Earth Science

Steven Amstrup has studied polar bears in the arctic for decades and seen the impacts of climate change firsthand.

Interview With Indianapolis Prize Winner and Polar Bear Researcher Steven Amstrup

Recognized for his role in animal conservation, Amstrup explains what climate change is doing to the arctic and what he's doing to stop it

Computer models indicate that wildfires will become more frequent in temperate regions as the climate changes over the coming decades

Climate Change Means More Wildfires in the West

A new study indicates that temperate regions will experience more fires, while equatorial areas will see fewer

The cover to Brian Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports

Music for Airports Soothes the Savage Passenger

Brian Eno's Music for Airports is a sound environment created specifically to complement the experience of waiting in an airport terminal

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Today Is Your Last Chance This Lifetime to See Venus Pass in Front of the Sun

Venus' next transit of the sun isn't until 2117—so read about what to watch for and make sure to look to the skies

Alfred Wegener, in Greenland, c. 1930, was ridiculed as having “wandering pole plague.”

When Continental Drift Was Considered Pseudoscience

More than 100 years ago, a German scientist was ridiculed for advancing the shocking idea that the continents were adrift

The 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption, one of the largest in recent history, is dwarfed by the scale of supervolcano eruptions

Can Supervolcanoes Erupt More Suddenly Than We Think?

Enormous magma reserves may sit quietly for just thousands or even hundreds of years

Drylands design students walking a ditch in the Embudo Valley

Designing Democracy Around a Ditch

How a ditch irrigation system in the arid Southwest became the backbone of local democracy

A stepwell in India

Rebuilding Rainwater Collection in India

From one conservationist's perspective, harvesting rainwater doesn't mean high-tech strategies—traditional techniques have been around for centuries

A public drinking fountain in Rome

Making Water Use Visible

Could the design of a Brita filter help us with controlling how much water we waste?

The supermoon of March 2011, rising behind the Lincoln Memorial In Washington, DC

The Biggest Supermoon in Years is Coming Saturday Night

The moon's closest approach to earth will coincide with a perfectly full moon

Image from an animated graphic showing satellite readings of groundwater fluctuations around the world.

Groundwater, Gravity and Graphic Design

An important piece of science recently popped up in Times Square, in the form of a 19,000-square-foot interactive map by a Dutch information designer

An Aguilla Bank skink, one of the 24 new species discovered

24 New Lizard Species Discovered, Half Close to Extinction

The discoverer of the world's (then) smallest frog, snake and lizard does it again with new species of Caribbean skinks

The rare all-white orca whale was spotted swimming with its pod.

Rare Sighting of All-White Orca Whale

Earlier this week, photos were released of an extremely rare killer whale off the eastern coast of Russia

A future vision of Fresno, California, as proposed by architect Darin Johnstone and environmental consultant Mark Merkelbach

Futureproofing California Farmland

Design teams propose new models for farming and suburban development in California's water-scarce Central Valley

Hydrologic Commonwealths for the American West, proposed by John Wesley Powell, 1879

Design for a Water-Scarce Future

Design strategies for arid regions go back centuries, but in the face of climate change, drylands design is a whole new ballgame

Some scientists have suggested the weight of water in the lake created by the Zipingpu Dam in China triggered the 2008 Sichuan earthquake

UPDATED: How Humans Cause Earthquakes

Fracking is just the latest cause to make the news for its link to quakes

Nike's new Flyknit running shoe

The High-Tech Minimalist Sock-Shoe

Nike's latest innovation promises to improve runners' comfort, help the environment, and revolutionize shoe manufacturing

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pitches the power of frictionless sharing.

A Little Less Friction, Please

The big buzzword in digital technology now is "frictionless," meaning the less we humans have to deal with, the better

The Shape of Fruits to Come

How our need for convenience is redesigning our food supply

Could we ever have just one time zone?

One Time Zone for the World?

An astrophysicist and an economist want to fix our clocks and our calendars

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