News
Fire may have altered human DNA
6+ hour, 41+ min ago (358+ words) Published Feb 5, 2026 11:30 AM EST Humanity's relationship with fire is unique across all of evolutionary history. Learning to harness the power of flame is arguably our most monumental technological breakthrough as a species'one that allowed Homo sapiens to flourish across the…...
‘Living rocks’ suck up a lot of carbon
1+ mon, 2+ week ago (255+ words) Published Dec 16, 2025 11:07 AM EST According to the study's authors, the rate at which they use carbon shows the impressive efficiency of" these microbial mats, taking the dissolved carbon out of their environment and moving it off into a stable mineral…...
Without dinosaurs, there'd be no Thanksgiving dinner
2+ mon, 1+ week ago (165+ words) " The 52 best Walmart Black Friday deals to shop right now (updating) " Published Nov 25, 2025 10:19 AM EST It's hard to pick a favorite dish on your Thanksgiving plate. But regardless of your selection, there's a decent chance its history can be traced…...
On Mars, meteorites can cause miles-long dust slides
2+ mon, 3+ week ago (174+ words) Published Nov 7, 2025 2:49 PM EST Mars receives its fair share of cosmic collisions. With less than one percent the atmosphere as Earth, some meteoroids fail to burn up entirely before reaching the Red Planet's surface. When they do, they can usher…...
This ‘funny-looking rock’ holds 3,000 years of Iron Age secrets
4+ mon, 1+ week ago (351+ words) Published Sep 26, 2025 2:00 PM EDT The 3,000-year-old workshop called Kvemo Bolnisi is located in southern Georgia. The dig site was originally analyzed in the 1950s, when archeologists found an iron oxide mineral called hematite and a waste product of metal production called…...
Yellowstone employees recover over 300 hats from hydrothermal areas
4+ mon, 3+ week ago (404+ words) Published Sep 13, 2025 10:00 AM EDT It's a bird! No, it's a plane! No, it's your hat, ripped off your head by a gust of wind, spiraling off into the unknown. It's happened to the best of us. The only thing left…...
Stone Age women were buried with as many tools as men
4+ mon, 3+ week ago (547+ words) Published Sep 11, 2025 3:08 PM EDT Nestled along the northern shore of Lake Burtnieks in northern Latvia, Stone Age communities used the Zvejnieki burial site for more than 5,000 years. Archeologists estimate that it was first used around 7,500 BCE, and was abandoned sometime…...
How a fracturing supercontinent forged rare volcanic rocks
5+ mon, 2+ day ago (248+ words) Published Sep 3, 2025 12:43 PM EDT As tectonic plates ripped apart Rodinia about one billion years ago, magma rose up from the Earth's shifting mantle. Eventually, that magma cooled, crystalized, and solidified creating these rare Australian carbonatites. Magma or lava-made rocks, known…...
Inside Mars, a 'rocky road' mantle reveals a violent past
5+ mon, 1+ week ago (343+ words) Published Aug 28, 2025 2:00 PM EDT According to study co-author Constantinos Charalambous, these events generated enough energy to melt massive portions of the then-young planet into seas of magma. "As those magma oceans cooled and crystallised, they left behind compositionally distinct chunks…...
Earth's oldest rocks date back 4.16 billion years
7+ mon, 1+ week ago (381+ words) Published Jun 27, 2025 11:15 AM EDT While rocks are not exactly living things, they are not immune to Earth's fury. Ever-shifting tectonic plates constantly devour and pulverize them, or some rocks get turned into diamonds from the immense pressure underneath our feet....