DNA molecules competed to solve a 100-bit computation in a salt water droplet

U.S. lands absorb 13% of greenhouse gas emissions, but EPA program measuring it is being shut down

The EPA's 2022 inventory reports 6,343.2 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalent in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, offset by a land sink absorbing roughly 13 percent of that total. The measurement program behind those numbers is now being dismantled.

By Natural History · Sep 21, 2026

Party balloons leak helium into space while Earth's supply dwindles in underground reserves

We're squandering an irreplaceable element on party decorations while hospitals depend on the same scarce resource to keep life-saving machines running.

By Science Blog Editorial Team · Sep 21, 2026

T. rex body temperature matches humans at 36.3°C, fossil teeth suggest

Clumped isotopes in three fossil teeth produced a 36.3°C estimate for T. rex, but the two-animal sample measures enamel formation, not a species-wide metabolic verdict.

By Natural History · Sep 21, 2026

African wild dogs trek 4,126 kilometres across Zambia in eight-month journey

Extreme wanderers crossed a continent, but scientists aren't sure what their journey reveals about African wild dog survival.

By Natural History · Sep 21, 2026

EPA completes eight-year cleanup of St. Louis River's contaminated sediment

Between the first EPA sediment cleanup on the Minnesota side of the St. Louis River in 2018 and the last in 2026 sits a river that was once nicknamed Stinktown. The bookend numbers, 37,000 cubic yards at Minnesota Slip and 225,000 cubic yards at Thomson Reservoir, mark the endpoints of an eight-project federal effort in one of the country's most complex watershed cleanups.

By The Long View · Sep 21, 2026

Offshore wind turbine blades now longer than a football pitch

As offshore wind turbines grow exponentially larger, a single machine can now power thousands of homes—and the industry's order books suggest the world is ready to bet big on them.

By The Long View · Sep 21, 2026

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Living World

Earth systems, climate, biology, animals, and the many ways life adapts.

Squirrels stage elaborate fake burials to fool rival thieves

By Daniel Moran

Antarctica's Blood Falls gets its eerie red color from oxidizing iron, not blood

By The Long View

Spiders sense Earth's electric field to launch their airborne journeys

By Natural History

Flying insect biomass collapsed 76 percent in 27 years across German reserves

By Science Blog Editorial Team

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Body & Mind

Health, medicine, brain science, and the research changing how we understand ourselves.

Body & Mind

Could hiccups be an ancient reflex from gill-breathing ancestors?

By Natural History

Body & Mind

Cancer drug from the 1960s became first approved AIDS treatment

By The Long View

Body & Mind

The physics of tidying: creating order always costs disorder somewhere else

By Nato Lagidze

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Matter & Machines

Physics, mathematics, materials, technology, engineering, and the tools of discovery.

Palm-sized drone navigates darkness with artificial whiskers using 34 kilobytes of RAM

By Lab Report

Most internet traffic travels through seafloor cables thinner than a garden hose

By Science Blog Editorial Team

Physicists watch quantum vibration vanish in a discrete jump

By Lab Report

Used EV batteries are planned to help an Illinois factory handle peak demand

By Lab Report

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The Long View

The discoveries, experiments, and turning points that put today's science in context.

Your ten-dollar smoke alarm contains a radioactive element from nuclear reactors

By Daniel Moran

Two French astronomers spent seven years surveying a line from Dunkirk to Barcelona during the French…

By Science Blog Editorial Team

Forgetful squirrels plant thousands of trees each year by accident

By Science Blog Editorial Team

Dog's discovery in Wyoming saved species presumed extinct from oblivion

By Science Blog Editorial Team

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Curious Science

Odd findings, everyday objects, natural surprises, and facts worth a closer look.

Beneath Antarctic ice, scientists find evidence of a sunlit ocean that once existed

By Lab Report

Baby colossal squid filmed alive for the first time in deep ocean

By Natural History

Britain resurfaced a motorway stretch with rubber from 750 scrapped tyres per kilometre

By Science Blog Editorial Team