The San Andreas Fault isn’t just a crack in California’s crust; it’s a bomb that is going off. This tectonic boundary between the Pacific and North American plates runs for more than 800 miles (1,300 km) from the Salton Sea to Cape Mendocino. It has changed the shape of California’s land and its future in ...
For most of human history, the night sky has been a place where stars, planets, and faraway galaxies can be seen. But what was there before the first stars came to life? Was the universe full of light when it was young, or was it a dark void? The answer is much more interesting than ...
An ancient geological force has been quietly shaping the planet for millions of years deep beneath Oman’s rough terrain. Scientists have found a “ghost” plume, a column of hot rock rising from the Earth’s core. This plume may have been very important in changing the direction of the Indian tectonic plate when it crashed into ...
In a remote village high in the Peruvian Andes, there is a 68-meter-long (224-foot) knotted cord that is the biggest of its kind ever found. Khipus were the Inca Empire’s advanced way of keeping records. They encoded everything from tax records to poetry. But researchers now think they might have something even more amazing: a ...
A sobering new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution reveals that more than 500 bird species could go extinct within the next century due to escalating threats from climate change, habitat loss, and human activity. Conducted by researchers at the University of Reading, the study highlights that this projected loss is nearly three times ...
For a long time, science fiction has teased us with images of humanoid robots flying through the air like superheroes in comic books. That fantasy is getting closer to coming true now. The Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) has revealed iRonCub MK3, the first humanoid robot in the world that can take off vertically with ...
Hells Canyon, a winding cut through the American West, has kept its origins a geological mystery for hundreds of years. Scientists have been trying to figure out how this 1.5-mile-deep (2.4 km) chasm, carved by the Snake River, came to be for a long time. It runs through Oregon, Idaho, and Washington. How could the ...
A new peer-reviewed study published in Science has confirmed what environmental advocates have long suspected: banning or taxing plastic bags significantly reduces their presence in beach litter. Drawing on nearly four decades of data from Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup, the research shows that jurisdictions with plastic bag policies saw a 25 to 47 percent ...
Scientists thought for a long time that plant roots followed a simple rule: the deeper you go, the fewer roots there are. But a new study published in Nature Communications has turned this long-held belief on its head. It shows that 20% of plants around the world grow a second set of roots more than ...
For hundreds of years, the only time mankind could see the Sun’s corona, which is the highly hot and ethereal outer atmosphere, was during a total solar eclipse. But the European orbit Agency (ESA) has now gone above that boundary by making the first artificial solar eclipse in orbit. The Proba-3 mission, which began in ...
