환경 관련 기사

Death Valley National Park in California's Mojave Desert is known for many things - Its extreme temperatures, varied altitude that ranges from 282ft. below sea level to 11,000ft. above, beautiful rugged terrain and most of all, 'rolling' or 'dancing' stones. The phenomenon whereby large boulders, some weighing as much as 500 lbs, move several hundred yards in a straight line or zigzag patterns, has confounded experts for years....

What do Lil Bub, Princess Monster Truck, and Venus the Two-Faced Cat have in common with tigers? They are all kittycats! That is why when Greenpeace was looking for a way to spread the word about the rapidly dwindling population of tigers in the wild, they turned to these celebrities for assistance....

Mention Hawaii and the first thing that comes to mind are the pristine beaches. What is not as well known is that Hawaii's Big Island is also home to some of the world's most active volcanoes, including the spectacular Kilauea! While the dynamic volcano has been erupting almost nonstop since 1983, some years, the amount of magma coughed up is larger than others....

Scientists have long suspected that there is water trapped deep inside the Earth's interior. However, they had never been able to verify it. Hence geologists had no choice but to adopt the theory that the water in our oceans was deposited by icy comets hitting the forming planet. Now thanks to evidence uncovered by Associate Professor Steven Jacobsen of Northwestern University and seismologist Brandon Schmandt from the University of New Mexico, there is finally proof that our oceans may have emerged from a massive reserve that lies 400 miles beneath the Earth's crust....

Though most people believe that climate change is real and likely to result in some catastrophic events if allowed to continue unabated, very few are ready to make the lifestyle changes needed to turn things around. That's why Italian adventurer Alex Bellini has come up with the radical idea of living atop an iceberg, until it melts. He believes that witnessing something this dramatic may be the key to convincing more people to take action....

While most people are curious about how Earth was formed and more importantly, how it transformed into this habitable paradise, very few, have the patience to pore over complicated science books to find out. Now, thanks to this amazing video created by Germany's Kurzgesagt, our beautiful planet's entire history can be mastered in about seven minutes!...

On Saturday, August 23rd, over 300 people lined up outside Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington D.C., to participate in the first birthday celebration of one of its cutest and most precious residents - America's favorite giant panda cub, Bao Bao....

Data gathered by humanitarian organization, World Food Programme, indicates that every year over 847 million people worldwide, suffer from malnutrition and about 3.1 million children under the age of five, die from starvation. While eradicating world hunger is a top priority for both scientists and philanthropists, given the increasing global population and dwindling natural resources, it is not easy. But thanks to new innovations like the recently introduced 'LivingBox', there may be some hope....

Award-winning artist and professor Sam Van Aken has managed to accomplish what very few people are able to do - combine art and science together in a project that is as visually stunning, as it is biologically amazing. He has created trees that grow not one or two, but more than 40 types of stone fruit that include numerous kinds of peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines and cherries. What's even more amazing is that many of the fruits are ancient, hard-to-find, varieties....

Land animals are not the only ones being affected by the loss of habitat and climate change. The issues are taking their toll on birds too. Experts estimate that since the 1500's, over 190 bird species have become extinct. Of these, at least 12 were endemic to North America....

Each year around this time, stargazers anxiously await nature's finest fireworks show - the Perseid meteors. The 'fireball' champions of all annual meteor showers have already been streaming through our skies at the rate of about a dozen an hour, for the last few weeks. However, things will really heat up from early August 11th to the 13th, when between ninety to a hundred meteors will come zooming across the skies, making them easy to spot, even with the naked eye....

Mention koalas and the image that comes to mind is that of a cuddly animal snoozing, whilst clinging on to a tree trunk for dear life - and rightfully so, given that the animals sleep for up to 20 hours a day! However, while the fact that their sedentary lifestyle is caused by their unusually small brains and the limited nutritional content of the eucalyptus leaves they consume is well-known, what was never questioned was their penchant for tree trunks. Turns out that the smart koalas have figured out that staying close to trees is the best way to beat the heat, during the hot Australian summers....

On June 19th, a group of animal lovers on a whale watching cruise off the coast of Sydney, were treated to a rare sight - a pod of mammals that included Migaloo, the world's first documented white humpback whale. The gorgeous 55-ton all-white humpback, was sighted with five other whales as they made their annual migration from the Antarctica to the breeding areas off Queensland and Western Australia....

On Sunday, May 25th, 2014, India's Malavath Poorna, became the youngest female to climb to the summit of the world's highest peak - Mount Everest. The 13-year-old girl handily surpassed the previous record holder - Nepal's Nima Chemji Sherpa, who accomplished same feat in 2012, at the age of 16....

The plan had been to create a beautiful nature park complete with a large artificial lake on the outskirts of the city of Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province in north-central China. However thanks to a cruel trick played by nature, what the officials have ended up with, is an unsalvageable sandy mess!...

Visitors that dare to venture deep into the Western Amazon rainforest often encounter a strange sight - groups of butterflies hovering above yellow-spotted river turtles that are basking in the sun. What's even stranger is why they are there - To drink the tears from their eyes! And it's not because the beautiful insects are trying to comfort the reptiles, but because the tears contain the one ingredient that is lacking in their diet - sodium....

Scientists have often pondered over how the eight-armed octopus avoids getting tangled around itself. This mystery was particularly perplexing given that each tentacle is lined with hundreds of suckers that are strong enough to stick to almost anything. Also, unlike animals with rigid skeletons, the mollusks have no idea where their arms are at any given moment....

With fishing trawlers increasingly tossing nets deeper into the ocean, tales of innocent marine animals being entangled are becoming all too common. Late last month, that was exactly what happened to a humpback whale that was making its way through the waters of California's Monterey Bay....

A team of scientists led by University of Texas, Austin, astronomer Ivan Ramirez have identified a star that they believe is one of many siblings our sun has floating around the Universe. Formed 4.5 billion years ago from the same large interstellar cloud that gave birth to our sun, it is 15% larger and lies 110 light-years away in the constellation Hercules. Though not visible with the unaided eye, HD 162826 that lies close to bright star Vega, can be easily viewed with low-power binoculars....

First there was the Drinkable Book that purifies water and now, this ordinary looking billboard that supposedly cleans 100,000 cubic meters or 3.5 million cubic feet of air, per day. To put it in perspective, that is the equivalent of the amount of purification provided by 1,200 mature trees....

With the Memorial Day long weekend fast approaching, chances are you looking for somewhere to go. Here's a suggestion - Find a location that takes you away from bright city lights, one where you are able to see the clear dark skies and shining stars. That's because on May 24th, you might be able to witness a never before seen meteor shower....

A fisherman trawling for shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico, south of Key West, Florida, got the surprise of his life when he pulled up the nets on April 19th - Intermingled with the tiny shrimp was a giant shark, the kind that one would only expect to encounter in a horror movie! What was even scarier, was that the shark was alive and menacingly trashing around the deck, trying its best to escape....

While most scientists are focused on creating vaccines for life threatening mosquito-borne diseases like dengue fever and malaria, British biotech firm Oxitec is taking a unique approach. They want to nip the problem in the bud or should we say larva, by killing the dengue-carrying mosquitos with the help of genetically modified laboratory versions....

Though humans may think they are the masters of deception, some of the world's best con artists appear to be birds. First there is the cuckoo finch that tricks other birds into raising its offspring and now, Africa's fork-tailed drongo that sends out false alarm signals, just so that it can steal food from other birds....