Do twins live longer because they’re so close?
Twins tend to live longer than people who aren’t twins, and identical twins live even longer, according to a new study. Researchers say the findings may point to the health benefits of social support....
View ArticleWill droughts hurt less if plants aren’t so thirsty?
Researchers say popular long-term drought estimates have a major flaw: They ignore that plants will be less thirsty as carbon dioxide rises. A new study shows that shifts in how plants use water could...
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Toxic algal bloom tied to Pacific’s warm ‘blob’
The unprecedented West Coast toxic algal bloom of 2015 appears to be linked to the unusually warm ocean conditions—nicknamed “the blob”—in the winter and spring of that year. The bloom closed fisheries...
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Image reveals tiny ocean creature getting its shell
Scientists have taken an atomic-scale look at how shells first form around tiny, single-celled organisms that drift through the ocean. Taken together, these shells are so plentiful that when they sink...
View ArticleTeam conducts giant ultrasound of Mount St. Helens
Researchers are using remote sensing to better understand the hidden passageways beneath one of the United States’ most dangerous active volcanoes. Their work may begin to explain the enigmatic...
View ArticleLightning adds missing info to storm forecasts
A new study shows how to apply lightning strike information to storm forecasts. “When you see lots of lightning you know where the convection, or heat-driven upward motion, is the strongest, and that’s...
View ArticleLosing Amazon rainforest would make Siberia colder
When a forest disappears, vegetation on the other side of the world can feel significant effects, new research shows. The loss of the forest can also affect global climate patterns, according to the...
View ArticleHere’s a humane way to take the ocean’s temperature
Tracking the interior temperature of the world’s oceans is trickier than it might seem. A University of Washington oceanographer has proposed a method to cheaply monitor temperature throughout the...
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Network captures details as underwater volcano erupts
New research captures in detail the cracking, bulging, and shaking from the eruption of a mile-high volcano where two tectonic plates separate. The work shows how the volcano behaved during its spring...
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What a 2-mile ice tube tells us about wind
A dramatic pattern in our planet’s climate history involves paroxysms in Arctic temperatures. During the last ice age, tens of thousands of years ago, Greenland repeatedly warmed by about 10 degrees...
View ArticleStock index can also detect small earthquakes
A tracker borrowed from stock traders can help detect the gradual movement of tectonic plates—what are called “slow slip” earthquakes. These movements do not unleash damaging amounts of seismic energy,...
View ArticleClimate predictions and reality are lining up
Scientists studying climate change have long debated exactly how much hotter Earth will become given certain amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. Models predicting this “climate sensitivity” number may...
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Melting glacier leads to first modern ‘river piracy’
A warming climate has melted northern Canada’s Kaskawulsh Glacier so much that the glacier’s “retreat” has changed the course of a nearby river, new research shows. Last spring, the glacier’s retreat...
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Paying farmers not to farm saved sage grouse
A Reagan-era federal government program that subsidizes farmers to plant year-round grasses and native shrubs instead of crops has had a surprisingly large and beneficial effect on the Eastern...
View ArticleRocks might not be such a good ‘thermostat’ for Earth
The textbook understanding of global chemical weathering—in which rocks dissolve, wash down rivers, and eventually end up on the ocean floor to begin the process again—does not depend on Earth’s...
View ArticleEarth will likely pass heat ‘tipping point’ by 2100
Warming of the planet by 2 degrees Celsius is often seen as a “tipping point” that people should try to avoid by limiting greenhouse gas emissions. But the Earth is very likely to exceed that by the...
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‘Wiretap’ aims to determine what crows caw about
What are crows saying when their loud caws fill the night? Despite the ruckus, nobody quite knows. The birds congregate daily before and after sleep, and they make some noise, but what might be...
View ArticleAsk an expert: How unusual were hurricanes in 2017?
The United States just suffered the most intense hurricane season in more than a decade, and possibly the costliest ever. Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in mid-August. Hurricane Irma struck Florida in...
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Ocean ‘bathtub drains’ pull flotsam together
Marine debris, or flotsam, clumps together as it moves on the surface of the ocean, new research featuring the largest flotilla of sensors ever deployed in a single area suggests. Researchers placed...
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New strategy for finding alien life goes beyond oxygen
Researchers have found a new recipe for providing evidence that a distant planet harbors life, one that might be more promising than just looking for oxygen. “…our suggestion is doable, and may lead to...
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