if humans had photosynthetic skin? By Charles Q. Choi If humans had green skin, for instance, what if it granted us the ability to perform photosynthesis, which plants use to live off of sunlight?
