Odd Creatures: Earth & Climate
September 24, 2026
Top Headlines
Sep. 23, 2026 Some tropical trees have evolved a clever way to survive drought by taking in carbon dioxide at night, allowing them to keep their pores closed during the hot daytime and conserve water. By comparing three Clusia species, researchers discovered that ...
Sep. 22, 2026 An amateur astronomer searching satellite maps for a Quebec camping spot accidentally discovered a massive ancient impact crater. Scientists later found shatter cones that confirmed the ...
Sep. 15, 2026 The Hunga Tonga eruption may have triggered a surprising chemical reaction that destroyed some of the methane released into the atmosphere. Scientists say the discovery could reshape estimates of methane pollution and inspire new methods for slowing ...
Sep. 4, 2026 A giant iceberg measuring more than 76 square kilometers broke from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier in August 2026, marking the Arctic’s largest glacier calving event since 2020. The berg later slammed into Joe Island but survived without breaking ...
Aug. 28, 2026 More than 1,000 volunteers buried cotton underwear across Switzerland to help scientists measure how active different soils are. The faster the fabric disappeared, the more biological activity was taking place underground. Gardens showed the fastest ...
Aug. 20, 2026 A colossal cliff system created as the supercontinent Rodinia broke apart may have exposed the heart of the Grand Canyon nearly a billion years before the Colorado River carved it. The ancient landscape could also help explain why enormous sections ...
Aug. 4, 2026 Animal bones preserved in South Australia’s underwater caves reveal distinctive clues shaped by darkness, algae, bacteria, and other environmental conditions. The findings give scientists a powerful new way to reconstruct how ancient megafauna ...
July 26, 2026 Giant sequoias are built to withstand ordinary fires, but recent extreme wildfires killed thousands of trees that had survived for centuries or even millennia. A new analysis of about 26,400 sequoias found that trees in areas treated with prescribed ...
July 12, 2026 Scientists discovered that extreme deep-sea pressure squeezes valuable nutrients out of sinking organic particles, providing an unexpected food source for ocean microbes. The finding could rewrite our understanding of both deep-ocean ecosystems and ...
July 11, 2026 Two striking Asian praying mantis species that have rapidly spread across Europe have now been officially classified as invasive, raising new concerns about their impact on native wildlife. Boosted by climate change and urban environments, these ...
June 28, 2026 Hawaii researchers are giving old fishing nets and recycled plastic a second life by mixing them into asphalt roads. Early tests found these roads didn't release more plastic particles than standard pavement, with tire wear overwhelming any plastic ...
June 26, 2026 A new study reveals that goldfish can do far more than survive in the wild—they can fundamentally reshape freshwater ecosystems. Researchers found they cloud water, damage food webs, and hurt native fish populations, sometimes triggering major ...
Latest Headlines
updated 12:06am EDT
Sep. 16, 2026 A new study suggests Earth formed almost entirely from material in the inner Solar System, challenging the idea that water-rich material from beyond ...
Aug. 8, 2026 A rare meteorite that crashed through a New Jersey roof contains evidence of ancient salty fluids, organic compounds, and amino acids from a ...
June 6, 2026 Scientists warn that free-living amoebae may be an underappreciated public health threat, capable of causing deadly infections and shielding other dangerous microbes from water treatment. Climate ...
June 5, 2026 Researchers have shown that controlled fire whirls can clean up oil spills faster and more cleanly than traditional burning methods. The spinning flames consumed up to 95% of the oil, cut soot ...
May 31, 2026 A surprising new discovery suggests that tiny microbes living inside fish may be helping shape the chemistry of the world’s oceans. Scientists found evidence that bacteria in the guts of marine ...
May 28, 2026 Scientists have solved the mystery of the Seychelles’ vanished crocodiles using DNA from historic museum specimens. The reptiles were not a unique species after all, but an isolated population of ...
May 28, 2026 A casual walk through an Ithaca cemetery led to the discovery of a gigantic hidden bee population — roughly 5.5 million ground-nesting bees packed beneath the soil. Scientists believe it may be one ...
May 20, 2026 Scientists in Australia are using cutting-edge DNA techniques to help save one of the world’s rarest marsupials — the critically endangered Gilbert’s potoroo, with fewer than 150 left in the ...
