[ad_1] BISBEE, Ariz. — Boots dusty, lungs heaving, Dr. John Wiens searched the boulders of a desolate Arizona mountaintop for the last survivors of a 3-million-year-old lizard population — then said the words that both confirmed his life’s work and broke his heart. “They’re not there,” he said. “It seems like the species is now extinct.” …
[ad_1] From clean air and water to healthy soil and medicines, our survival and prosperity rely heavily on the rich diversity of plants and animals that make up our world. A 2019 U.N. report found that around 1 million plant and animal species could be threatened with extinction around the globe. But new research finds climate…
[ad_1] Experts have confirmed that a human jawbone that was mysteriously discovered in a child’s rock collection once belonged to a United States Marine, who died during his military service over 70 years ago. The identification was made thanks to the work by a group of college students and a high school intern who may…
[ad_1] Two more black-footed ferrets have been cloned from the genes used for the first clone of an endangered species in the U.S., bringing to three the number of slinky predators genetically identical to one of the last such animals found in the wild, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday. Efforts to breed…
[ad_1] There were 56 wild, endangered Puerto Rican parrots living around El Yunque National Forest before Hurricane Maria in 2017. After the storm, there was only one survivor. “I’ll admit that a couple of times I just cried,” said Tom White, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who’s been working for 30…
[ad_1] Dubai, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates struggled Thursday to recover from the heaviest recorded rainfall ever to hit the desert nation, as its main airport worked to restore normal operations even as floodwater still covered portions of major highways and roads. Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, allowed global…
[ad_1] Responding to an independent review of NASA’s ambitious Mars Sample Return mission, agency officials said Monday they will seek fresh ideas from agency engineers, researchers and the private sector to come up with alternative mission designs to reign in sky-rocketing costs and get the precious samples back to Earth earlier. The independent review board…
[ad_1] Jan Dell is a former chemical engineer who has spent years telling an inconvenient truth about plastics. “So many people, they see the recyclable label, and they put it in the recycle bin,” she said. “But the vast majority of plastics are not recycled.” About 48 million tons of plastic waste is generated in…
[ad_1] Periodical cicadas aren’t present every spring, but when they do emerge, they come in loud, buzzing hordes. This year, trillions of these beady-eyed bugs are expected to appear in several U.S. states. Here’s what you need to know about cicadas. Periodical cicadas There are two types of periodical cicadas — ones that come out…
[ad_1] While millions of people looked skyward at Monday’s total solar eclipse on Monday, a handful of earthlings took in a much different view of the rare phenomenon — from the International Space Station. As the station orbited above southeastern Canada, flight engineers Matthews Dominick and Jeanette Epps managed to photograph and videotape the moon’s…
