Environmental Science

Many scientists say that the response to climate change will require planting new trees. A whole lot of them.

By Tara Yarlagadda

Let's take a look at some of the strongest metals on Earth and their surprising uses.

By Dave Roos & Sascha Bos

It's perhaps one of the strangest fossils ever discovered. We'll explain how it came to be 15 million years ago, and how hikers found it in the '30s.

By Mark Mancini

Not only do bug zappers mostly kill beneficial insects, they also can serve you up a side of bacteria with your burger.

By Chris Opfer

Cobalt is associated with the color blue, but it's so needed for rechargeable batteries that the U.S. put it on the list of minerals it can't live without.

By Dave Roos

EXXpedition founder Emily Penn will captain the 300, all-female crew in its first Round the World sailing voyage.

By Patty Rasmussen

Buckingham Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth II is making changes to the Royals solid-wasted plan, and that includes banning many plastics.

By John Perritano

Helium balloons are dangerous to the environment and wildlife - so why isn't releasing them illegal?

By Jesslyn Shields

The Great Lakes are named so for several reasons. HowStuffWorks looks at why the Great Lakes are so great, including their impressive depths.

By Mark Mancini

Petrified wood can be found all over the world, but how is it created?

By Mark Mancini & Desiree Bowie

Wine pomace - the portion of grapes left over from winemaking - has a variety of uses, from fertilizer to a nutrition-enhancing ingredient in foods.

By Patrick J. Kiger

The spring, or vernal, equinox traditionally marks the first day of spring - but climate scientists use a different date altogether. Find out more about this and other facts about the spring equinox.

By Mark Mancini

How, in today's world, could a cave this massive go undetected for so long?

By Patrick J. Kiger

Coral grows faster when it's cut or broken and scientists are taking advantage of that to replenish depleted reefs.

By Cherise Threewitt

Prior to the mid-1990s, the magnetic north pole traveled at speeds of around 9 miles per year. Now, it's 34 miles annually. What accounts for the acceleration?

By Mark Mancini

The pigment ultramarine was as expensive as gold in medieval Europe; so how did it end up in the teeth of a nun buried at a monastery in rural Germany?

By Jesslyn Shields

What makes peat bogs so perfect at preserving human remains? We look at what's behind these waterlogged areas of decaying plant matter.

By Mark Mancini & Desiree Bowie

These ancient wonders aren't static sculptures; they vibrate and shift throughout the day, creating a variety of sounds as they stretch their aging, eroding 'bones.'

By Nathan Chandler

Sastrugi are gorgeous snow formations found in the polar north, but they're also no fun to travel over.

By Jesslyn Shields

Some cities, even large ones, are making big strides in improving air quality.

By Loraine Fick

The Mushroom Burial Suit is designed to give our dead bodies new life by breaking them down and nourishing the soil.

By Jesslyn Shields

The Ancient Earth visualization map shows the movement of the planet's tectonic plates in a really cool way.

By Patrick J. Kiger

Massive gypsum crystals were discovered beneath Mexico's Sierra de Naica Mountain in very inhospitable environs - to humans anyway.

By Mark Mancini

Scientists set up two stations to capture this strange seismic activity.

By Mark Mancini

China has joined the more than 120 countries outlawing certain types of single-use plastics, those convenient but controversial plastics we've all become so used to. What exactly are they, though, and is banning them really necessary?

By Stephanie Vermillion