May 14, 2026 Researchers in Japan traced a hidden medieval solar storm using ancient tree rings and centuries-old sky observations. The team linked reports of ...
May 11, 2026 The Toba supereruption 74,000 years ago was so massive it may have plunged Earth into years of darkness and cold, leading some scientists to believe ...
Earlier Headlines
May 10, 2026 A colossal underwater volcano in the South Pacific may have revealed a surprising new weapon against climate change. After the 2022 eruption of Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai, scientists detected ...
Apr. 25, 2026 Beneath East Africa’s Turkana Rift, scientists have found the crust is thinning to a critical point, suggesting the continent is gradually breaking apart. This “necking” process marks an ...
May 3, 2026 Long before humans spread across the globe, a deadly disease may have quietly shaped where our ancestors lived—and even how we evolved. New research reveals that malaria didn’t just threaten ...
Apr. 27, 2026 A mysterious “golden orb” found more than two miles deep in the Gulf of Alaska left scientists baffled for over two years, sparking wild speculation about its origins. After an intensive ...
Apr. 28, 2026 A new study suggests Neanderthals didn’t go extinct simply because of climate change or competition with Homo sapiens. Instead, the key difference may have been social connectivity—Homo sapiens ...
Apr. 20, 2026 Scientists have discovered that moringa seeds can help pull microplastics out of water, rivaling standard chemical treatments. The plant-based extract causes plastic particles to clump together, ...
May 1, 2026 Scientists have uncovered a tiny wall-dwelling spider named Pikelinia floydmuraria, inspired by Pink Floyd. Despite its size, it’s a fierce predator that hunts ants much larger than itself and ...
Apr. 3, 2026 Asteroid impacts may have helped kick-start life on Earth by creating hot, chemical-rich environments ideal for early biology. These impact-generated hydrothermal systems could have lasted thousands ...
Apr. 6, 2026 A remarkable fossil discovery in southwest China is rewriting the story of how complex animal life began, showing that many key animal groups appeared millions of years earlier than scientists once ...
Apr. 23, 2026 Scientists have mapped how Earth’s deepest mantle is being deformed—and the results point to long-lost tectonic plates buried thousands of kilometers underground. Using a massive global dataset ...
Mar. 21, 2026 A hidden freshwater system deep beneath the Great Salt Lake has been revealed using airborne electromagnetic surveys. Scientists found that freshwater extends much farther under the lake than ...
Apr. 25, 2026 As Alaska’s rivers warm, invasive northern pike are becoming noticeably more voracious. Scientists discovered that pike of all ages are eating more fish, with young pike increasing consumption by ...
Apr. 24, 2026 Ancient Antarctic ice is revealing a surprising new chapter in Earth’s climate story, stretching back 3 million years. By analyzing tiny pockets of trapped air and rare gases, scientists have ...
May 8, 2026 Beneath the beauty of coral reefs lies a hidden universe of microbes unlike anything scientists expected. Each coral species supports its own specialized microbial partners, many of which have never ...
Apr. 17, 2026 Long before rising seas swallowed Doggerland beneath the North Sea, this lost landscape may have been a surprisingly lush and life-friendly haven. New DNA evidence reveals that forests of oak, elm, ...
Feb. 25, 2026 A lost cache of 250-million-year-old fossils from Australia has rewritten part of the story of life after Earth’s worst mass extinction. Instead of a single marine amphibian species, researchers ...
Apr. 17, 2026 A hidden threat is emerging in the world’s glaciers: while most are shrinking, a rare group known as “surging glaciers” can suddenly accelerate, unleashing powerful and sometimes destructive ...
Feb. 24, 2026 Scientists have proposed a surprising connection between solar flares and earthquakes. When solar activity disturbs the ionosphere, it may generate electric fields that penetrate fragile fracture ...
Apr. 29, 2026 New experiments suggest that freezing and thawing on early Earth may have helped primitive cell-like structures grow and evolve. Tiny lipid bubbles behaved very differently depending on their ...
Apr. 25, 2026 For ages, wall lizards coexisted in three distinct color types, each with its own strategy for survival. Now, a powerful green variant is taking over. These dominant “Hulk” lizards are ...