Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 30, 2018

Books That Kill: 3 Poisonous Renaissance Manuscripts Discovered in School Library

If you plan on doing lots of summer reading this year, be sure to keep the safety basics in mind: Always keep your page-turning fingers hydrated; never enter an unfamiliar fictional world without a compass; and — most important — watch out for poisonous books. Odd as it may sound,...

Jun 30, 2018

French Farmer Discovered a Rare Mastodon Skull, But Kept It Secret for Years

A French farmer received the surprise of a lifetime when he stumbled upon the enormous skull of a long-extinct Pyrenean mastodon, but he kept it to himself for years, the AFP reported on Thursday (July 12). The small-town farmer, who lives in L'Isle-en-Dodon, France, knew the skull was remarkable and...

Jun 30, 2018

We Are Now Living in a New Geologic Age, Experts Say

We are all in the midst of a new geological age, experts say. This age, dubbed the Meghalayan, began 4,250 years ago when what was probably a planetwide drought struck Earth, according to the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). The Meghalayan is just one of three newly named ages,...

Jun 30, 2018

Photos: White Sands National Monument

A big place (Image credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)The Desierto de Chihuahua is the largest desert in North America as it covers over 200,000 square miles (517,998 square kilometers) and extends deep into the Central Plateau of Mexico. Its many endemic plant species suggest that the desert just might...

Jun 30, 2018

Gravity Waves Ripple Across Antarctica's Skies, and Researchers Think They Know Why

Seven years ago, a group of researchers detected something strange above Antarctica's skies. Large, mysterious ripples were propagating across Earth's atmosphere. These so-called inertia-gravity waves are oscillations of air formed by the force of Earth's gravity and rotation. These waves aren't uncommon and occur frequently in various parts of Earth's...

Jun 30, 2018

Shocking Global Map Shows the Extent of a Global Heat Wave

Earth is boiling under record-high temperatures. Global heat waves have landed thousands of people in the hospital and fueled massive wildfires in places ranging from Greece to the Arctic Circle. An animation called earth shows just how high worldwide temperatures really are. The animation, designed by computer programmer Cameron Beccario,...

May 31, 2018

The Science Behind Hawaii's Surprising 2018 Volcanic Eruption

Kilauea volcano is spewing lava and belching hazardous gases on Hawaii's Big Island, forcing more than 1,700 people to evacuate their homes. Eruptions aren't anything new on Kilauea. In particular, the Pu'u 'Ō'ō vent, where lava is visible, has erupted almost continuously since January 1983. But the latest eruption took...

May 31, 2018

Corpse of Mysterious Sea Creature Washes Ashore in Namibia

A bizarre-looking, nearly 20-foot-long (6 meters) sea creature washed ashore at Dorob National Park in Namibia last week. When scientists found the body, it was so decomposed that they didn't really know what they were looking at — it could've been a dolphin or a whale, or something else, according...

May 31, 2018

The Internet Is Obsessed With This Perfectly Symmetrical Mushroom Cloud

Capping a week when the last thing anyone wanted to hear about was news of a mushroom cloud, a viral photo of a glorious, impossibly symmetrical storm cloud has nevertheless entranced the internet with its perfect mushroominess. Gulf Shores, Alabama, resident Rick Geiss snapped the impressive picture from his local...

May 31, 2018

Here's How Your Water Bottle Could Start a Fire

Leaving a water bottle sitting in your car sounds benign enough. But on a hot, summer day, the plastic can act as a lens, focusing light into a high-energy beam that's intense enough to burn material like car-seat upholstery. Last summer, Idaho Power shared its video of a water bottle...

May 31, 2018

Photos: Fruits of the Sonoran Desert

Sun, sun, everywhere (Image credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)During the month of June, the Sonoran Desert of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States is best known for its extreme heat and lack of rainfall. Arizona set the record for the highest known temperature in the month of June...

Apr 30, 2018

Massive 'Dead Zone' in the Arabian Sea Is the Biggest in the World

A massive dead zone in the Arabian Sea is the largest in the world, a new study reveals. Dead zones are oxygen-starved ocean regions where few organisms can survive. They emerge in ocean depths ranging from 650 to 2,600 feet (200 to 800 meters), when influxes of chemical nutrients —...

Apr 30, 2018

Origami Robots Just Helped Build the World's Smallest House

Pushing the tiny-house movement to bizarre new limits, French scientists have constructed the world's smallest house on the tip of an optical fiber. With each wall spanning about 0.0006 inches in length (15 micrometers, or 15 millionths of a meter), the humble chalet is too small to accommodate a dust...

Apr 30, 2018

Why Is NOAA's Brand-New, Billion-Dollar Weather Satellite Going Blind?

A very expensive satellite's first several months in space are going very wrong. The cooling system that the multibillion-dollar device needs in order to properly observe the atmosphere failed to start, leaving the satellite partly blind. Named GOES-17, the glitchy orbiter is a brand-new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)...

Apr 30, 2018

The Oldest Known Tree in Europe Is Having a Growth Spurt

Perched high on a cliff in southern Italy, a bone-white pine tree has watched the Renaissance come and go, seen dozens of wars rage and resolve, and stood by as thousands of less-persistent organisms lived and died on the rocky slopes below. The tree, nicknamed Italus, has seen a lot....