Plants
Tree tops sparkle with electricity during thunderstorms
Ultraviolet cameras captured faint electrical flashes from leaves and branches as storm charges built up in the atmosphere.
By Lily Burton
Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
More Stories in Earth
- Climate
Take it from the Olympics, slushy winter sports may be the new normal
Ice arenas and artificial snow now dominate the winter Olympics. Athletes there — and everywhere — may need to adjust how they train and perform.
- Animals
Climate change could threaten monarch mass migration
Suitable milkweed habitat in Mexico may shift south, fracturing existing migration routes and possibly pushing some butterflies to stay put.
- Earth
Metal pollution from a rocket reentry detected for the first time
Direct detection of lithium from a SpaceX rocket reentry offers new evidence that metal pollution from space debris could threaten the ozone layer.
- Climate
Halting irreversible changes to Antarctica depends on choices made today
Antarctic Peninsula projections show accelerating ice loss, warming oceans and global sea level impacts tied to greenhouse gas emissions.
- Climate
Snowball Earth might have had a dynamic climate and open seas
Sediments from Scotland hint that ocean-atmosphere interactions continued more than 600 million years ago despite widespread ice.
- Oceans
Evolution didn’t wait long after the dinosaurs died
New plankton arrived just a few millennia — maybe even decades — after the Chicxulub asteroid, forcing a rethink of evolution's catastrophe response speed.
- Earth
Earth’s core may hide dozens of oceans of hydrogen
Hydrogen reserves in Earth’s core large enough to supply at least nine oceans may influence processes on the surface today.
- Animals
Some dung beetles dig deep to keep their eggs cool
A temperate tunneling species of dung beetle seems capable of adapting to climate change, but their tropical cousins may be less resilient.
- Climate
Polar bears in the Barents Sea are staying fat despite rapid sea ice loss
Polar bears can struggle to adapt to climate change. Bears on Svalbard may be surviving on land prey and seals — but scientists warn it may not last.
