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Environmental

A collection of 1043 articles

An evolutionary rescue in polluted waters: How genetics, resources and a long-distant relative helped one lucky fish species adapt to extreme pollution

The exceptional survivor story of the Gulf killifish was one scientists at the University of California, Davis, Baylor University and their co-authoring colleagues wanted to unveil so they could learn more about what other species may need to adapt to drastically changed environments. The minnow-like Gulf killifish are an important

Running may have made dinosaurs' wings flap before they evolved to fly: New evidence suggests that passive wing flapping may have arisen earlier than gliding flight

The findings, published in PLOS Computational Biology, provide new insights into the origin of avian flight, which has been a point of debate since the 1861 discovery of Archaeopteryx.

New 3-foot-tall relative of Tyrannosaurus rex

The newly named tyrannosauroid dinosaur -- Suskityrannus hazelae -- stood roughly 3 feet tall at the hip and was about 9 feet in length, the entire animal only marginally longer than the just the skull of a fully grown Tyrannosaurus rex, according to Sterling Nesbitt, an assistant professor with Department

Experimental device generates electricity from the coldness of the universe

An international team of scientists has demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to generate a measurable amount of electricity in a diode directly from the coldness of the universe..

Water found in samples from asteroid Itokawa: Up to half of Earth's ocean water may have come from impacts by asteroids

The team's findings suggest that impacts early in Earth's history by similar asteroids could have delivered as much as half of our planet's ocean water.

Harnessing sunlight to pull hydrogen from wastewater

In a paper published Feb.

Fracking: Earthquakes are triggered well beyond fluid injection zones: Computer model and field experiment data suggest a new link between subsurface injections and earthquake swarms

The results account for the observation that the frequency of human-made earthquakes in some regions of the country surpass natural earthquake hotspots..

Arsenic-breathing life discovered in the tropical Pacific Ocean

"Thinking of arsenic as not just a bad guy, but also as beneficial, has reshaped the way that I view the element," said first author Jaclyn Saunders, who did the research for her doctoral thesis at the UW and is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Features that make lizards appealing to potential mates are resilient to stress

"Animals in the wild experience stress every day when they flee from predators, fight with others over food, or face extreme weather," said Kirsty MacLeod, a postdoctoral scholar at Penn State at the time of the research and lead author of the paper. "But they are facing increasing amounts of

Climate change to blame for Hurricane Maria's extreme rainfall

A new study analyzing Puerto Rico's hurricane history finds 2017's Maria had the highest average rainfall of the 129 storms to have struck the island in the past 60 years.

Megalith tombs were family graves in European Stone Age

Agriculture spread with migrants from the Fertile Crescent into Europe around 9,000 BCE, reaching northwestern Europe by 4,000 BCE.

Why lightning often strikes twice: New study reveals needle-like structures in positively charged lightning leaders

Needles "This finding is in sharp contrast to the present picture, in which the charge flows along plasma channels directly from one part of the cloud to another, or to the ground," explains Olaf Scholten, Professor of Physics at the KVI-CART institute of the University of Groningen. The reason why

Coelacanth reveals new insights into skull evolution

The coelacanth Latimeria is a marine fish closely related to tetrapods, four-limbed vertebrates including amphibians, mammals and reptiles.

Plants and microbes shape global biomes through local underground alliances

Princeton University researchers report that the organization of forests worldwide -- such as conifers in northern boreal forests or the broad-leafed trees of the tropics -- are based on the ancient relationships that plant species forged with soil-dwelling microbes such as fungi and bacteria. These tiny organisms, known as symbionts,

Best in snow: New scientific device creates electricity from snowfall: The first-of-its-kind nanogenerator also acts as a weather station

"The device can work in remote areas because it provides its own power and does not need batteries," said senior author Richard Kaner, who holds UCLA's Dr.