Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 30, 2010

Tracking a Retreating Glacier

Columbia Glacier (Image credit: Shad O'Neel/USGS.) Scientists set up camp where the Columbia Glacier meets the ocean in this photo from August 2009. The scientists' orange tents are seen on the cliff in the lower left-hand corner of the image. Glacier Camp (Image credit: Shad O'Neel/USGS.) Only accessible by helicopter,...

Jun 30, 2010

Finding Hope, Adventure Deep Within the Amazon Rain Forest

If asked to compile a list of careers that offer old-fashioned thrills, one might say archeologist (Indiana Jones), or perhaps ship captain (Jack Sparrow). But geographer? Enter Robert Walker, a professor of geography at Michigan State University (MSU), and a scientist whose South American exploits lend his rather stuffy-sounding profession...

Jun 30, 2010

Cages Change Mice Brains, Lab Studies Questioned

Scientists rely on lab rats and mice as models to shed light on the human condition. But a new study suggests researchers will have to rethink the whole process. The type of cage a mouse is housed in affects that mouse's brain, in a breakthrough that may require scientists to...

Jun 30, 2010

A Geologist's Paradise and Nightmare

Big Bend National Park in southwestern Texas is alternatively known as a geologist's paradise and a geologist's nightmare: Sparse vegetation makes finding and observing the rocks easy, but they document a complicated geologic history extending back 500 million years. Decades of research have enabled geologists to piece together Big Bend's...

Jun 30, 2010

Tropical Biodiversity Explained by Steady Temperatures

The astounding array of species that call the tropics home is the result of the near-constant year-round temperatures found in these areas, a new study suggests. The study, which surveyed insect diversity at a variety of latitudes and points in Earth's history, answers a question that has bugged biologists for...

Jun 30, 2010

Two Iconic African Carnivores Declared Locally Extinct

Cheetahs and African wild dogs have completely disappeared from the northern regions of Cameroon, according to a comprehensive study by the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Although not yet completely extinct, other large carnivores in the central African country's upper regions don't have a good...

Jun 30, 2010

How does a compass work?

If you're lost in the woods, your best chance of finding your way might be a tiny magnet. A magnet is what makes a compass point north — the small magnetic pin in a compass is suspended so that it can spin freely inside its casing and respond to our...

Jun 30, 2010

Photos: Journey into the Tropical Andes

The Páramo (Image credit: Jesse Lewis) The Páramo comprises a number of neotropical high altitude grassland ecosystems found from Costa Rica to Bolivia. Páramo ecosystems exist only in high elevations (typically over about 16,400 feet, or 5,000 meters), primarily in the upper parts of the Northern Andes Mountains. Colombia alone...

Jun 30, 2010

Icebreaker Ships to Map Arctic Seafloor

The U.S. icebreaker ship Healy is about to set sail on its way to the Arctic, where it will burst through the sea ice in order to map the seafloor below. The map will help set the record straight on how much of the seafloor a country can claim as...

May 31, 2010

Urine Pheromone in Mice Named After Jane Austen Character

In one of the more bizarre homages to Jane Austen, biologists have named a protein in mice urine after her famed character Mr. Darcy from the novel Pride and Prejudice. Much like Mr. Darcy had a magnetic pull on Elizabeth Bennet (and countless readers), the protein is a pheromone responsible...

May 31, 2010

The World's Biggest Oceans and Seas

Intro Marit Jentoft-Nilsen/NASA Water covers more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface, with the largest body of water, the Pacific Ocean, taking up more than one-third of the planet's surface. All of the oceans on Earth are estimated to have a volume of 0.3 billion cubic miles (1.332 billion...

May 31, 2010

New Web Site Launches: OurAmazingPlanet

A half-century ago, two U.S. Navy explorers ventured to the deepest place on Earth, the Mariana Trench, nearly 7 miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Nobody has returned to the abyss since, and most of the oceans remain largely unexplored. So today, World Oceans Day, LiveScience's parent company,...

May 31, 2010

How Hot Is Lava?

Ice melts at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Chocolate melts at 90 F. But rock? Now we're talking a lot more heat. Lava, the melted rock that shoots out of volcanoes, can flow at temperatures of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit. Lava that's on the cooler side comes out of volcanoes at only...

May 31, 2010

Depth of Himalayan Mountain Roots Revealed

An epic collision between two ancient continents pushed the Himalayas up fom the Earth's surface. That much is known, but a new study reveals how deep the unseen wreckage penetrated underground. Sprawling sections of the Earth's crust — the rocky plates floating on the scorching, molten rock inside the Earth,...

May 31, 2010

Earth's Atmospheric Layers Seen from Space

A spectacular new image taken by astronauts on the International Space Station shows the various layers of Earth's atmosphere during sunset over the Indian Ocean. A brilliant sequence of colors in the image denotes each of the layers of Earth's atmosphere, which are visible here because the picture was taken...