Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are elongated and narrow bands of clouds and high-water vapor content which advect warm and moist air masses from the tropics toward the poles. ARs are believed to account for most of the annual moisture transport from the tropics into mid and... click to read more

Why are some communities more burdened by air pollution than others? People of color including Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans are more likely to live in neighborhoods with poor air quality. Breathing dirty air aggravates asthma and heart disease and is estimated to cause 100,000... click to read more

Quasicrystals are materials with a quasiperiodic atomic arrangement, meaning that their atoms are in an ordered structure, like normal crystals, but this structure does not repeat itself at regular intervals.  Such atomic configuration has strong impacts on the physical properties of these materials. Quasicrystals are... click to read more

Neutron stars are extremely dense remnants of massive star explosions (supernova). They measure about 20 km in diameter and a teaspoon of neutron star material would weigh 4 billion tons on Earth. We currently know of about 3,000 of these in our own Galaxy. Neutron... click to read more

When you think of living creatures, the first things that come to mind are probably lush plants and big animals. However, most lifeforms on Earth are microscopic, and for most of the Earth’s history, such microbes ruled the planet. Plants and animals have only been... click to read more