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Dec 31, 2018

More Than 250,000 People May Die Each Year Due to Climate Change

In the coming decades, more than a quarter-million people may die each year as a result of climate change, according to a new review study. In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that climate change would lead to about 250,000 additional deaths each year between 2030 and 2050, from...

Dec 31, 2018

The Polar Vortex Is Collapsing — Here's What That Means for Your Winter Weather

The blast of Arctic weather headed for the United States this weekend could be a first sign of still worse things to come this winter, with signs that a circular low-pressure system of swirling winds that normally keeps frigid air locked up at the North Pole has been disrupted and...

Dec 31, 2018

The Greenland Ice Sheet Is Melting at Astonishing Rate

Last week, a cauldron of concerning news articles made two things very clear: The ocean is warming and Antarctica's ice is melting. Now, a new study shows how much global warming is pounding another area: Greenland. Greenland's ice sheet is not only melting, but it's melting faster than ever because...

Dec 31, 2018

North Dakota Will Get Colder Than The North Pole Tonight — Here's Why

The polar vortex has returned to the United States, bringing historic cold and wind chills to a region spanning much of the Upper Midwest and the Dakotas. Temperatures close to minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 34 degrees Celsius) are possible in the Twin Cities region today (Jan. 29) and tomorrow...

Nov 30, 2020

How will sea levels change with climate change?

Sea level rise is not a new phenomenon. For much of the 20th century, the global mean sea level has been inching upward — about 0.05 inches (1.4 millimeters) per year, according to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Global mean sea level is an average of all...

Nov 30, 2020

Ötzi the Iceman may have scaled ice-free Alps

Ötzi the Iceman, a Copper Age wanderer found mummified in the Alps nearly three decades ago, may have lived at a time when the glaciers were advancing down from the highest peaks to the lower slopes of the mountains. The ice that preserved Ötzi upon his death in about 3300...

Nov 30, 2020

Our most popular science stories of 2020

The biggest science news this year, by far, was anything to do with the novel coronavirus and the ongoing pandemic. Stories about COVID-19 received exponentially more views on Live Science than any other science news we shared. Related: Coronavirus outbreak: Live updates But despite the hardship of the pandemic, there...

Nov 30, 2020

World's largest iceberg continues to break up off the coast of South Georgia

The world's (former) largest iceberg continues to break apart into smaller pieces on the doorstep of a major marine wildlife haven and home to millions of macaroni and king penguins in Antarctica. This comes less than a week after the mammoth iceberg, known as A68a, first split in two, Live...

Nov 30, 2020

The 100 best science photos of 2020

Science isn't always cerebral, oftentimes revealing its intricacies with a striking image. And 2020 revealed some science gems that were both stunning and awe-inspiring. From naked sharks to secret galaxy mergers to disco tardigrades and more, a trove of incredible science photos came to light this crazy year. Seal ballet...

Oct 31, 2020

Huge eruption of Italian volcano sends ash hundreds of feet into the air

An explosion on the slopes of Stromboli sent an avalanche of pyroclastic flow rushing down the side of the Italian volcano on Monday (Nov. 16). The stronger-than-usual explosion was captured on cameras operated by the Istituto Nazionale Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). Imagery shared by Il Mondo dei Terremoti on Twitter...

Oct 31, 2020

Chinese submarine reaches the deepest place on Earth

The Chinese submersible Fendouzhe just reached one of the deepest spots on the planet, reaching a dizzying (and dark) depth of 35,791 feet (10,909 meters), according to a state-run news agency. During a months-long expedition, Fendouzhe completed 13 dives into the Mariana Trench — which boasts the deepest region on...

Sep 30, 2020

Rare full moon on Halloween will be seen across the US for the first time in 76 years

Moonrise on Halloween night will be just a little more spooktacular than usual this year. The sky will be illuminated by a full moon — a rare Hallows' Eve treat that happens only about once every 19 years. Something else makes this full moon, known as a Hunter's Moon, even...

Aug 31, 2020

Can diamonds burn?

Diamonds are forever, or so the slogan goes. But with the proper application of heat and enough oxygen, a diamond can go up in smoke. Diamonds are carbon, just like coal. It takes a bit more to get them burning and keep them burning than coal, but they will burn,...

Aug 31, 2020

We may finally know what life on Earth breathed before there was oxygen

Billions of years ago, long before oxygen was readily available, the notorious poison arsenic could have been the compound that breathed new life into our planet. In Chile's Atacama Desert, in a place called Laguna La Brava, scientists have been studying a purple ribbon of photosynthetic microbes living in a...

Jul 31, 2020

Two Canadian ice caps have completely vanished from the Arctic, NASA imagery shows

On frosty Ellesmere Island, where Arctic Canada butts up against the northwestern edge of Greenland, two once-enormous ice caps have completely vanished, new NASA imagery shows. It's no mystery where the caps, known as the St. Patrick Bay ice caps, went. Like many glacial features in the Arctic — which...