Basic Research

9 numbers you need to know to understand the Amazon fires

By Vicky Stein

Here’s a look at some of the numbers that define the fires burning in the Amazon.

No, the Amazon fires won't deplete the Earth's oxygen supply. Here's why.

By Scott Denning, The Conversation

There are many reasons to be appalled by this year’s Amazon fires, but depleting Earth’s oxygen supply is not one of them.

Russian capsule carrying robot fails space station docking

By Associated Press

A statement from the Russian space agency Roscosmos said the failure on Saturday was because of problems in the docking system. It said the space station itself and the six-person crew are safe.

'Old Town Road' defied a 20-year trend in hit music. Math explains why

By Nsikan Akpan

A new study shows the average lifetime in the charts for singles and albums has dropped dramatically since the 1990s. How did "Old Town Road" buck this trend?…

This young scientist studies wild animals. Bias against disability won't stop her

By Vicky Stein

Field biologist Charlotte Devitz is part of a trend: researchers expanding the boundaries of accessible science.

Huge wildfires in the Arctic and far North send a planetary warning

By Nancy Fresco, The Conversation

More than 600 wildfires have consumed more than 2.4 million acres of forest across Alaska this summer, and fires are also raging in northern Canada and Siberia.

Does the placenta carry germs? What parents should know before they eat one

By Nsikan Akpan

What started as an innocent look into the trend of people consuming placentas uncovered a heated academic debate over whether the placenta has a microbiome.

Explainer: Why the August night sky lights up with the Perseid meteor shower

By Christopher Conselice, The Conversation

Many people have some idea that a meteor shower is when material in space falls to the earth. That is essentially true, but what these particles are and where they come from isn’t as well known. A greater understanding of…

Forget coral bleaching. Warming oceans are killing reefs and dissolving their skeletons

By Berly McCoy

Hotter oceans are killing corals, not just bleaching them. Then their reef corpses dissolve.

United Nations predicts hungry future, due to global warming, that can be avoided

By Seth Borenstein, Associated Press

A new United Nations report examines how global warming and land interact in a vicious cycle. Human-caused climate change is dramatically degrading the land, while the way people use the land is making global warming worse.