Environmental Science

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster has generated renewed interest in the way we search for oil. What methods do we use to find and extract this commodity from the Earth?

By Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D. & Jonathan Strickland

Another series of rolling blackouts are hitting California. Learn why this is happening and how it affects you.

By Kevin Bonsor

How can water cut through steel? A device called a waterjet uses extreme force to cut through all sorts of things.

Despite the dangers, oil refineries are essential to society in its current form. Learn how crude oil is converted into everything from butane to gasoline.

By Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D.

OK, so volts measure the potential for energy to travel and ohms measure the resistance to the electrical flow, but what are amps and watts?

By Dave Roos

What happens to all of that trash you put on the curb every week? It doesn't just disappear into a parallel universe. Much of it probably goes to the local landfill, and how it gets handled there is a very involved system.

By Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D. & Patrick J. Kiger

Where electricity is produced from a coal fired power station, how much coal is required to run a 100-watt light bulb 24 hours a day for one year?

Carbon-14 dating is something that you hear about in the news all the time. Everything from mastodons to the Shroud of Turin has been dated using this technique! Learn about how carbon-14 dating works and why it is so accurate!

By Marshall Brain

The polar ice caps have been in the news recently because of their alleged shrinking due to global warming. If this is true, how much would the oceans rise if the ice caps melted completely? Learn the answer to this question in this article.

By Marshall Brain

Let's say you have a lunch date to make – and it's on the other side of the planet. Wouldn't it be convenient to pop down a hole through Earth's innards? But what would really happen if you did?

By Nicholas Gerbis

Is it possible to generate electricity directly from heat? Thermocouples do it, with no moving parts.

A seismograph can accurately measure the movement of the Earth during a quake. How does a seismograph work, though, and what is the Richter scale that is associated with earthquakes? Learn the answers to these questions in this article.

We know that paper comes from trees, but just how much does it take? Let's do the math and figure out how much paper your average tree can be made into.

During the summer I am always hearing about ozone warnings in my city. This ozone is bad. But then I hear about the ozone layer, which is good. How can ozone be both good and bad?

Charcoal is carbon. Activated charcoal is charcoal that has been treated with oxygen to open up millions of tiny pores between the carbon atoms. What does this have to do with its absorbancy?

Gravity is a force that we experience every minute of our lives, but hardly notice or give a passing thought to in our daily routines. Have you ever wondered what gravity is and how it works? Learn about the force of gravity in this article.

By Julia Layton

One way to store energy is to use a battery, like a lead-acid battery or a nickel-cadmium battery, but are there lighter or longer-lasting ways to store energy? There must be a better way!

Let's say you have a nice fire going, and it's reduced down to a pit of hot "glowing embers." If you now toss a piece of wood, or even a sheet of paper, onto this fire, you see a huge puff of smoke as it heats up.

An oscilloscope measures the voltage and frequency of an electric signal. A machine uses "sweeps" and and an input signal. See how it all comes together.

How do they measure "sea level"? Is it the average of the tides? And is the sea level actually rising or not?

On the Flintstones, a small bird sits inside the light and turns it on every night before he goes to bed. In a modern streetlight, a small circuit replaces the bird.

You've probably seen solar panels on satellites, call boxes, road signs, homes and businesses. But how do solar panels work?

By Scott Aldous & Talon Homer

A fascinating article that describes the work of The Nature Conservancy and the benefits of its conservation projects to our environment and ecology!

You've probably never noticed how many of these you use everyday, but HowStuffWorks took the time to count them and take them apart to see what's inside!

By Marshall Brain

Diamonds are beautiful and popular - but not everyone can afford these gems. While man-made versions are less expensive, most lack the luster and brilliance of the real thing, except moissanite. See how it compares!

By Melissa Russell-Ausley