Antarctica’s melting ice sheet could retreat much faster than previously thought, new research suggests. The BBC reports: The evidence comes from markings on the seafloor off Norway that record the pull-back of a melting European ice sheet thousands of…

Chemicals that were banned after they punched a hole in Earth’s ozone layer are still building up at an alarming rate in our atmosphere, according to research published today in the journal Nature Geoscience. The chemicals were once widely used in air …

Cruising at a depth of 8,336 meters (over 27,000 feet) just above the seabed, a young snailfish has become the deepest fish ever filmed by scientists during a probe into the abyss of the northern Pacific Ocean. From a report: Scientists from University…

The foodstuff feeds more than half the world — but also fuels diabetes and climate change. From a report: According to Indonesian legend, rice was bestowed upon the island of Java by the goddess Dewi Sri. Pitying its inhabitants the blandness of their…

Dozens of the world’s largest natural history museums revealed on Thursday a survey of everything in their collections. The global inventory is made up of 1.1 billion objects that range from dinosaur skulls to pollen grains to mosquitoes. The New York …

Land reclamation is nothing new, but during this century there has been a significant rise in the creation of artificial land by humans, with a recent study showing that developers have added more than 2,500 sq km — an area equivalent to the size of L…

Intel and other semiconductor companies have joined together with industrial materials businesses to fight US clampdowns on “forever chemicals,” substances used in myriad products that are slow to break down in the environment. From a report: The lobby…

For the first time, United Nations members have agreed on a unified treaty to protect biodiversity in the high seas — representing a turning point for vast stretches of the planet where conservation has previously been hampered by a confusing patchwor…

The planet is on track for catastrophic warming, but world leaders already have many options to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and protect people, according to a major new climate change report from the United Nations. NPR: The report was drafted by t…

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The geology of Brazil’s volcanic Trindade Island has fascinated scientists for years, but the discovery of rocks made from plastic debris in this remote turtle refuge is sparking alarm. Melted plastic h…