News | Popular | Blogs | Articles | Departments
What You Don't Know Can Kill You
Humans have a perplexing tendency to fear rare threats such as shark attacks while blithely ignoring far greater risks like unsafe sex and an unhealthy diet. Those illusions are not just silly—they make the world a more dangerous place. 10.03.2011
The Toxinator: EPA Robot Tests Chemicals to See if They're Poison
The EPA and independent researchers can't possibly test the huge range of chemicals found in products we use. But now a tireless, efficient bot will take on the task. 08.26.2011
The Hardcore Nuclear-Waste Containers That Can Stand up to Airplane Crashes
When it comes to spent nuclear fuel, no solution is perfect—but the U.S's dry casks are pretty tough. 08.02.2011
Fracking Nation
Environmental concerns over a controversial mining method could put America's largest reservoirs of clean-burning natural gas beyond reach. Is there a better way to drill? 08.01.2011
Made in China: Our Toxic, Imported Air Pollution
Mercury, sulfates, ozone, black carbon, flu-laced desert dust. Even as America tightens emission standards, the fast-growing economies of Asia are filling the air with hazardous components that circumnavigate the globe. 03.18.2011
The 100 Top Science Stories of 2010
Every year DISCOVER sorts through the scientific accomplishments of the past 12 months, and assembles a list of the coolest experiments, most brilliant discoveries, and most world-changing events. As you page through the countdown to the #1 science story, we think you'll come to the same conclusion we did: 2010 was quite a year. 12.16.2010
7 Visions of Our Hot, Awful Future
A bounty of 2010 books predict the future in a globally warmed world. Among the forecasts: boom town Detroit, abandoned Miami, an Arctic black gold rush, and a weirdly strong dried fruit market. 12.13.2010
When Oil and Water Mix
A first-hand view of the overmatched effort to contain the Deepwater Horizon spill 12.05.2010
The End of Easy Oil
Canada’s tar sands will soon be our top source of imported oil. But will that energy be worth the costs? 12.01.2010
Museum-Worthy Garbage: The Art of Over-Consumption
Artists are combining art and advocacy by creating beautiful, disturbing work about American excess. 04.27.2010
Beautiful Pools of Pollution
Farmers need fertilizers. But mining phosphorus for fertilizers is creating toxic wastelands. 11.24.2009
The Easiest Way to Fight Global Warming?
Simply cleaning up soot could work wonders for the climate. 09.08.2009
9 of Humanity's Greatest Environmental Successes
We're making some headway in restoring the environment—even if we caused the devastation in the first place. 07.10.2009
When Recycling Is Bad for the Environment
Recycling plastic is tricky business, and many plastics are better off as garbage. 07.06.2009
10 Zany (or Genius?) Plans for Green Cities of the Future
Floating cities. A building with a million residents. An oil rig turned into a tourist getaway. Some architects are dreaming of a wild green revolution. 05.26.2009
The Next Source of Green Energy: Your Car Itself
A new MIT invention turns shock absorbers into electric generators. 05.03.2009
Eyes in the Sky Show That Air Pollution Is Way Worse Than We Thought
New satellite tracking gives a much more accurate read on global air pollution. 04.13.2009
Man's Greatest Crimes Against the Earth, in Pictures
Humans rule the world… and destroy it in the process. 04.08.2009
Play Nice: 9 Eco-Friendly Toys
This year's Toy Fair in NYC showed a notable trend toward green toys. 03.19.2009
How to Tell If You're Poisoning Yourself With Fish
Researchers are creating genetic tests to determine if mercury hiding in that "healthy" dinner could be messing with your brain. 03.19.2009
Acid Rain?
The term has faded from public consciousness—but not the environment. 03.13.2009
First Plastic Went After Babies; Now It's Messing Up Science Itself
A new study shows that plastic lab equipment can interfere with experiments. 01.30.2009
Can Clean Coal Actually Work? Time to Find Out.
The first "clean coal" power plant is now up and running. 01.25.2009
Carbon Dioxide May Be the Least of Our Warming Worries
New studies show an even greater accumulation of other, potentially more potent greenhouse gases. 01.25.2009
The Best and Worst of the Latest Science News
Endangered humpback whales may be saved, but Navy sonar can still cause them problems. 01.18.2009
Super Trees Clean up Superfund Sites
One remarkable forest is busy purifying the planet. 12.26.2008
#1: The Post-Oil Era Begins
Electricity may be what fuels our future—electricity from renewables, nuclear, and even from burning biomass. 12.22.2008
#25: EPA Searches Soul, Tries to Figure out If It's a Climate Cop
The agency moves toward acting on greenhouse gases, but change will probably wait for Obama. 12.17.2008
#35: Scientists Find the Key to Bringing Dead Zones Back to Life
Phosphorus levels can make or break a lake, it turns out. 12.16.2008
#73: Giant Ice Meteors Fall From Clear Skies
20-pound chunks of ice falling on a sunny day? It's no urban myth. 12.09.2008
Carbon Trading: Environmental Godsend or Giant Shell Game?
