The Earth's entire surface is inhabited by life, but what about what lies beneath, in the subsurface? In the past, we thought of the deep subseafloor as a lifeless zone. We now know it is the "subseafloor biosphere" inhabited by a substantial percentage of Earth's... click to read more

Looking at satellite images or Google Earth, you often find continent-long elongated clouds covering our planet, which may look like "rivers" running through the sky. These rivers are narrow belts of concentrated moisture in the atmosphere. Atmospheric rivers extend from the tropics (where water tends... click to read more

Observing a faraway astronomical object is the current best way to understand it. If we could travel to a distant star, and look at what is going on up close, the whole process of science would be a lot faster. But our best option is... click to read more

City dwellers often dream of living in a pastoral rural area to get away from it all. However, once there, they realize rurality requires travel time to access even basic services they previously took for granted. The challenge of accessing services, such as healthcare and... click to read more

Unlike our own Blue Planet, Mars is currently too cold to sustain liquid water at its surface. At first glance, Mars 4 billion years ago should have been even colder. Back then, the Sun's brightness was only about 70% of what it is today. Yet... click to read more