Environment
Here’s What Nuclear Testing Does to the Earth—and Us
With trials of atomic weapons set to resume, we recall the environmental and health damage wrought by such testing
Hurricane Melissa Could Threaten Some Species with Extinction
As the super strong storm lashes the Caribbean, vulnerable species and habitats lie in its path
How This Haunting Hurricane Illusion Forms
Powerful storms like Hurricane Melissa foment an odd phenomenon called the “stadium effect” at their centers
How “Plant Math” Can Help Predict the Climate’s Future
Researchers are building equations for vegetation processes that might improve climate models
New Life for Rotting Seaweed
Problematic piles of Sargassum could serve as useful raw material for a variety of products
Modeling the Deep
An ambitious mission seeks to map the flow of crucial chemicals through marine food webs in far-flung oceanic gyres
The Deep Ocean Is a Global Public Good
This visionary new initiative would do more than save the ocean. It would regenerate it.
Gaia’s Got a Fever
An aging Earth, like an aging body, is increasingly vulnerable to heat’s fatal strikes
Rogue Wave Mystery Solved
Each leviathan of the deep has a signature that can be used to forecast it











