Category: Nature & Outdoors

With forests being wiped out worldwide by climate change, deforestation, pests and plagues, trees need all the help they can get. In this episode of the SciStarter podcast, we learn about three citizen science projects that monitor and protect trees. Also, with gift-giving season right around the corner, Bob also shares a few of his […]

Fungi serve an invaluable role in our ecosystem. They provide humans and a huge variety of insects and animals with top notch nutrition, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. They are the decomposers of our ecosystem and they provide us with medicine. They raise our bread, turn grain into beer, grapes into wine […]

Sharks get a lot more attention than, say, sea cucumbers, possibly because sharks tend to have much bigger teeth. They even get their own week! (note to Discovery Channel: please find room for Sea Cucumber Week). And yet, as marine scientist and shark expert David Shiffman points out, scientists are still discovering new things about […]

When the global pandemic hit, acclaimed wildlife filmmaker Martin Dohrn, locked down in his small city garden in Bristol, England, decided to turn the cameras on the wildlife in his backyard. He was particularly fascinated with the bees visiting his garden. Putting his unparalleled skills and cameras to use, he filmed more than 60 different […]

The author of this post, Adam Castiller, is a student of Chelsea Krieg, an Instructor at NC State University. Day-by-day, life seems to be moving so fast. Between developments in vaccines and the shift back to normal life, we all need something to teach us how to enjoy the small and simple things in life. Throughout […]

A glimpse at the temperature during the next snowfall might surprise you: It may not actually be below freezing outside. Don’t worry, your thermometer isn’t broken, and you didn’t miss a memo about a change in the laws of physics. There’s a straightforward reason why it can snow above 32°F — though it does make […]

Did you know that in nearly every county across the U.S., there’s an office working on programs for youth development, agriculture, landscaping, health and wellness, community development, natural resource conservation and more? They’re all part of what’s called the Cooperative Extension, or “Extension” for short. They’re one of the most far-reaching, non-formal educational programs there […]

As snow blankets the world each winter, the colder temperatures and shorter days can tempt us to curl up indoors with a hot chocolate, watching the winter landscape through the window. But there’s still much to be learned from the great outdoors! That’s why Sknowledge Collective — short for Snow Knowledge — is bringing the […]

Researchers can accomplish amazing things these days with satellites — they can study clouds and climate, forests and land use change and even bird migrations. But with so much satellite data, it can be hard to match up measurements from the sky above with information about what’s actually on the ground. That’s where citizen scientists […]