Earth Sciences

Illuminating the molecular ballet in living cells, Charting the voyage of marine plastics, A glimpse into the origins of life & Earliest human journeys to Asia. Plus Submissions open for Asia Research News 2024. Read all in the latest Editor's Choice.

An exquisitely preserved fossil forest from Japan provides missing links and helps reconstruct a whole Eurasia plant from the late Miocene epoch.

The composition of the Earth’s earliest atmosphere

How have the atmosphere and mantle oxidation state of the Earth changed?

An international research team has discovered that a subduction zone’s age affects the ability for it to recycle water between the Earth’s surface and its inner layers. The more mature the subduction zone, the bigger the water storage capacity.

New findings from a cave in northern Laos add to a growing body of evidence that modern humans arrived in Southeast Asia over 80,000 years ago, tens of thousands of years earlier than previously thought.

Researchers from Newcastle University, led by Dr Kheng Lim Goh, have developed a cost-effective Cellular Automata (CA) model for predicting marine plastic movement. Findings from model predictions align well with traditional particle-tracking models, suggesting its potential as a valuable tool for assessing marine plastic pollution and mitigation strategies.

Tam Pà Ling, a cave in northern Laos, reveals new secrets about our earliest human journeys from Africa through to Australia.

Water from the Pacific Ocean flows into the Indian Ocean via the Indonesia Archipelago thanks to a vast network of currents that act as a conveyor belt, transporting warmth and nutrients. Currents can sometimes form circular motions and these are known as eddies. An international group of researchers has modeled the impacts of eddies on the currents that carry water from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean.

Acoustic signals can be effectively used for monitoring glacial runoff and provide a cheaper and more accessible alternative to existing methods.

Mushrooms 🍄get chattier after rainfall 🌧️, Two-organ chip answers fatty liver questions, History maps 🗺️vs future simulations, Restoring vision in blindness. Plus in our blog: Myanmar: Through eyes of leadership. Read all in the latest Editor's Choice.

Understanding how catalytic organic polymers emerged on prebiotic Earth is vital to understanding the origin of life. Now, a team of scientists at Tohoku University have recently found a potential environment for the reaction that produced catalytic organic polymers.

Researchers from The University of Tokyo find a new approach to successfully identify areas at risk of flooding that can be missed by historical hazard maps.

地球外生命が発見されれば、宇宙における私たちの存在意義に変化をもたらすだろう。しかしその探索に関する報道の在り方は、科学者やメディアにとって未だに大きな課題である。

東京工業大学地球生命研究所（ELSI）のサイエンスコミュニケーションコースでは、大学院生が多様な対象に研究を伝えるための実践的なスキルの習得を目指す。

Lingnan University (LU) kickstarted their Bug Wars against Food Waste Project on 27 March in order to both reduce food waste and turn it into a useful asset. The campaign aims to inspire students, faculty members and the whole community to adopt a low-carbon lifestyle, using black soldier flies to convert food waste collected from student hostels and canteens into organic fertiliser for the Lingnan Gardeners Project and plants on the campus, as well as quality feed for campus animals. Staff, students and the elderly are signing up as low-carbon ambassadors to develop and apply innovative ideas to resolve community issues and promote a more sustainable lifestyle.

Scientists restore impaired kidney for the first time, How fibre composite fails when wet, Cleaner fish recognize themselves in pictures 🖼️🐟& The source of black carbon in the sea. Read all in the latest Editor's Choice. Plus our magazine Asia Research News 2023 is out now 🎉!

Finding extra-terrestrial life would transform how we view our place in the Universe, but reporting on the search for it poses challenges for scientists and the media.

A science communication course at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) in Japan provides graduate students with practical skills to communicate research to a diverse audience.

Naturally formed iron oxides on the surface of plastic tubes offer an inexpensive and sustainable method to reduce arsenic contamination in crops.

Tree rings forecast extreme weather in central Asia, Squid 🦑and chemistry make versatile hydrogels, James Webb telescope reveals the earliest galaxies & Reducing negative effects of screen time. Read all in the latest Editor's Choice. Plus our latest journalist resource "Experts for Media: Antimicrobial Resistance "🦠.

Hydrothermal vents have been identified as a previously undiscovered source of dissolved black carbon in the oceans, furthering the understanding of the role of oceans as a carbon sink.

Data stored in ice cores dating back 55 years bring new insight into atmospheric levels of a molecule that can significantly affect weather and climate.

A “back-projection” technique reveals new details of the volcanic eruption in Tonga that literally shook the world.

Overeating mechanism: why "eating just one chip"🍟 is impossible, Measuring hidden energy of gamma-ray bursts, Marine species that can adapt to ocean acidification & A rough start can lead to a strong bond, Read all in our first Editor's Choice of 2023. Plus our interview on what dengue vaccine approval in EU💉means for global dengue protection.

- DGIST Professor Park Chi-Young's team developed photothermal porous polymer capable of ultra-fast adsorption and removal of phenolic microplastics and VOC contaminants in water - Showing the potential as a next-generation water purification material made of inexpensive raw materials, and ultra-high removal efficiency through solar-based purification process - Selected as the cover paper for the 50th edition of ‘Advanced Materials,’ the most prestigious academic journal in the field of materials in 2022

Sound velocities of superhydrous phase B and the presence of water in the Earth’s mantle

Reef corals provide an accurate, high-resolution record of the influence of the El Niño Southern Oscillation on rainfall, flooding and droughts in the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam.

Giants in History: Chinese palaeontologist, archaeologist and anthropologist Pei Wenzhong (January 19, 1904 – September 18, 1982) is regarded as a founder of Chinese anthropology.

We don’t know much about the Earth’s inner core because recreating its conditions in a laboratory setting remains fraught with difficulties. Based on tracking seismic waves, scientists theorize that the area in and around the core comprises mostly of iron. But the values extracted from these indicators differ from how pure iron typically behaves. Now, a collaborative research group has succeeded, for the first time, in measuring the speed of sound of pure iron under pressures similar to the Earth’s inner core boundary.