All Science Articles

Zero carbon flights are the ultimate goal for an airline industry that relies heavily on fossil fuels. Aviation pumps out at least 2.5 percent of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions today. Sustainable aviation fuels will shrink the industry’s climate risk by 2030, but zero-emissions fuels like hydrogen are beginning to emerge.

From making history on Mars to supersonic aircraft, NASA continues to astound us with science from this past year.

Whatever your tastes are it is highly unlikely that many of you are using 3D printers to create your favorite meals. Still, anyone interested in the future of food can find technologists printing out snacks, from steaks to cakes, at the push of a button. Now laser cooking has arrived and it is adding an entirely new layer of gourmet taste.

Invisible to the naked eye and made from one of Earth’s most abundant elements, carbon, the wonder-material nanodiamond is an impressive creation. These tiny particles of diamond measure billionths of a meter in size, but their impact on future science is likely to be colossal.

About 3,600 years ago, Tall el-Hammam was a bustling city-state in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea. It thrived for 1,500 years — until a devastating event destroyed the city and contaminated the surrounding farmland with salt. What had once been an extremely fertile area became completely barren overnight. Humans left the region for at least 500 years afterward, and researchers have struggled to explain what happened.

Planting new trees is one of the most effective ways to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and limit global warming.

Coffee is one of the world’s favorite beverages: a pick-me-up social brew that regular drinkers in the US consume more than three times a day. But the coffee bean itself is under threat from climate change. Now a Finnish research group has cultured beans in the lab to offer the world a sustainable espresso.

President Joe Biden has announced plans to tackle climate change by reducing emissions of the greenhouse gas methane by at least 30% by 2030. His pledge, agreed with the European Union, aims to raise ambitions for world leaders to combat global warming ahead of the critical COP26 climate summit in November.

Drones, satellite tracking, and underwater acoustic devices have made a huge difference in understanding more about the lives of whales and dolphins. Now researchers are turning to 3D laser scanning to get more accurate data about their size, shape, and general health.

Microplastics are a toxic timebomb that could plague the planet for centuries if not tackled urgently.

Now teeming with life, this once ‘biologically dead’ river is home to sharks, porpoises, and seals.

These are the oldest fossils of the extinct bony fish, Peltoperleidus, ever to be found, and the first time Peltoperleidus fossils have been found outside of Europe.

Researchers think birds can hear hurricanes and tsunamis coming. Scientists are hoping to capitalize on that sixth sense to develop an early detection system to save lives.

From voices raised in protest for change to the final tender words uttered to a dying loved one, sound and hearing are primal in connecting humans to the world. Now those moments are being acknowledged in an annual award for the Sound of the Year, created to honor audible history and the art of noise.

Glaciers store a vast amount of important climate data within their frozen rivers of snow and ice. But many of the world’’s 220,000 glaciers are under threat from global warming and are melting at an accelerating rate. Now scientists are in a race to gather long-frozen records of Earth’s past climate from the ice.