Top Stories

When residents take charge of their rainforests, fewer trees die

When the government gives citizens a personal stake in forested land, trees don’t disappear as quickly and environmental harm slows down.

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Bio-inspired approach to RNA delivery

By delivering strands of genetic material known as messenger RNA (mRNA) into cells, researchers can induce the cells to produce any protein encoded by the mRNA. This technique holds great potential for administering vaccines or treating diseases such as cancer, but achieving efficient delivery of mRNA has proven challenging.

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Protected Waters Foster Resurgence of West Coast Rockfish

West Coast rockfish species in deep collapse only 20 years ago have multiplied rapidly in large marine protected areas off Southern California, likely seeding surrounding waters with enough offspring to offer promise of renewed fishing, a new study has found.

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New Study Pushes Back Deadline to Act to Limit Warming to 1.5 Degrees

A new study suggests that nations have a bit more time than previously thought if they want to cut greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). The research, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, finds that the world’s economies can emit an additional 700 billion tons of carbon dioxide before exceeding 1.5 degrees — more than twice previous estimates.

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Fly away home? Ice age may have clipped bird migration

The onset of the last ice age may have forced some bird species to abandon their northerly migrations for thousands of years, says new research led by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln ornithologist.

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Could Condors Return to Northern California?

A study of lead exposure indicates condors could one day return to Northern California.

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NASA Finds Very Heavy Rainfall in Hurricane Maria

NASA looked into Hurricane Maria and found that powerful convective storms within the hurricane were dropping heavy rainfall. Maria brought that heavy rainfall to Puerto Rico and made landfall on Sept. 20 at 6:15 a.m. EDT.

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Wave Glider surfs across stormy Drake Passage in Antarctica

The Southern Ocean is key to Earth’s climate, but the same gusting winds, big waves and strong currents that are important to ocean physics make it perilous for oceanographers.

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WSU researchers see popular herbicide affecting health across generations

First, the good news. Washington State University researchers have found that a rat exposed to a popular herbicide while in the womb developed no diseases and showed no apparent health effects aside from lower weight.

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Mathematics predicts a sixth mass extinction

In the past 540 million years, the Earth has endured five mass extinction events, each involving processes that upended the normal cycling of carbon through the atmosphere and oceans. These globally fatal perturbations in carbon each unfolded over thousands to millions of years, and are coincident with the widespread extermination of marine species around the world. 

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