Were dinosaurs doomed before the asteroid hit?
Scientists analyzed a rock layer in New Mexico dating to the end of the dinosaur era and found that dinosaurs in the south remained diverse…
Category: Big Questions
When glaciers retreat, microbes take over
Researchers demonstrated that the first microbes to colonize recently deglaciated soil can extract nutrients from air and rock to survive…
The history of tsunami-causing earthquakes in Japan
Researchers pieced together clues from seismic data and sediment samples to unravel the history of tsunami-causing earthquakes in the Japan…
Lithium mining impacts local waters
Researchers found elevated metal concentrations in surface waters and groundwater downstream of lithium-containing hard rock processing…
Using bacteria to fight fungal brown rot
Scientists compared the effectiveness of traditional chemical fungicides and newer biological fungicides in killing the fungus responsible…
Is Earth’s water why intelligent life evolved here?
A Columbia University scientist argued that the existence of humans provides strong evidence that intelligent life is more likely to evolve…
Plants changed the chemistry of magmas
Researchers used isotopes in magmatic minerals to demonstrate that continental magmas altered globally around 450 million years ago…
How did land plants change rivers?
Scientists studied meandering rivers across the globe to establish how they responded to the evolution of land plants.
Clay minerals suggest a warm, wet past for Mars
Researchers studied clay deposits on Mars using tools aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and found evidence for a warm and humid past…
Characterizing galaxies at “cosmic noon”
Astronomers studied 3 galaxies that formed 2 to 3 billion years after the Big Bang to calculate how much gas, stars, and dark matter they…