What will happen when Greenland’s Petermann glacier finally begins melting at a rapid rate? What about portions of Antarctica? The natural assumption is that sea levels will begin to rise, but now, scientists believe that there are strong variances in how cities will be affected. Researchers Eric Larour, Erik Ivins and Surendra Adhikari recently came …
What happens when a gaping hole opens up in a massive body of ice? Scientists use it as a learning opportunity, of course. This is what recently occurred in Antarctica. The appearance of a hole, known as a polynya, has caught the attention of researchers, but not only because of its size (approximately equivalent to …
Although the Northeast is a hot spot for leaf peeping, many early travelers have been left disappointed. Warm temperatures and an unusual weather pattern crossing the Midwest and Northeast have delayed leaf peeping in hot spots across the U.S. As Linda Lam explains for The Weather Channel, high and low temperatures have been “well-above average …
Editor’s note: This post has been updated and broken links removed. Please see our policy on broken hyperlinks for more. A few years ago the term “hydroponic” may have conjured up a particularly fragrant cloud in your mind, but these days the horticultural subset is becoming a more popular way of growing produce. Most big grocery stores …
Several strong hurricanes have made landfall over the past few months, leaving destruction in their wake, but what else are they triggering? Could they be responsible for seismic activity? We wanted to learn more about the data recently captured by seismometers amid some of the season’s strongest storms. For insight, we spoke to Stephen Hicks, …
What would the world look like without coffee? This is what some researchers are wondering now that they’ve looked at the impact of climate change and pollination on coffee bean plants. For a recent study, a group of scientists wanted to examine how climate change caused geographic range shifts in pollinators and major crops (Imbach …
The summer sun and heat calls people outside once again. With all the scares of mosquito transmitted diseases, the bug spray is par for the course. Who’s more at risk: city-dwellers or rural lovers? Research out of Panama suggests those along the main roads — whether they are rural or city dwellers are first choice …
Air pollution is already a significant problem in many parts of the world, but what about the U.S.? Recently, scientists set out to determine just how much air pollution we’re exposed to in the U.S., as well as how it’s impacting our health. (Di et al., 2017) The researchers used 12 years of data, health records …
Welcome to Henderson Island, where you can literally live alongside 38 million pieces of trash. This little island located halfway between New Zealand and Chile is considered to be a UNESCO world heritage site. Unfortunately, it’s been plagued with a plastic problem. A recent report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences …
There are drawbacks, of course, to doing environmental experiments in a laboratory setting. Small-scale experimentation may not yield the same results as a large-scale, real-world experiment. In a sterile lab, scientists may not be able to predict the impact of other environmental factors. A more accurate way of conducting research would be to experiments in …