Environment

Protecting Oceans: Coral Adoption Through Bracelet Purchases Initiative

Marine conservation is helped by the coral adoption scheme linked to bracelet sales. Buying a band directly helps protect and restore reefs around the world. Adopting coral means support for these vital water ecosystems. The program sponsored by 4ocean shows care for the earth by ensuring that these reefs will be around for future generations. ...

Viena Abdon

The coral adoption program.

Why Does a Leap Year Have 366 Days?

You may be used to hearing that it takes the Earth 365 days to make a full lap, but that journey actually lasts about 365 and a quarter days. Leap years help keep the 12-month calendar matched with Earth’s movement around the Sun. After four years, those leftover hours add up to a whole day. ...

Troy Oakes

A leap year calendar.

Banksias Are Iconic Australian Plants, but Their Ancestors Came From North Africa

Few plants conjure up the Australian bush better than banksias, whose beautiful flowers are irresistible to honeyeater birds, small marsupials, and nature lovers. But our research, published in Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, shows that the ancestors of banksias actually migrated here from North Africa. We already knew from early fossil pollen studies ...

Troy Oakes

Banksia blooms.

The Doomsday Clock Is Still at 90 Seconds to Midnight. But What Does That Mean?

Once every year, a select group of nuclear, climate, and technology experts assemble to determine where to place the hands of the Doomsday Clock. Presented by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Doomsday Clock is a visual metaphor for humanity’s proximity to catastrophe. It measures our collective peril in minutes and seconds to midnight, ...

Troy Oakes

The Doomsday Clock.

The First Flowers Evolved Before Bees How: Did They Become so Dazzling?

Colorful flowers and the insects and birds that fly among their dazzling displays are a joy of nature. But how did early relationships between flower color and animal pollinators emerge? In a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society, we have unraveled this mystery by analyzing the visual environments in which the ancestors of ...

Troy Oakes

Colorful wildflowers in a meadow.

People Once Lived in a Vast Region in Northwestern Australia – and It Had an Inland Sea

For much of the 65,000 years of Australia’s human history, the now-submerged northwest continental shelf connected the Kimberley and western Arnhem Land. This vast, habitable realm covered nearly 390,000 square kilometers, an area one-and-a-half times larger than New Zealand is today. It was likely a single cultural zone, with similarities in ground stone-axe technology, styles ...

Troy Oakes

Two people on a large beach.

Northern Lights: Origins, Locations, and Future Widespread Spectacle

The Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis, present a mesmerizing display of lights, painting the sky with hues of pink and pale green. This natural phenomenon results from the collision of charged particles from the Sun with Earth’s atmosphere, creating unpredictable light forms like patches, arcs, and shooting beams. Witnessing the Northern Lights ...

Viena Abdon

Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern Lights, seen in Lofoten Islands, Norway.

Social Media Ads Are Littered With ‘Green’ Claims. How Are You Supposed to Know They’re True?

Online platforms are awash with ads for so-called “green” products. Power companies are “carbon neutral.” Electronics are “for the planet.” Clothing is “circular” and travel is “sustainable.” Or are they? Our study of more than 8,000 ads served more than 20,000 times in people’s Facebook feeds found many such claims are vague, meaningless, or unsubstantiated ...

Troy Oakes

'Eco-friendly' on a typewriter.