Environmental Science

Emperor Qin ordered 7,000 generals, cavalrymen and archers to protect his mausoleum. What's so odd about that? Well, they were made of terracotta.

By Cristen Conger

If ranchers and landowners invest in grass banks, will their payout be nothing but green? Or is grass banking a temporary solution, delaying Mother Nature's inevitable bankruptcy?

By Jennifer Horton

We've been warned plenty about the mercury content of fish. And most of us know our new high-efficiency CFLs also contain the shiny neurotoxin. So which source should cause us more concern?

By Julia Layton

Is the same substance that makes your shampoo so sudsy really going to give you cancer? Here's the real dirt on whether sodium lauryl sulfate is bad for you.

By Julia Layton & Valerie Stimac

Can you walk to restaurants from your home? Or do you have to hop in the car for every outing? How do you determine your neighborhood's walkability without taking to the streets yourself?

By Maria Trimarchi

When Thomas Malthus warned that the human population would eventually outpace Earth's resources, he wasn't anticipating the green revolution. So why do rising food costs have some folks worried we're running at capacity?

By Julia Layton

If you've ever seen a geyser letting off steam or witnessed a fuming volcano simmering under pressure, you know that the interior of the Earth is really hot. So where does all that heat come from, and is there any way to harness it?

By Stephanie Watson

Four fundamental forces of nature are behind all that we do, from falling down to orbiting the sun. Learn about the four fundamental forces of nature.

By Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D. & Yara Simón

They may seem like a fun water sport or a noisy nuisance, but whatever your stance on personal watercraft, there's no denying they pollute. So how bad are they?

By Julia Layton

Sometimes dinosaur fossils are too large and heavy to display without damaging them. How are those enormous models built? And what makes them look so realistic?

By Tracy V. Wilson

Environmentalists have found a way to harness the military precision of missile-tracking technology for a decidedly nonviolent mission: replanting forests. So what do C-130 aircraft have to do with reforestation?

By Jennifer Horton

Plants absorb carbon dioxide and feed us oxygen. So it's pretty much a no-brainer: Plowing down our forests is a bad idea. What's driving the destruction? And is anything being done to stop it?

By Debra Ronca & Sascha Bos

Electrifying dance moves might impress your friends, but they usually don't help power the club you're dancing in. What's piezoelectricity, and how could it help twist the future of energy generation?

By Maria Trimarchi

Drilling down thousands of feet in lightless ocean depths and transporting that oil to the surface without spilling it isn't exactly easy. Did we mention the rough seas?

By Robert Lamb & Desiree Bowie

Laws, treaties and the limits of human technology have kept some petroleum reserves just beyond the reach of oil companies. So where are they dying to drill?

By Robert Lamb

Researchers think the Chicxulub crater was caused by the massive asteroid that also killed off the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. What else do we know about this peak-ring crater?

By Mark Mancini

Green, clean energy sounds good at first: Harness the power of the wind to run our creature comforts. But could the sounds people hear (and don't hear) from wind turbines endanger their health?

By Julia Layton & Austin Henderson

We humans like to trade one problem for another. We give up drinking only to take up smoking. Will we also exchange a reliance on dwindling fossil fuels for a food shortage caused by ethanol production?

By Robert Lamb

Sand dunes belch, moan and hum. They roll across the desert, seeking out new locales. You might even say they breed. It's no wonder people call these giant sand formations lifelike.

By Debra Ronca

Plastic bags are generally unsustainable. Even if they are biodegradable, they take roughly 1,000 years to fully break down. Minnesota company NatureWorks has come up with a green plastic bag, but how eco-friendly is it?

By Josh Clark

Eco-plastic seems like an oxymoron, and it very well may be. What exactly is eco-plastic, and does it really help the environment?

By Julia Layton

Earth Day is the ideal time of the year to form new eco-oriented habits. Here are 10 things you can do to celebrate our planet all year long.

By Julia Layton & Sarah Gleim

One evening, people heard their local lake rumbling. A day and a half later, 1,700 people were dead. What happened on that fateful night?

By Susan L. Nasr

Everyone knows air pollution isn't good for your lungs, but it turns out that it's not doing your heart any favors either. Why do the particulates in the air we breathe interfere with our heart's basic job: to keep things ticking?

By Julia Layton

The worst bad guys in the world of video games aren't virtual. Vampire power, overpackaging and energy-draining consoles make gaming unnecessarily bad for the environment. What are video game manufacturers doing to go green?

By Stephanie Watson