For many, the first thing that comes to mind when they think of oil spills is an image of great big oil sheens in the middle of the ocean, tarballs washing up on beaches, and photos of oiled wildlife on the internet.

Volcanic eruptions are one of the most important natural causes of climate change, playing a leading role over the past millennium. Injections of sulfate aerosols into the lower stratosphere will reduce the incoming solar radiation, which in turn cooling the surface. As a natural external forcing to the Earth’s climate system, the impact of volcanic aerosol on the climate has been of great concern to the scientific society and the public.

A new study appearing online today from The American Journal of Psychiatry finds that elevated pesticide levels in pregnant women are associated with an increased risk of autism among their children.

Researchers have found declines in the number and diversity of bird populations at nine sites surveyed in northern New Mexico, where eight species vanished over time while others had considerably dropped.

Watermelon rind, usually discarded as waste, has been shown by researchers in Pakistan to be capable of cheaply and efficiently removing arsenic from groundwater.

New research from Indiana University suggests that computer models used to predict the spread of epidemics from climate change -- such as crop blights or disease outbreaks -- may not take into account an important factor in predicting their severity.

Can a new type of transparent gel, made from readily-available beer waste, help engineers build greenhouses on Mars?

In dark alleys of the Pacific and Indian oceans, new research shows some of the deadliest, armored fishes on the planet are packing switchblades in their faces.

“Everyone who has gone fishing has wondered why fish jump,” says John Reynolds, SFU professor of marine ecology.

For most of us, microbes mean only one thing: disease. Disease-causing microbes are actually the extreme minority of the most abundant form of life on Earth.