The Columbian

Science & Technology

A shark swims on a reef in Ailinginae Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Researchers have completed a comprehensive online map of the world's coral reefs by using more than 2 million satellite images from across the globe.

New online map provides detailed look at coral reefs

September 14, 2021, 6:00am Life

Researchers have completed a comprehensive online map of the world’s coral reefs by using more than 2 million satellite images from across the globe. Read story

FILE - In this file photo taken Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020, a Samburu boy uses a wooden stick to try to swat a swarm of desert locusts filling the air, as he herds his camel near the village of Sissia, in Samburu county, Kenya. Climate change could push more than 200 million people to move within their own countries in the next three decades and create migration hotspots unless urgent action is taken in the coming years to reduce global emissions and bridge the development gap, a World Bank report has found. The report published on Monday, Sept. 13, 2021 examines how long-term impacts of climate change such as water scarcity, decreasing crop productivity and rising sea levels could lead to millions of what the report describes as "climate migrants" by 2050.

Report: Climate change could see 200 million move by 2050

September 13, 2021, 12:44pm Latest News

Climate change could push more than 200 million people to leave their homes in the next three decades and create migration hot spots unless urgent action is taken to reduce global emissions and bridge the development gap, a World Bank report has found. Read story

The Florida Coral Reef Rescue Center in Orlando preserves hundreds of specimens that researchers hope will serve as sort of a seed bank for future restoration. Special lighting gives the room a bluish hue and is designed to mimic the marine environment.

As mysterious disease kills Florida’s reefs, a massive ‘Noah’s Ark’ effort tries to save them

September 12, 2021, 10:45am Nation & World

In 2014, a mysterious coral disease known as Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease was first identified off Miami. In the years since, it has raged like an underwater wildfire, becoming what some scientists call the worst marine epidemic they have ever witnessed. Read story

This Sept. 1, 2021 image provided by NASA shows the hole drilled by the Perseverance rover during its second sample-collection attempt in Mars' Jezero Crater.

NASA confirms Mars rover’s 1st rock sample grab, 40 to go

September 7, 2021, 11:48am Life

NASA’s newest Mars rover has completed its first sample grab, tucking away the tube of rock for return to Earth. Read story

Snail darter no longer endangered

September 7, 2021, 6:04am Life

The snail darter, a tiny fish that notoriously blocked a federal dam project in Tennessee decades ago, should no longer be on the endangered species list, federal officials announced Tuesday. Read story

FILE - In this March 28, 2018, file photo, a North Atlantic right whale feeds on the surface of Cape Cod bay off the coast of Plymouth, Mass. America's lobster fishing industry will face a host of new restrictions in harvesting the valuable crustaceans due to a new push from the federal government to try to save a vanishing species of whale. The whales number only about 360 and they are vulnerable to lethal entanglement in fishing gear.

New lobster fishing rules aim to save whales

September 7, 2021, 6:00am Life

America’s lobster fishing industry will face a host of new harvesting restrictions amid a new push from the federal government to try to save a vanishing species of whale. Read story

The Jubbah Oasis in northern Saudi Arabia, where humans were repeatedly present during periods of increased rainfall over hundreds of thousands of years.

Prehistoric Arabia was a draw

September 7, 2021, 6:00am Life

Huw Groucutt passes rolling sand dunes as far as his eye can see when traveling to archaeological sites in the northern Arabian Peninsula. But the same desert regions were once intermittently lush and green, attracting early humans and large animals such as hippopotamuses migrating out of Africa to linger at… Read story

A dried up former boating dock is seen along the Salton Sea on July 14 in Desert Shores, Calif. Demand for electric vehicles has shifted investments into high gear to extract lithium from geothermal wastewater around California's dying Salton Sea.

Lithium fuels hopes for revival at Salton Sea

September 5, 2021, 6:00am Life

Near Southern California’s dying Salton Sea, a canopy next to a geothermal power plant covers large vats of salty water left behind after super-hot liquid is drilled from deep underground to run steam turbines. The vats connect to tubes that spit out what looks like dishwater, but it’s lithium, a… Read story

A distinctive fan-shaped ginkgo leaf in the Fossils Atmospheres Project is seen in the morning sun at the Smithsonian Research Center in Edgewater, Md., Tuesday, May 18, 2021. "Ginkgo is a pretty unique time capsule," said Peter Crane, a Yale University paleobotanist.

Fossil leaves key in climate study

August 31, 2021, 6:05am Life

Richard Barclay opens a metal drawer in archives of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum containing fossils that are nearly 100 million years old. Despite their age, these rocks aren’t fragile. The geologist and botanist handles them with ease, placing one in his palm for closer examination. Read story