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NASA Opens Applications For A Yearlong Moon And Mars Simulation
Most people dream of escaping their daily routine. NASA is asking a handful of volunteers to do the exact opposite by locking themselves inside an isolated habitat for an entire year. There will be no fresh air, no weekend trips, and no chance to step outside whenever they feel like it. Instead, participants will spend…
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Siberian Town Hits 100 Degrees, and the UN Confirms an Arctic First
A number sat unconfirmed for more than a year, waiting on scientists who wanted proof before they’d put it in the record books. Verkhoyansk, a town roughly 115 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle, had logged a reading that belonged nowhere near a place known for permafrost and polar bears. Investigators spent months checking equipment,…
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Southern California Is Paying Residents Up to $25,000 to Get Rid of Their Lawns
A lush green lawn has long been considered part of the American dream, but in Southern California that tradition is being replaced by something far more practical. As drought conditions, rising temperatures, and growing pressure on water supplies continue to reshape the region, local agencies are offering homeowners a financial incentive that is difficult to…
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How To Live On Earth Is the New Environmental Documentary We All Need to Watch
In the largest pear-growing forest on the planet, somewhere in China, workers move through the trees carrying feather dusters. They are not cleaning anything. They are pollinating the blossoms by hand, dusting pollen across flower after flower, performing a task so vast and so painstaking that it almost defies belief. It is the kind of…
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New Deep-Sea “Ghost Shark” Species Discovered in the Dark Waters Off Costa Rica
Hundreds of meters beneath the surface of the Pacific, in a realm of perpetual darkness and crushing pressure where no diver could ever venture, something pale and ancient has been drifting through the water unnoticed for far longer than anyone realized. It belongs to one of the oldest lineages of fish on the planet, a…
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The Largest U.S. Groundwater Supply Is Running Out Beneath the Great Plains
Most of us never think about where our water comes from, let alone the water that grew the wheat in our morning toast or fattened the cattle behind the beef at the grocery store. For tens of millions of Americans, much of that answer lies hidden beneath the Great Plains, in an underground reservoir so…
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Why This El Niño Has Climate Experts Deeply Concerned
A vast pool of unusually warm water is spreading across the tropical Pacific, and scientists believe it could help drive the planet into another period of extraordinary heat. The arrival of El Niño is not unusual on its own. The climate pattern has appeared for centuries and typically returns every two to seven years. What…
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The Mystery Mushroom That Creates Visions of Little People
A mushroom that has reportedly caused people to see armies of tiny humans marching across their dinner tables has left scientists facing a mystery they still cannot explain. For decades, doctors in China’s Yunnan Province have encountered patients describing remarkably similar hallucinations after eating a popular local mushroom. The stories sound like something lifted from…
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Investigators Reveal What Really Caused The Titan Submersible Disaster
For more than two years, the implosion of the Titan submersible has remained one of the most shocking tragedies in modern exploration. The disaster captured global attention not only because five people lost their lives, but because it happened during a mission to visit one of the most famous shipwrecks in history. Now, a damning…
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Wildflower Strips Attract Pest-Eating Insects and Cut the Need for Pesticides
Picture a working farm field cut through with bright ribbons of wildflowers, oxeye daisies and red clover swaying among the crops. It looks like decoration, a pleasant flourish at the margins of serious agriculture. It is, in fact, something closer to a hidden defense system. Those strips of flowers are quietly recruiting an army, and…
