Fragments of Science

New research shows that humans have been transforming the earth and its ecosystems for millenniums — far longer than previously believed. These findings call into question our notions about what is unspoiled nature and what should be preserved.

Explorers have been searching on foot for Honduras's mythical city for generations. Now, they seem to have found it from a tiny Cessna airplane, aided by million-dollar technology.

RALEIGH — Fish in one of North Carolina’s largest watersheds are more polluted by an industrial contaminant than previously reported and state health officials have failed to expand warnings against eating PBC-contaminated fish.

Scientists have struck gold in the laboratory. They have discovered an inexpensive and environmentally benign method that uses simple cornstarch -- instead of cyanide -- to isolate gold from raw materials in a selective manner.

Environments containing species that are distantly related to one another are more productive than those containing closely related species, according to new research.

Graphene is so thin that it's barely visible. But it has the power to reshape the world: paper-thin touchscreens, a cure for blindness, and a solution to water scarcity might all be based on a thin layer of carbon atoms.

A group of scientists aboard the only submarine capable of diving to depths of 6,500 meters (21,311 feet) discovered an "oasis" of biodiversity

The cooling effect of clouds is overestimated in current climate change models, suggests new research.

A UK-Canadian team of scientists has discovered ancient pockets of water, which have been isolated deep underground for billions of years and contain abundant chemicals known to support life.

The environmental legacy of recovering gold from electronic waste can be dramatically cut using corn starch instead of cyanide

Scientists say 1.5-billion-year-old water drilled from rock in a North American mine is the most ancient yet found on Earth.

Neuroscientist Henry Markram says he can build a supercomputer replica of the human brain. Now he has $1.3 billion to prove it.

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made a big splash, stating that global sea levels may rise between 18 centimeters and 59 centimeters by 2100.

But those numbers were fraught with uncertainties—the most looming of which was the potential contribution to sea-level rise from melting of the giant ice sheets now blanketing Greenland and Antarctica.

So the European Union's science funding program, Framework 7, created a research consortium, dubbed ice2sea, to study ice loss processes on continents (such as what hastens calving, pictured above in Greenland) as a way to estimate how much continental ice will add to future sea-level rise.

A study of the Hawaiian petrel, a seabird that spends the majority of its life foraging for food across the open ocean, has revealed that over time the bird has been eating lower down into the food chain, rather than higher, a surprising find that researchers are correlating with the growth of industrialized fishing.

An analysis of both modern and ancient petrel bones enabled the researchers to determine that the menu for the seafaring bird has drastically changed and prompted concern that other species are facing the same situation.

After several days of lost dives due to bad weather and making dives under difficult conditions, we are today in calm seas exploring an area that was discovered last year during a NOAA mapping cruise.  While conducting a seafloor survey, NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer found bubbles coming from the seafloor at a site south and offshore of Norfolk Canyon; they thought these bubbles may indicate a new methane seep site, but they had no way of verifying this idea. 

It's not too late to save coral reefs as long as local action to reduce pollution and fishing pressures is combined with global action on climate change, according to a new model.

William Gibson's popular science fiction tale "Johnny Mnemonic" foresaw sensitive information being carried by microchips in the brain by 2021. A team of American neuroscientists could be making this fantasy world a reality.

Bacteria are not the only organisms that feed on dead plankton and fish faeces. The so-called ‘archaea’ also play an important – and hitherto overlooked – role in carbon cycling in the seabed.