science news

Skiing, biking, hiking, ATV riding. Whatever form recreation takes, it has an impact on the environment. So how can studying the spectrum of impacts that recreation can have on an ecosystem lead to better management decisions? A new framework developed by researchers from USC, US Institute of outdoor recreation and tourism is working to answer this question and more.

Utah's title of "greatest snow" is at risk due to climate change. We're focusing on impacts, perceptions and adaptation strategies ski resorts are taking as they cope with climate change.

We love to identify good guys and bad guys–in cartoons, movies, and nature. Nature’s good guys, for example, pollinate our crops. The bad guys are venomous animals that bite, sting, or even kill us with their poisons. But recent scientific discoveries by an Australian scientist revealed that the venom of a species of sea anemones contains 84 types of toxins, some of which might serve as the foundation for medicines that alleviate human pain.

New scientific discoveries are the purview of researchers, but that vital information is important to everyone.

Some tidal species just don't do very well in the heat — and these organisms are at obvious risk as our planet warms up. But new research is pointing to a surprising survival strategy for some animals on the rugged Pacific coast: they're sticking together. Literally.

Methane. It's more than just the gas released when cows... release gas. It has a warming potential 25x higher than carbon dioxide. Researchers in Utah's Uinta Basin have been studying emissions of methane and other chemicals from natural gas drilling sites since 2015. They recently found that, despite gas production decreasing, methane leaks at these sites have remained the same. As the world works to reduce greenhouse gases, these research provides valuable insights into sources of these emissions.

Most of us don’t think about evolution often, if at all, and when we do we often conjure up images of Charles Darwin in the Galapagos Islands. Today, the study of evolution is largely driven by mathematics, complexity theory, and machine learning, but a more complete understanding of evolution can also provide us with an important perspective on our place as a little leaf on the giant tree of life. This week we’re talking about why you oughta care about evolution.

This week we take a deep dive into the ancient, exploring the world as it existed over 66 million years ago, in an attempt to understand our present and our future. Creatures called Mosasaurs once inhabited our seas. They’re long extinct now, victims of the fifth great extinction event, along with 80 percent of the species alive at that time. But their lives and their world may give us insight into our own.

We have a complicated relationship with bears. Ask any hiker what their greatest fear is, and running into a bear will be at the top of that list. But we want to see them too! People travel from all over the world to our national parks with the hope of sighting a bear. Bears play an important role in our history, culture, environment, and economy. This week we’re talking about why you should care about bears.

They've got warts, they sometimes smell like roasted peanuts, and in Wyoming, they're changing how they move because of a fungus. This week, we'll be…