Earth

There’s now a microscopic plastic cycle that works like any other environmental cycle -- moving from oceans to sky to land and back again.
Katharine Gammon, Contributor
New research supports the idea that pulses of nutrients flushed from Devonian forests fueled ocean algae blooms that suffocated marine life.
Nikk Ogasa, Contributor
Researchers and Aboriginal people are working to protect 3.5-billion-year-old stromatolite fossils in western Australia.
Nala Rogers, Staff Writer
A unique, huge science building has a rainforest, a swamp, a grassland and even an ocean with a coral reef.
Inside Science Contributor
New discovery of ancient phosphorus-bearing minerals challenges assumptions about the way early life evolved.
Nikk Ogasa, Contributor
This month brought unusual weather to many spots around the world.
Abigail Malate, Staff Illustrator
Miniature aircraft, powered by light, might offer new ways to explore the atmosphere of Earth -- or other planets.
Katharine Gammon, Contributor
Ancient sediments reveal that shortly after emerging from the sea, microbial life may have adapted to survive in acidic lakes.
Nikk Ogasa, Contributor
Research suggests crystals form in cooling magma at an astonishingly rapid rate.
Katharine Gammon, Contributor
Astrophysicists can now piece together the moon's past, including the role of its fleeting magnetic field.
Ramin Skibba, Contributor
Surreal images from the Pacific Northwest
Abigail Malate, Staff Illustrator
New research on diamonds found deep in the Earth's crust suggests that the planet's carbon cycle reaches far underground.
Charles Q. Choi, Contributor