Environment

A researcher holds a platypus for a Melbourne Water study conducted in 2017.

Australia's Droughts and Fires Present New Dangers to the Platypus

Threats to the semi-aquatic, egg-laying mammals demand action, experts say

A Jamaican fruit bat (Artibeus jamaicensis), one of the species that contributed to the guano researchers used to study the climates of the past.

Ancient Bat Guano Reveals Thousands of Years of Human Impact on the Environment

Like sediment cores, ice samples and tree rings, bat excrement can be used to study the climate of the past

Photosynthetic bacteria in the concrete make it bright green until it dries and turns brown.

Scientists Design Bacteria-Based Living Concrete

Its designers hope that it could help with construction in deserts or even on Mars

A "living machine" containing frog stem cells in a new configuration designed by a computer algorithm. Parts shown in green are made up of frog skin cells, while parts in red are frog heart cells.

Scientists Assemble Frog Stem Cells Into First 'Living Machines'

The so-called 'xenobots' could replace traditional metal or plastic robots without polluting the planet, but they raise ethical questions

(Clockwise from left) Michela Puddu, Elias Sime, Richard Yim and Miranda Wang

Eight Innovators to Watch in 2020

From plastic recycling pioneers to landmine foes, these dreamers have big plans for the coming year

Minoan single-use cup alongside a paper cup from Air India

For Easy Clean-Up After Parties, Minoans Used Disposable Cups

A 3,500-year-old single-use vessel is part of a new display at the British Museum that explores our long-standing relationship with trash

Dead mussels along the Clinch River.

Scientists Don't Know Why Freshwater Mussels Are Dying Across North America

Mussel species are dying en mass in rivers across the Pacific Northwest, Midwest and South—likely from unidentified pathogens

Ecologists fear that repaving the highway known as BR-319 will open new sections of the Amazon to catastrophic deforestation.

Is the Amazon on a Road to Ruin?

Brazil’s plan to develop a lonesome track in the heart of the rainforest poses a threat the whole world may someday have to overcome

An image from Birds of America by John James Audubon depicting the Great Auk.

Humans May Be Solely to Blame for the Great Auk’s Extinction

A new study suggests that the flightless birds were not declining due to environmental changes when humans began to hunt them in large numbers

Yellowstone Bison Engineer an Endless Spring to Suit Their Grazing Needs

The cycle of grazing and fertilizing prolongs spring-like vegetation in grasslands and makes green-up more intense in following years

City noise can throw off a bat's ability to use echolocation.

Noise Pollution Impacts a Wide Range of Species, Study Finds

From tiny insects to large marine mammals, animals are affected by noise in ways that might threaten their survival

Paired Images of Melting Glaciers and Flooding Wetlands Tell the Story of Global Climate Change

Photographer Tina Freeman's exhibition ‘Lamentations’ at the New Orleans Museum of Art juxtaposes two different environments

A humpback whale basks in sunlight at the ocean's surface in Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Dominican Republic.

South Atlantic Humpback Whales Have Rebounded From the Brink of Extinction

A new study estimates that the group’s population has grown from 440 individuals in 1958 to nearly 25,000 today

Pack rats near their nest, or midden, in the City of Rocks National Reserve in Idaho.

From Ancient Seeds to Scraps of Clothing, Rats' Nests Are Full of Treasures

Material gathered and preserved in a pack rat's midden helps researchers open new windows on the past

Hoh Xil, on the Tibetan Plateau, sits in what will soon be Sanjiangyuan, China's first national park, according to Getty.

China Is Developing a New National Parks System, Inspired by Yellowstone and Yosemite

The first one to open will encompass a high-altitude, remote region of the Tibetan Plateau

Lucy Hughes holds a piece of MarinaTex.

This Bioplastic Made From Fish Scales Just Won the James Dyson Award

British product designer Lucy Hughes has invented a biodegradable plastic made from fish offcuts

Illegally caught belugas in a pool in Srednyaya Bay near the city of Nakhodka in Russia's Far East.

Russia Frees Last Belugas From Notorious ‘Whale Jail’

Dozens of orcas and belugas had been kept in small sea pens, reportedly awaiting sale to China

Goats cleared a fire break around the library just in time to hold the blaze back so firefighters could finish the job.

Hungry Goats Helped Save the Reagan Library From a California Wildfire

Some heroes wear capes, others like to eat flammable weeds

Photo shows seized pangolin scales and elephant ivory in Singapore this July

New Report Finds at Least One in Five Terrestrial Vertebrate Species Are Traded Globally

The research team also predicts increased trade going forward

California’s Saltiest Lake Is Home to This Arsenic-Resistant, Three-Sexed Worm

Prior to their discovery, only two species could survive in the super-salty, highly alkaline lake in the Sierra Nevada mountains

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