Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 30, 2008

How the Galapagos Islands Changed the World

Each Monday, this column turns a page in history to explore the discoveries, events and people that continue to affect the history being made today. Boobies and lava gulls and giant tortoises, oh my! The Galapagos Islands host a faunal freak show of rare animal species endemic only to those...

Jun 30, 2008

Fossil Suggests Antarctica Much Warmer in Past

A college student's new discovery of fossils collected in the East Antarctic suggests that the frozen polar cap was once a much balmier place. The well-preserved fossils of ostracods, a type of small crustaceans, came from the Dry Valleys region of Antarctica's Transantarctic Mountains and date from about 14 million...

Jun 30, 2008

Why You Will Eat Less in the Future

With food and fuel costs soaring and the financial costs of global warming becoming reality, a new cure-all prescription has emerged: The average American should eat less. And with a new University of Illinois report forecasting even higher food prices next year, the suggestion could become an inevitable way of...

Jun 30, 2008

San Andreas Fault Longer Than Thought

As if the San Andreas Fault weren't long and menacing enough, newly found mud pots and mud volcanoes now suggest it extends another 18 miles, going under the Salton Sea and beyond, in the desert southeast of Palm Springs. The extension is probably inactive. U.S. Geological Survey researchers David K....

Jun 30, 2008

Now What? Californians to Rehearse 'The Big One'

Some Southern Californians are said to have stampeded yesterday as they tried to evacuate a high-rise during the 5.4-magnitude quake outside Los Angeles. That is exactly what Margaret Vinci didn't want them to do, yesterday or during future earthquakes, especially The Big One that scientists predict will come any time...

Jun 30, 2008

Plants Talk, Even Eavesdrop

It's bad enough when a parasite latches on to your body to suck you dry. But when it starts eavesdropping on your communications, enough already. That's what the parasitic dodder vine does. It consumes water and nutrients from a host plant and, scientists have just discovered, it taps into the...

May 31, 2008

Life Endures 120,000 Years Under Ice

Being tiny has its advantages, and a newly discovered microbe in Greenland has exploited this fully. The bacterium survived more than 120,000 years beneath the ice where inhospitable conditions reach new lows. Most organisms constantly deal with trade-offs, such as some hot-desert residents that take advantage of sunshine yet must...

May 31, 2008

New Fossils Suggest Ancient Cat-sized Reptiles in Antarctica

Cat-sized reptiles once roamed what is now the icebox of Antarctica, snuggling up in burrows and peeping above ground to snag plant roots and insects. The evidence for this scenario comes from preserved burrow casts discovered in the Transantarctic Mountains, which extend 3,000 miles (4,800 km) across the polar continent...

May 31, 2008

Extinct Tree From Christ's Time Rises From the Dead

Scientists have grown a tree from what may be the oldest seed ever germinated. The new sapling was sprouted from a 2,000-year-old date palm excavated in Masada, the site of a cliff-side fortress in Israel where ancient Jews are said to have killed themselves to avoid capture by Roman invaders....

May 31, 2008

The Strange Science of Summer

With 8 inches of hail falling in parts of Nebraska this week and Arizona reaching triple digit temperatures last week, it may seem rather arbitrary to call June 20 the first day of the summer this year, aka the summer solstice. But scientists really do have a reason. It's all...

May 31, 2008

History Repeats: The Great Flood of 1993

This month's flooding in the Midwest is reminiscent of the Great Flood of 1993, weather officials now say. But while a repeat of 1993 can't be ruled out, they say, this year is unlikely to match that colossal disaster. Several of the 1993 records have already been broken this year...

May 31, 2008

North Pole Could be Ice-Free This Summer

Arctic sea ice could break apart completely at the North Pole this year, allowing ships to sail over the normally frozen top of the world. The potential landmark thaw — the first time in human history the pole would be ice-free — is a stark sign of global warming, according...

May 31, 2008

Volcanoes Erupt Beneath Arctic Ice

New evidence deep beneath the Arctic ice suggests a series of underwater volcanoes have erupted in violent explosions in the past decade. Hidden 2.5 miles (4,000 meters) beneath the Arctic surface, the volcanoes are up to a mile (2,000 meters) in diameter and a few hundred yards tall. They formed...

Apr 30, 2008

Tropical Trouble: Species to Struggle in Heat

Polar bears may be the poster children for the havoc that climate change could wreak on sensitive species, but animals and plants in the tropics could actually be in the greatest peril from global warming, a new study suggests. While temperature changes in the tropics are expected to be much...

Apr 30, 2008

World's Dirt Deteriorates

WASHINGTON (AP) — Science has provided the souped-up seeds to feed the world, through biotechnology and old-fashioned crossbreeding. Now the problem is the dirt they're planted in. As seeds get better, much of the world's soil is getting worse and people are going hungry. Scientists say if they can get...