Space sciences and astronomy
31 Mar 2026
Legged robot could accelerate resource prospecting on the Moon and the search for life on Mars
What if future planetary robots did not have to wait for instructions from Earth before examining every rock?
347 news posts in Earth and beyond
Environment
18 Mar 2026
Scientists discover ‘consortium' of bacteria cooperating to eat phthalate plasticizers that single microbes can’t stomach
‘Microbial cross-feeding’ and previously unknown enzymes help community of bacteria to digest toxic phthalate esters
Environment
13 Mar 2026
Race against time to save Alpine ice cores recording medieval mining, fires, and volcanoes
Glacier ice can reveal air pollution dating back to the Roman Empire — but the climate crisis is destroying this frozen archive
Climate action
03 Mar 2026
Modern twist on wildfire management methods found also to have a bonus feature that protects water supplies
Thinning to slow wildfires simultaneously boosts ‘hydrological resilience’ of forests
Environment
27 Feb 2026
Fossil amber reveals the secret lives of Cretaceous ants
Scientists use insects trapped in amber to understand ecosystems that died out millions of years ago
Environment
20 Feb 2026
Scientists reveal our best- and worst-case scenarios for a warming Antarctica
New study on the Antarctic Peninsula shows that the choices we make in the next decade will determine Antarctica’s fate for centuries
Environment
10 Feb 2026
Bison hunters abandoned long-used site 1,100 years ago to adapt to changing climate
As drought and rising organizational demands for larger hunting operations hit at the same time, ancient hunters adapted to severe droughts by shifting the way and where they hunted, study shows
Environment
27 Jan 2026
96% accurate footprint tracker for tiny mammals could help reveal ecosystem health
New footprint identification technology can identify ecosystem-critical species which were once only distinguishable by DNA.
Environment
21 Jan 2026
DNA tests reveal mysterious beluga family trees
Groundbreaking DNA analysis of Alaskan beluga whales shows both males and females have many different mates.
Climate action
27 Nov 2025
Plastic pollution is worsened by warming climate and must be stemmed, researchers warn
Increased toxicity from plastic pollution in a warmer climate is highly likely to be affecting whole ecosystems, with potentially disproportionate impacts on apex predators such as orcas.
Climate action
11 Nov 2025
Vegan diet can halve your carbon footprint, study shows
Vegan diet cuts carbon emissions by 46% and land use by 33%, while delivering nearly all essential nutrients
Earth science
11 Sep 2025
Newly dated 85-million-year-old dino eggs could improve understanding of Cretaceous climate
Scientists date dinosaur eggs that had laid buried in rock for millions of years for the first time, using new, ‘atomic clock for fossils’ method
Climate action
09 Sep 2025
Well-publicized polar geoengineering ideas will not help and could harm, warn experts
Five well-publicized polar geoengineering ideas are highly unlikely to help the polar regions and could harm ecosystems, communities, international relations, and our chances of reaching net zero by 2050.
Earth science
04 Sep 2025
Biological ‘moonshot’ accelerates efforts to genetically map life on Earth
An unprecedented effort to sequence the genomes of 150,000 eukaryotic species through inclusive global collaboration.
Space sciences and astronomy
01 Sep 2025
Circle versus rectangle: finding ‘Earth 2.0’ may be easier using a new telescope shape
Guest editorial by Prof Heidi Newberg, an astrophysicist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and author of a new Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences article