Nature & Environment : Science World Report

May 23, 2019 10:51 AM EDT

Rare Volcanic Rocks Lift Lid on Dangers of Little-Studied Eruptions

Unusual rocks discovered on a remote mountainside have alerted scientists to the dangers posed by a little-studied type of volcano.

May 23, 2019 10:40 AM EDT

Family Crucial to Orca Survival

Orcas live in stable, structured social groups. And their survival directly depends on it, as a CNRS and University of La Rochelle research team* has just demonstrated. Between 1996 and 2002, half of the Crozet Islands orca population was killed off by an illegal fishing operation targeting Patagoni...

May 22, 2019 09:33 AM EDT

Civil War Plant Medicines Blast Drug-Resistant Bacteria in Lab Tests

During the height of the Civil War, the Confederate Surgeon General commissioned a guide to traditional plant remedies of the South, as battlefield physicians faced high rates of infections among the wounded and shortages of conventional medicines. A new study of three of the plants from this guide ...

May 20, 2019 11:05 AM EDT

Cement as a Climate Killer: Using Industrial Waste to Produce Carbon Neutral Alternatives

Producing cement takes a big toll on our climate: Around eight percent of annual global carbon dioxide emissions can be attributed to this process. However, the demand for cement continues to rise. A team of geoscientists from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) has found a way to produc...

May 18, 2019 03:56 PM EDT

Archaeological Discovery Upends a Piece of Barbados Bistory

Which came first, the pigs or the pioneers? In Barbados, that has been a historical mystery ever since the first English colonists arrived on the island in 1627 to encounter what they thought was a herd of wild European pigs.

May 17, 2019 11:44 AM EDT

Extreme Heat -- and Maybe a Virus -- Wiped out Cambodian Bats

A mass mortality event involving two bat species, the wrinkle-lipped free-tailed bat (Chaerephon plicatus) and Theobold's bat (Taphozous theobaldi) occurred during a heat wave in April 2016 in Cambodia.

May 17, 2019 11:42 AM EDT

Ocean Skeletons Reveal Historical Climate Impacts

A limiting factor in projecting where coral reefs will survive under 21st-century climate change is a lack of quantitative data on the thermal thresholds of different reef communities.

May 17, 2019 11:39 AM EDT

Museum Volunteers Discover New Species of Extinct Heron at North Florida Fossil Site

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- When the bones of an ancient heron were unearthed at a North Florida fossil site, the find wasn't made by researchers but by two Florida Museum of Natural History volunteers.

Apr 22, 2019 11:12 PM EDT

Plants and microbes shape global biomes through local underground alliances

Dense rainforests, maple-blanketed mountains and sweeping coniferous forests demonstrate the growth and proliferation of trees adapted to specific conditions

Apr 22, 2019 11:05 PM EDT

Balancing the ocean carbon budget

the Earth's largest carbon sink -- capture and store carbon? The answer to this question will become increasingly important as the planet warms and as we try to get ahead of a runaway climate scenario.