This video was supported by funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. TRANSCRIPT Maria Temming: In 2021, a historic heat wave baked the Pacific Northwest killing hundreds of people and fueling wildfires. Researchers later reported that human-caused climate change made this heat wave at least 150 times more likely. But how do scientists figure out … Read more
Long dry spells can give a lethal fungal disease a lift. While California droughts can temporarily keep cases of valley fever — a sometimes deadly illness caused by Coccidioides fungi — relatively low, cases skyrocket when rain clouds move back in, researchers report in the October Lancet Regional Health — Americas. Valley fever is on … Read more
It’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere — but you wouldn’t know it from the thermostat. On August 26, a remote stretch of the coastline in Western Australia experienced the highest winter temperature ever recorded anywhere in the country: a blistering 41.6° Celsius (107° Fahrenheit). In Bidyadanga, an Aboriginal community in Western Australia, the overnight low … Read more
For billions of years, the continents have cruised across Earth’s surface like tectonic vessels, but they have not survived unscathed. Waves in the underlying layer known as the mantle can scour off the keels of continents, buoying their surfaces upward to form prominent landforms far from any active plate boundaries, researchers propose in the Aug. … Read more
In 2023, a new type of apple made its commercial debut at a trade show in Berlin. The Tutti is crisp, juicy and has that perfect blush tinge — a lovely cultivar that took decades to produce. But it has a bigger claim to fame: It is designed to thrive at temperatures as high as … Read more
A barrage of intense, wild swings in climate conditions may have fueled the largest mass extinction in Earth’s history. A re-creation of how ancient sea surface temperatures, ocean and atmosphere circulation, and landmasses interacted revealed an Earth plagued by nearly decade-long stints of droughts, wildfires and flooding. Researchers knew that a spike in global temperatures … Read more
Extreme Climate Survey Scientific news is collecting questions from readers about how to navigate our planet’s changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? For some, chronic health conditions can add an extra kick or two when it comes to regulating body temperature. … Read more
Extreme Climate Survey Scientific news is collecting questions from readers about how to navigate our planet’s changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? Since the most recent El Niño ended in May, the tropical Pacific has resided in a neutral state – … Read more
Extreme Climate Survey Scientific news is collecting questions from readers about how to navigate our planet’s changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? Bjornerud is exhausted and dizzy. She is dealing with the collapse of her department, the sleep deprivation of early … Read more
Extreme Climate Survey Scientific news is collecting questions from readers about how to navigate our planet’s changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? But sending low-voltage electricity through waterlogged sands can stimulate the formation of minerals that help bind sediments together, Rotta … Read more