Environmental Science

You've finally cleaned out your garage. Four cans of paint, a dead car battery and a circa 1991 Nintendo sit before you. But where in the world do you recycle these items?

By Debra Ronca

Popeye used the iron from spinach to morph into a formidable sailor. We know that iron is an essential component of the human body. But could it also be the answer to global warming?

By Jennifer Horton

How will Abu Dhabi's Masdar City function without cars, skyscrapers and fossil fuels? How is such a city even possible -- and what will keep it running?

By Jane McGrath

Polar bears are facing a grim future as global warming melts their Arctic home. What problems are they up against and what's being done to save them?

By Julia Layton

Not all recycling is created equal. Some familiar recycled items are more "worth it" than others, and the hands-down winner may be in your recycling bin right now.

By Jennifer Horton

One company's SkyMine technology aims to capture industrial carbon dioxide emissions and turn them into an endlessly useful product: Baking soda. But how do pollutants become a household staple?

By Julia Layton

Earthquakes and volcanoes get all the press. But the landslides they trigger are often more devastating. What makes the ground suddenly rip downhill, taking trees and homes with it?

By Jennifer Horton & Mark Mancini

Thousands of women around the world choose to combat ecological problems -- they're known as ecofeminists. But what would you do if you found out your house sat atop a toxic waste dump?

By Winifred Fordham Metz

No one likes paying bills. But you wouldn't have quite so many if you lived off the grid. How do you create enough energy to ditch public utilities?

By Charles W. Bryant

Carbon dioxide released from burning fossil fuels is a prime suspect in global warming. Could we mitigate the problem by burying the CO2 deep within the ocean?

By Josh Clark

Right now, landfills are all over the place. Yet, no one wants to live near one. So, what if we combined all of those landfills into one? How much space would it take up?

By Marshall Brain

The United States has an abundant supply to clean drinking water available in homes and businesses. But what if that water turned out not to be so clean? And what about the water supply around the world?

By Marshall Brain

Seventy percent of the Earth's fresh water is in polar ice caps, the those caps calve icebergs all the time. So why can't we use those icebergs to provide fresh water that so many countries are in desperate need of?

By Marshall Brain

Glaciers carve out lakes, grind down mountains and pulverize rocks to dust. These massive ice slabs shape our Earth, but they may be disappearing.

By Ed Grabianowski

Archaeology is the study of humanity's material remains -- even a piece of an ancient pot can tell us a lot about the past. But how do archaeologists make sense of these relics?

By Sarah Dowdey

One iceberg sank the unsinkable Titanic, and another exploded in front of an expedition. These floating chunks of ice carry their bulk deceptively below the surface of the water. What else are they hiding?

By Ed Grabianowski

Saber-tooth cats have long been likened to tigers, but they aren't tigers at all. While they share some physical traits and hunting practices with tigers, saber-tooth cats are also quite different.

By Tracy V. Wilson

Have you ever wondered what happens when you flip a switch to turn something on? You're completing an electric circuit, allowing a current, or flow of electrons, through the wires.

By Sidney Soclof

The 1993 movie "Jurassic Park" did a good job of bringing the idea of cloning dinosaurs into popular culture. It portrayed dinosaur cloning in a way that made sense to a lot of people, but is it really possible?

By Tracy V. Wilson

Every time a new fossil is found, one of the first things scientists determine is how old that fossil really is. But how do they determine it, and how can they be completely accurate?

By Tracy V. Wilson

Oil is a nonrenewable resource. Have we found all the oil there is to find, or is there more out there somewhere? What's the best way to wean ourselves from our oil dependency?

By Josh Clark

The waste collectors threw your recyclables into one big bin on their truck. How do you know your recyclables are being recycled? And what happens to them next?

By Josh Clark

Fossils tell a story, much like the clues at the scene of a crime. Researchers look for evidence and paleontologists study that evidence to answer questions about the past.

By Tracy V. Wilson

Consumers are becoming more and more knowledgeable about food safety and their health. As a result, organic farming has entered the agriculture mainstream. But what methods must be used, and how is organic farming certified?

By Maria Trimarchi

To see a dinosaur these days, you can visit any number of museums or traveling exhibits. But you don't necessarily have to leave your yard either.

By Tracy V. Wilson