Planet Earth
How years of fighting every wildfire helped fuel the Western megafires of today
The current approach to fire management poses unnecessarily high stakes for forests. Here's why fighting every fire does more harm than good.
Record-breaking amount of Earth’s mantle drilled out of ocean floor
Scientists aboard the JOIDES Resolution have retrieved “a staggering” amount of mantle rock from below the ocean floor.
Understanding just how big solar flares can get
Recasting the iconic Carrington Event as just one of many superstorms in Earth’s past, scientists reveal the potential for even more massive eruptions.
Supercomputers revealed giant “pillars of heat” funnelling diamonds upwards from deep within Earth
Understanding Earth’s internal history can be used to target mineral reserves – not only diamonds, but also crucial minerals.
In the turbulent Drake Passage, scientists find a rare window where carbon sinks quickly into the deep ocean
The Drake Passage is one of the most turbulent ocean regions on Earth, but exploring it could help scientists understand how carbon sinks.
Why Earth is the only planet with plate tectonics
Here in our Solar System, of all the known planets, only Earth — not Mercury, not Venus, and not Mars — possesses plate tectonics.
Venus may have currently active volcanoes
Old images from NASA’s Magellan mission may have revealed that Venus, a close analogue to Earth, has volcanic activity.
Terraforming: why the Moon is a better target than Mars
While most of humanity's terraforming dreams have focused on Mars, a better candidate may be even closer: the Moon.
5 things you didn’t know GPS could do
You’d be surprised at all the things that GPS — the global positioning system that underlies all of modern navigation — can do.
Rewilding: letting nature do its own thing
Rewilding organisations in Europe are reintroducing lost species including the Eurasian lynx and Marsican brown bear.