Using Gas Bubbles in Lava to Predict Ancient Air Pressure Scientists can estimate what the atmospheric pressure was on Earth 2.7 billion years ago, and the findings may help us understand how life formed

by Sumeet Kulkarni Guest Contributor, BMSIS Young Scientist Program What was the weather like in New York last week? You can look it up on weather.com. What was it…

For a Cooler Climate, Just Add Ice Should scientists attempt to slow climate change by intentionally increasing the size of the Greenland Ice Sheet to reflect sunlight away from the planet?

Should we geoengineer larger ice caps to reflect radiation away from the Earth to cool the climate? Is this a good idea? This article briefly explores these questions, based on the work of Jacob Haqq-Misra of Blue Marble Space Institute of Science.

Lasers and Fool’s Gold Give a Glimpse Into Our Ocean’s Past The amount of pyrite in the sea floor gives us an idea of how much oxygen was in the ocean millions of years ago.

The amount of trace elements in ocean pyrite correspond to ocean oxygen concentrations at different points in geologic time.

New Cavity Discovered in the Great Pyramid of Egypt Cosmic rays from space allowed scientists to detect a mysterious 4000 year old cavity deep in the Great Pyramid

An international team of scientists recently detected a new cavity in the 4000 year old Great Pyramid of Egypt! The detection method, muon tomography, is non-intrusive and so…

Lost & Found: The ancient Aitape Skull may be from the oldest known tsunami victim New research suggests that a skull fragment discovered in 1929 came from a tsunami victim some 6,000 years ago.

Tsunami are among the most destructive natural events that happen on our planet. From the Japanese term meaning “harbor wave”, tsunami occur when large volumes of water are…

Life May Be Even Older Than We Thought! Careful analyses of the composition of ancient rocks betrays the presence of life

How long has life been around on Earth? Is life an inevitable part of planet formation? The second question is tough to answer, but if life formed soon…

Caves Host Gooey Biofilms Built by Methane-Eating Bacteria Scientists try to understand the composition of snottites, which are collections of bacteria named for their resemblance to boogers.

Although bacteria are unicellular and may be freely swimming in water or crawling on sediments, in many environments they live in clumps called biofilms. Biofilms are groups of…

Saturn’s Moon Enceladus May Have Conditions For Life In a last scientific hurrah, the Cassini spacecraft has detected that hydrogen is being ejected from the moon’s ice-covered ocean

In a last scientific hurrah, the Cassini spacecraft has detected that hydrogen is being ejected from the moon’s ice-covered ocean.

Could Life Thrive on Radiation? Scientists Say It’s Possible Instead of sunlight, living things may be able to harness the energy from cosmic rays.

All life on Earth survives because of the sun. Plants use a process called photosynthesis to transfer energy from the Sun’s rays into the sugars that build their…

Computer Techniques Allow Scientists to Understand How Bacteria Work Together

Single celled prokaryotic microbes, such as bacteria and archaea, control almost every aspect of our daily lives, from our individual health to the elemental cycles that maintain the…

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Category: Geology