An appreciation for the moths that chomp holes in your clothes. They eat the inedible, occupy the uninhabitable and overcome every evolutionary obstacle in their way.
Flying into Hurricane Harvey aboard a a P-3 Hurricane Hunter nicknamed Kermit in 2018.
Lt. Kevin Doreumus/NOAA
The meteorologist leading NOAA’s 2022 hurricane field program describes flying through eyewalls and the technology in these airborne labs for tracking rapid intensification in real time.
When schools shut down to prevent the spread of COVID-19, moms took on the burden of supporting students at home.
AP Photo/Shafkat Anowar
Rivers are among the most embattled ecosystems on Earth. Researchers are testing a new, inexpensive way to study river health by using eDNA to count the species that rivers harbor.
Scientists from the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa at Scifest Africa 2019 engage with visitors.
The South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity
For the endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, every individual matters. A team of veterinarians and biologists has formed a network along the Gulf Coast to save injured sea turtles and the species.
Shorebirds gather by the thousands at important feeding and resting areas, but how individual birds move among sites remains a mystery.
Julian Garcia-Walther
Microphones on the seafloor recorded life under the Antarctic ice for two years – inadvertently catching seal trills and chirps that are above the range of human hearing. Could they be for navigation?
A clapper rail with a fiddler crab in its bill.
Michael Gray
Birds found along the Gulf Coast have evolved to ride out hurricanes and tropical storms. But with development degrading the marshes where they live, it’s getting harder for them to bounce back.
A sedated coyote about to be released with a tracking collar in greater Los Angeles.
Niamh Quinn
Researchers are using a newly developed satellite tag to study previously unknown aspects of tiger shark reproduction. This approach could be used on other difficult-to-study shark species.
Jennifer Walsh, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Sending autonomous vehicles to the Southern Ocean can be fraught with anxiety, especially if one of them doesn’t make radio contact when it’s supposed to.
The research vessel must dodge dangerous icebergs as it drills for sediment core samples.
Phil Christie/IODP
A paleooceanographer describes her ninth sea expedition, this time retrieving cylindrical ‘cores’ of the sediment and rock that’s as much as two miles down at the ocean floor.
The submersible Alvin about 8,500 feet down, studying seafloor volcanoes and eruptions.
(c) Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution with thanks to Daniel Fornari – WHOI-MISO Facility (www.whoi.edu/miso) and National Science Foundation
When you study volcanoes at mid-ocean ridges, doing fieldwork means becoming an aquanaut – diving thousands of feet to the ocean floor in the submersible Alvin, trading tight quarters for amazing views.
It takes a giant piece of equipment to look deep inside a tiny atom.
Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Lab
It turns out to be fairly complicated to figure out how electricity will flow through materials – a crucial question for designing new electronics and semiconductor materials.
Each wolf calls with its own ‘voice.’
Angela Dassow
Tracking wild animals can provide lots of valuable data. New research suggests audio recordings of wild wolves can replace the typical radio collars, which can be expensive and intrusive.
Author Tom Iliffe leads scientists on a cave dive.
Jill Heinerth
Epidemiologists study disease outbreaks in populations to determine who gets sick and why. In the wake of this year’s hurricanes, they are assessing impacts from mold, toxic leaks and other threats.