Physical World

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Aerial photo shows a coral atoll in the Maldives. A depression is visible in the middle of the coral ring.

How coral atolls get their gorgeous ring shapes

Sea levels rising and falling over hundreds of thousands of years helped build up these special islands

A bright doughnut shaped ring with a dark center on a dark background.

How black holes morphed from theory to reality

PODCAST: Physicists were mostly skeptical back when the idea of them emerged a century ago from Einstein’s work. The evolution of the evidence, from circumstantial to conclusive, is the quintessential story of science. (Season 1/Episode 1)

Starry night sky over a closed telescope unit at the Very Large Telescope in Chile

Society

How researchers are making do in the time of Covid

The coronavirus pandemic has shuttered labs and sidelined scientists all over the world. Here’s a look at how some of them have coped.

Photograph of a wide flooded parking lot with more than a dozen marooned, partially submerged cars. Dark storm clouds loom overhead.

Physical World

Rising to meet the tide

As the threat of coastal flooding grows, scientists are responding with an inundation of data. Faster and more accurate forecasts can save lives and property.

Artist’s conception of the spacecraft flying above a boulder-rich mountain on the asteroid Bennu.

Physical World

Seeking surprises in comets and asteroids

Exploring small bodies in the solar system provides clues to origins

A layer of blue swirls atop one of red, representing two separate regions within Lake Kivu.

Physical World

The danger lurking in an African lake

Kivu is no ordinary lake, with dense depths packed with methane and carbon dioxide gas. Its features hold aquatic puzzles, explosive hazards and the capacity to provide valuable energy.

Photo taken by the crew of the International Space Station of the sun peeking over the edge of the planet showing a sky that darkens as you move away from Earth.

Food & Environment

Why solar geoengineering should be part of the climate crisis solution

The controversial technology of reflecting sunlight away from the planet could help blunt the worst impacts of climate change

Digital artwork, one in a series displayed at CERN in Geneva. The foreground shows a particle collision event which is a possible candidate for a decay of the Higgs-like particle to a final state. The background depicts selected pages from articles published by the CMS collaboration at the LHC.

Technology

Why some artificial intelligence is smart until it’s dumb

Machine learning has found uses in fields as diverse as particle physics and radiology, and its influence is growing. But so is the understanding of its limits.

An aerial image of the Copper River flowing into the Gulf of Alaska, dumping clouds of sediment into the sea.

Living World

The origin of mud

For most of Earth’s history, hardly any of the mucky stuff existed on land. It finally started piling up around 458 million years ago, changing life on the planet forever.

Photograph of a volcanic vent on the ocean floor. Colored minerals can be seen on the rock, as well as plumes of white smoke.

Physical World

Searching high and low for the origins of life

Researchers think they’re getting warmer: They’ve created amino acids and primitive membranes by simulating conditions found at scalding vents on the ocean floor

Artist’s rendering of a cold eyeball planet features a glowing orange “pupil” where the sun hits the planet, surrounded by dark blue ocean and then an icy white edge that recedes into darkness.

Physical World

Beyond the twilight zone

Tidally locked worlds are places of extremes. On one side it’s an endless day, the other a perpetual night. Yet scientists speculate that some may harbor conditions that could support life.

A gif shows an image of sun moving, as imaged by the Solar Dynamics Observatory in extreme ultraviolet light.

Physical World

An elemental problem with the sun

For two decades, astronomers have argued over how much carbon, nitrogen and especially oxygen lie within our closest star — a dispute with implications for the entire universe

Artist’s conception of the Juno spacecraft aloft above Jupiter.

Physical World

Jupiter revealed

The Juno spacecraft has been circling Jupiter since 2016. Here are four things we’ve learned so far about the biggest planet in the solar system.

Photo shows the beginning of an ice core drilling project on Mont Blanc in France in August 2016.

Physical World

Quest to secure the world’s vanishing ice

Glaciologists dream of a cold-storage vault in Antarctica to preserve key samples of the paleoclimate

Photo of the Rising Tide sculpture by artist Jason deCaires Taylor installed within the tidal range on the Thames River in 2015; the sculpture was composed of four large, cement-gray horses with riders, the river’s high tide submerges the horses’ flanks.

Physical World

The tides they are a-changin’ — and it’s not just from climate change

Dredging rivers, filling in wetlands and other human acts of engineering have shifted coastal ebbs and flows worldwide. Add rising sea levels, and the threat of storm surges and floods will worsen in some places.