Earth Science

Articles about geology, palaeontology, archaeology, climate and climate change, and the weather...

27 January 2011

As more carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, the world's oceans become more acidic, affecting the...

14 December 2010

Plants and animals seem worlds apart, but in some important ways, we are more like plants than we realise...

07 December 2010

Is earthquake prediction for California truly a problem beyond the powers of science, or is there something that...

16 October 2010

First came fire. Cavemen rubbed sticks together and there it was, a source of ‘artificial’ heat and light, giving us...

15 August 2009

Swine flu, SARS, Bird Flu, HIV, Dengue, Hepatitis C, Ebola - the human race is awash with new infections - but where...

04 April 2009

What can microfossils tell us about past climate? Christopher Stanton resumes his story...

16 June 2008

The buzz of a bumblebee is one of the quintessential sounds of summer time. But this ‘slender sound’ and ‘faint...

24 May 2008

Recent Mars missions have produced compelling evidence for what was once a wet world, where life could well have...

18 May 2008

The European Parliament voted recently to include CO2 emissions from the aviation industry in its carbon trading scheme...

19 January 2008

What's the evidence that the world's becoming a warmer place, or are claims of climate change quite literally...

22 December 2007

Snowflakes form when water vapour condenses directly into ice crystals, and for many years writers have used their...

06 December 2007

Equivalent in land area to 14 Isle of Mans, or Rhode Island State twice over, the Louisiana Wetlands are one of the...

01 December 2007

International Polar Years commenced in 1882-3, as the inspiration of Austrian explorer and naval officer Lieutenant...

27 November 2007

The Pythia, the prophetess at the Oracle of Delphi, was said to be able to communicate with Apollo by going into a...

03 August 2007

Climate change has been blamed with altering the environment – from animal migrations to sea level. Now it's also...

03 June 2007

Contrary to what Hollywood would have you believe, although it’s almost impossible to escape from quicksand, it's...

03 June 2007

What is a thunderstorm, how is lightning generated by clouds, how much energy is there in a lightning bolt, and could...

13 April 2007

By now we’re familiar with apocalyptic visions of a scorched and flooded world ravished by global warming. But this...

21 March 2007

As the world focuses on carbon dioxide, are more dangerous agents of global warming creeping up unnoticed? Lucy...

10 May 2006

The world has heard much about the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 and the vast loss of life associated with this, but what...

29 March 2006

When more news comes in of rising greenhouse emissions in Europe or more political backsliding over the Kyoto Protocol...

19 October 2005

Underwater photographer Klaus Jost photographs the great white shark using a neoprene seal as bait in 'shark alley...

12 October 2005

The marine ecosystem in Alask has undergone a dramatic ecosystem shift: over just 20 years, previously-abundant shrimp...