By Issy Ronald and Amarachi Orie, CNN Glow-in-the-dark plants bright enough to light up streets at night may sound like the stuff of science fiction or fantasy. But scientists have already made plants that emit a greenish glow. They are even commercially available in the United States. A group of Chinese researchers has just gone
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By Jackie Wattles, Kristen Holmes, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will move the military’s US Space Command to Huntsville, Alabama — undoing a decision by the Biden administration to keep operations in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The US Space Command, or SPACECOM, is a joint command separate from the US Space
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By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — A beach in Melbourne, Australia has been bathed in a “ethereal glow” at nighttime this week thanks to bioluminescent algae adding a shimmering, electric blue hue to the water and sand. Richard Pensak first saw the algae — called Nocticula scintillan and sometimes referred to as “sea sparkle” —
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By Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — More than 85 veteran climate scientists have pushed back against a Trump administration report downplaying the severity of climate change, submitting more than 400 pages in public comments to the Energy Department on Tuesday. The department’s Climate Working Group report, released July 29 alongside proposals to deregulate some polluting
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By Jackie Wattles, CNN A powerful solar storm is expected to reach Earth on Monday evening, potentially triggering a display of northern lights across the northern hemisphere. The stunning wave of auroras may be visible much farther south than is typical, reaching not just the northern US states but also parts of the lower Midwest
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By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — Forty years ago, in the early hours of September 1, grainy black-and-white images of a metal cylinder appeared on the video feeds in the command center of Knorr, a research vessel searching the Atlantic seafloor for the world’s most famous shipwreck: the Titanic. Members of the four-person watch team,
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CNN By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — Forty years ago, in the early hours of September 1, grainy black-and-white images of a metal cylinder appeared on the video feeds in the command center of Knorr, a research vessel searching the Atlantic seafloor for the world’s most famous shipwreck: the Titanic. Members of the four-person watch
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By Mindy Weisberger, CNN (CNN) — A well-preserved human skeleton that scientists recently excavated in Vietnam dates back about 12,000 years ago to the Ice Age and contains the oldest human mitochondrial DNA found in the region. It belonged to a man who died when he was around 35 years old after being pierced in
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By Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — When Hurricane Erin explosively intensified in the Atlantic Ocean last week, the alarming part wasn’t solely how dangerous it had become as a Category 5 monster: It was also just how typical such an ultra-rapid rate of intensification – winds accelerating by 85 mph in 24 hours – has
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By Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — A small group of about 10 writers, researchers and web development ninjas are launching an ambitious effort to preserve key climate data that the Trump administration has taken offline, including a landmark, congressionally mandated report and the contents of the climate.gov website. The data, writings and reports will be
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By Mindy Weisberger, CNN (CNN) — In a rocky outcrop on Mount Carmel, in what is now Israel, a group of ancient humans buried their dead about 140,000 years ago. Scientists uncovered the site, called Skhul Cave, in 1928, and about three years later they found the remains of more than a dozen individuals. The
Continue ReadingStory by Reuters (CNN) — Around 165 million years ago on a coastal floodplain in what is now Morocco lived one of the most extreme dinosaurs on record, lavishly adorned with armor and spikes – some about three feet long – unlike that of any other known creature. Researchers on Wednesday described extensive fossilized remains
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By Jessica Jordan, CNN If you follow the Mississippi River to where it meets the ocean, you will be in Plaquemines, Louisiana’s southernmost parish. Known for its seafood and offshore oil and gas, Plaquemines is also where an unknown rose withstood the brutal force of Hurricane Katrina. The genesis of this climbing rose bush, which
Continue ReadingBy Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — How will the climate crisis affect one of the ocean’s fiercest predators? New research published Wednesday has examined what might happen to sharks’ highly specialized, flesh-cutting teeth. As carbon emissions increase, the ocean is absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, lowering pH levels and making seawater more acidic,
Continue ReadingBy Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Astronomers have spotted the brightest fast radio burst yet coming from a nearby galaxy. Observations of this phenomenon, a powerful flash of radio waves that lasts only about a millisecond, could shed light on one of the most mysterious cosmic phenomena ever studied. Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, were
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By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — The most powerful rocket system ever constructed is headed for its next test — using a version of the vehicle that has been at the center of a series of explosive missteps and failures. SpaceX said it is aiming to launch its Starship megarocket on an hour-long test flight
Continue ReadingBy Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Astronomers have observed what they are calling a new type of supernova, which has provided an unparalleled glimpse into what happens deep within a star just before it explodes. A study detailing the surprising discovery published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Massive stars are like celestial onions: the outermost
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By Mindy Weisberger, CNN (CNN) — Modern humans are evolutionary survivors, thriving generation after generation while our ancient relatives died out. Now, new research into our brain chemistry suggests that an enzyme unique to Homo sapiens may have made us more efficient water seekers than our closest extinct relatives. About 600,000 years ago, modern humans
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By Issy Ronald, CNN Paleontologists have discovered a new dinosaur species with a very distinctive feature, a sail-like structure running down its back, the Natural History Museum in London announced on Friday. The bones of Istiorachis macarthurae, named in honor of record-breaking British sailor Ellen MacArthur, were uncovered on the Isle of Wight, a small
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By Gina Park, CNN (CNN) — The moon goes by many names. August saw the full sturgeon moon while in March sky-gazers may have witnessed the blood moon, which occurs when the satellite appears to turn red during a lunar eclipse. You may have also heard of a blue moon, the second full moon to
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