As COVID-19 swept across the world this year, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives, it quickly became clear that one essential factor for controlling its spread is the ability to rapidly and accurately test for the virus causing it.

To meet the global demand for COVID-19 spike protein needed for antibody test kits, University of Victoria plant biologist Peter Constabel has turned to an unexpected source: a relative of the tobacco plant.

A new U.S. Geological Survey coastal change forecast predicts a decrease in impacts due to Hurricane Sally. However, some sandy beaches in Mississippi may still be heavily damaged by Hurricane Sally.

The fast-warming Arctic has started to transition from a predominantly frozen state into an entirely different climate, according to a comprehensive new study of Arctic conditions.

NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), aboard the Aqua satellite, captured carbon monoxide plumes coming from California wildfires last week. 

Honey bees heavy with pollen and nectar foraged from wildflowers on Utah’s Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest collide with tall grass and tumble to the ground. 

Scientists have long believed that ocean viruses always quickly kill algae, but Rutgers-led research shows they live in harmony with algae and viruses provide a “coup de grace” only when blooms of algae are already stressed and dying.

The devastating effects of human activity on wildlife in the American tropics over the last 500 years are revealed in a new study published today.

Repeated pooling and evaporation of water built this expansive salt pan in northern Namibia.

Almost all of the 46 centimeters (18 inches) of rain that falls in Etosha National Park each year arrives between October and March. The influx of moisture—a boon for the wildlife—completely transforms the landscape. It greens parched grasslands, replenishes ephemeral streams and watering holes, and sometimes pools enough to cover a flat basin with a layer of water that extends for thousands of square kilometers.

When the rains slow and then cease during the dry season (April through September), any water in the basin slowly evaporates, depositing salt and other minerals on the land surface in the process. Over time, this cycle of flooding and evaporation has built up a mineral-encrusted surface called a salt pan. In fact, the striking white surface of the salt pan is what originally earned Etosha Pan its name. In the language of the local Ovambo people, etosha means "great white place."

Continue reading at NASA Earth Observatory

Image via NASA Earth Observatory

Satellite data is helping scientists size up one of the most intense outbreaks of fire and smoke that Oregon and California have seen in decades.