News by Subject Earth Science

A person who owns a car or who has a college education may be less vulnerable to COVID-19, according to an analysis of cases in Tehran, Iran, one of the early epicenters of the pandemic. While such variables do not inherently lower a person's risk, they do indicate an infrastructure of protection that persists despite how densely populated a person's district might be.

Using mathematical modeling, researchers considered a time very early in evolution when primordial species reproduced using external fertilization. In the model, bigger reproductive cells, or gametes, presented a competitive edge because they could hold more nutrients for a potential zygote. Smaller gametes, however, required fewer resources to make, which put less stress on the parent. Organisms evolved to specialize in large or small gametes, precursors to eggs and sperm.

A Clemson University physicist and collaborators from China and Denmark have created a new and potentially paradigm-shifting high-performance thermoelectric compound.

In order to get a sense of what our future may hold, scientists have been looking to the deep past. Now, new research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which combines climate, ice sheet and vegetation model simulations with a suite of different climatic and geologic scenarios, opens the clearest window yet into the deep history of the Antarctic ice sheet and what our planetary future might hold.

A new study builds on previous research found educating kids about the environment was linked to greater concern in their parents. Now, they have evidence kids can have an impact outside of their homes, too.