Earth
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Conversation
A new way to analyse old things
Researchers unveil updated method of carbon dating.
By Chris Turney, Alan Hogg, Paula J Reimer and Tim Heaton Geological and archaeological records offer important in...
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Tropical soils linked to carbon emissions
They’re more sensitive to warming than we thought.
Scientists continue to unravel the feedback loops caused by global warming, a major one being the soil’s release of c...
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Limited climate impact from fighting COVID-19
Study sees potential in behaviour change, however.
COVID-19 has caused people to greatly cut back on travel, thereby reducing the amount of carbon dioxide and other pla...
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Conversation
Tracking the birth of a supercontinent
Scientists find some old and intriguing clues.
By Huaiyu Yuan, Macquarie University Far beneath the city of Dongshen in northern China, we have discovered what m...
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Herbivores at highest risk of extinction
We assumed it was predators, but analysis suggests otherwise.
A comprehensive analysis covering thousands of species of land and water animals has revealed that herbivores, not pr...
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Habitat destruction could fuel disease risk
Animals that remain often can infect humans, study finds.
Scientists have been sounding progressively louder alarms about the repercussions of human expansion across the plane...
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Why biocrust is useful in the desert
Study highlights the value of tiny plants and organisms.
Miniscule plants and microscopic organisms growing on desert soils reduce water erosion by an average of 68% worldwid...
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NZ glacier melt linked to climate change
Extreme event attribution used to calculate human influence.
It is “very likely” that the increased melting of 10 glaciers in New Zealand’s South Island is caused by human greenh...
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The increasing cost of coastal flooding
Scientists predict it could be up to 20% of global GDP.
Infrastructure damage from coastal flooding will cost the world US$14.2 trillion over the next eight decades and affe...
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Focus
Cosmos Q&A: Cooling the upper atmosphere
Exploring the other side of greenhouse gases.
The same greenhouse gases that are warming Earth’s surface are cooling the upper atmosphere (the mesosphere) 90 kilom...
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Conversation
What will geologists make of COVID-19?
Academics ponder the view from the future.
By Rachael Holmes, Alice Fugagnoli and Jan Zalasiewicz, University of Leicester, UK COVID-19 is a major global sho...
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Microbes from millions of years ago
They’ve been hiding beneath the South Pacific Gyre.
Scientists studying sediments from the Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand have found bacteria that appear to have surv...