Carbon dioxide doesn’t have to be a bad thing – in moderate doses – but our planet is simply getting too much of it. Thanks to manmade activities, we now have to think about how carbon dioxide is going to affect everything from wildlife to the longevity of our planet in its entirety. Now, scientists …
We often think of fire as the ultimate destructive force but for pyrophile trees, fire is necessary to reproduce. Although several pyrophile plants – plants that have adapted to tolerate fire – exist worldwide, some species of trees have taken this relationship a step further. They have adapted to harness the power of fire to …
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the world’s most stunning underwater marvels, but depending on the pace of global warming, it may not be here for us to witness in the future. According to a new report published in Nature, the resilience of the reef is quickly dropping. (Hughes et al., 2017) This comes after …
The Zebra Swallowtail (Eurytides Marcellus) and the Common Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) are both evolutionary misfits. A cursory glance at both may fail to yield a connection but a closer look shows a complex relationship between the butterfly and the fruit tree that gives us insight into the evolutionary path of both. Let us first examine …
China’s cities (specifically Beijing and Shanghai) are known for its smog, and it’s a big problem. Aside from the obvious aesthetic problems, smog can cause a wide range of diseases and negatively impact the environment – but how bad is the issue? Is it really as damaging as the media portrays? Smog Problems of the …
Pilots need to maintain their well-being just as much as everyone else, but too often, their demanding schedules make it challenging. Whether it’s outside stressors or the pressure of the job, the world has seen some tragedies occur at the hand of people in dire need of help. This is what inspired a group of …
As scientists continue to watch the North and South poles evolve, they are finding more research indicating that ice melting may be more severe than previously thought. At the end of November, NASA worked on wrapping up its annual study on Antarctic ice. Operation IceBridge, as it’s known, is in its eighth year. As a …
The term “ghost forest” might sound spooky at first, but it is used to describe a non-supernatural problem in the science community. Ghost forests are often viewed as examples of deforestation, courtesy of global warming. Due to rising sea levels, some coastal landscapes are being reshaped as trees are being “poisoned.” “A ghost forest is …
Those who fear climate change might be glad to hear that forests consume up to 30 percent of the human-caused greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, which is responsible for global warming. However, a new study suggests that even the densest forests in North America might have little impact on carbon dioxide reduction. In a study published …
El Nino has been blamed for extreme weather in the past, and it may soon be linked to intense wildfires in the Amazon. The 2016 seasonal fire forecast from scientists at NASA and the University of California, Irvine, indicates that El Nino conditions could lead to drier weather in the Amazon. In fact, it’s en …