Earth news stories

A study of 4000-year-old DNA—a rare find in this region—suggests that rice farming came with farmers migrating from China, where it originated.

A new method of measuring phytocannabinoids—the primary bioactive molecules in cannabis—will lead to faster, safer and more accurate information for producers, regulators and consumers alike.

Researchers have found evidence that regular changes in the Earth’s orbit and axis of rotation caused significant changes in both the evolution and extinction rates of an extinct type of plankton.

UCLA neuroscientists have reported that they have transferred a memory from one animal to another via injections of RNA.

The authors refute the idea that increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are the key cause of the spread of trees. As countries become better off, farmers focus on good quality soils and abandon marginal lands, the authors say.

Named 2018 GE3, it passed us by at about half the distance between Earth and the moon—wicked close.

Scientists drilling deep into ancient rocks in the Arizona desert say they have documented a gradual shift in Earth’s orbit that repeats every 405,000 years, playing a role in natural climate swings.

Recent studies are finding that drugs such as LSD and psilocybin can help to alleviate depression, anxiety and addiction—and may have profound things to teach us about how the mind works.

The idea of using energy from the sun to evaporate and purify water is ancient. The Greek philosopher Aristotle reportedly described such a process more than 2,000 years ago.

A study of the most recent near-reversals of the Earth’s magnetic field by an international team of researchers has found it is unlikely that such an event will take place anytime soon.

Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the University of Rochester take a critical look at the scientific evidence that ours is the only advanced civilization ever to have existed on our planet.

Shooting small rocks from a high-speed cannon showed that some asteroids could have brought water to the early Earth — without all the water boiling away on impact, a new study finds.