Roughly 12,800 years ago, as Earth was emerging from its last great ice age, temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere suddenly plummeted back to near-glacial conditions. The cause of this abrupt shift—known as the Younger Dryas cool period—remains a mystery to this day, but new evidence may give credence to its most controversial explanation. Researchers analyzed […]
Intraterrestrials: The Most Alien Life We’ve Ever Seen Is Right Beneath Our Feet
While the possibility of life beyond Earth has long captivated the public, there are already tiny organisms on our own planet that are as alien to us as anything we’ve imagined. These microbes are found in places once thought inhospitable to life, such as inside volcanoes, underneath the Earth’s crust in the deep sea, or […]
New Technique Turns Ordinary Rocks Into Carbon-Capturing Machines
Of all the planet-warming greenhouse gases human activity releases into the atmosphere, carbon dioxide is the most significant emission. As such, experts have suggested that, in addition to drastically lowering our fossil fuel use, we should actively remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. What’s known as carbon capture technology, however, is usually expensive and/or […]