The lively debate over whether cap-and-trade really does much to fight global warming 12.03.2008
Global Warming Math: The Hard Numbers
A clear-eyed look at the magnitude of global warming problem—and the cost in getting rid of it. 10.18.2008
How—and Where—Will We Live in 2015?
The future is now for sustainable cities in the U.K., China, and U.A.E. 10.08.2008
The King of Green Architecture
William McDonough aims to create buildings that produce oxygen, sequester carbon, and produce more power than they use. 09.28.2008
What Invisible Things Are in the Surfaces You Touch and Air You Breathe?
A DISCOVER editor delves into the unseen forces that affect our lives. 08.29.2008
Can Future Olympic Cities Go Greener Than Beijing?
After China's last-minute push to clean up for the games, the next three hosts aim to do better. 08.25.2008
Eco-Chic to the Rescue!
Sea leather, hemp, and bamboo make up this season's runway couture—but will it really help the planet? 08.05.2008
The Lifesaving Work of the Man Behind "A Civil Action"
"Popular epidemiologist" Phil Brown comes to the aid of environmental contamination victims. 07.29.2008
Female Starlings Duped into Mating with Duds
Environmental pollutants lead lesser males to sing louder and attract more mates. 07.10.2008
The World's Largest Dump: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
In the central North Pacific, plastic outweighs surface zooplankton 6 to 1. 07.10.2008
10 Ways Methane Could Brake Global Warming—or Break the Planet
The enigmatic gas is a valuable fuel and a dangerous digestive waste product. 07.04.2008
The 5 Most Creative Ways to Clean Up Pollution
Sometimes, two kinds of messes can cancel each other out. 06.28.2008
20 Things You Didn't Know About... Oil
Learn more about the world's biggest fuel source—while it's still around. 06.28.2008
Skip the Shampoo? Dirty Human Hair Neutralizes Ozone
But it's not all good—also produces formaldehyde and other irritants. 06.26.2008
Under the Hood of the First Real Fuel-Cell Car
The Honda Clarity is for real, but it's not zero-emissions. 06.08.2008
Whither the Coral Reefs?
Global warming and overfishing are killing reefs while scientists struggle to save them. 06.05.2008
Two Strokes and You're Out
Impressive new tech reduces pollution from small engines by almost 90 percent. 05.21.2008
What Will It Take To Ditch All That Carbon?
A new book explores methods of collecting and storing all the carbon in the atmosphere. 05.19.2008
Is It Wednesday? Better Bring an Umbrella.
Afternoon thunderstorms are more frequent in the middle of the week. 04.30.2008
How Much Do Chemicals Affect Our Health?
Philip Landrigan tracks how dangers like the WTC can cause problems like ADD. 04.25.2008
Is Nuclear Energy Our Best Hope?
Even the creator of the holistic Gaia hypothesis has come around. 04.25.2008
20 Things You Didn't Know About... Recycling
Happy Earth Day! Now help fix the planet. 04.22.2008
How Big Is DISCOVER's Carbon Footprint?
That one little magazine is responsible for 2.1 pounds of carbon dioxide. 04.21.2008
Think You Can Live Without Plastic?
One writer chronicles the ubiquity of plastic products in daily life. 04.18.2008
The Dirty Truth About Plastic
BPA and other plastics may be as harmful as they are plentiful. 04.18.2008
The Key to Safe and Effective Carbon Sequestration
Some rock acts as a natural stopper to buried carbon dioxide. 02.29.2008
A New Source of Green Energy: Burning Tires?
If rubber recycling hits a glut, there may be little choice. 02.12.2008
The Latest Weapon Against Global Warming: Your Fridge
Smart appliances react to the grid to prevent blackouts—and pollution. 02.11.2008
51. Wastewater Decimates Minnows
01.09.2008
34. Sleuths Track Mystery Bee Die-Off
12.28.2007
The Smoking Torch
Surviving Beijing’s air may be an Olympian feat. 12.12.2007
1. China’s Syndrome
Tainted products and choking pollution spark anxiety across the globe. 12.12.2007
Green House vs. Greenhouse
To save the environment, imitate mobile homes and go pre-fab. 11.29.2007
A Spaceport for Treehuggers
Can a green building offset the potentially giant impact of spaceflight? 11.26.2007
Can a Maligned Pesticide Save Lives?
DDT may be a useful public-health tool—until its effect wears off... 11.20.2007
Expert: Modern Chemicals Brought Cancer Epidemic
First tobacco. Then asbestos. Now we're awash in a sea of new poisons. 11.08.2007
The 9/11 Cover-Up
Thousands of New Yorkers were endangered by WTC debris—and government malfeasance. 09.07.2007
The First Nuclear Refugees Come Home
Chernobyl-area natives return to find a city of ghosts. 06.08.2007
Everything on Earth Is in the Air
Cosmic dust, cockroach parts, chloroform—you name it 06.07.2007
Return of Nuclear Winter
Proliferation gives new life to old fear. 05.03.2007
Return of the Aral Sea
The desiccation of a remote island lake in Central Asia is one of the world's worst ecological disasters. Now, with an $85 million engineering project, the doomed sea is coming back to life. 09.01.2006
Whatever Happened To... the Exxon Valdez?
Now seventeen years after the most damaging oil spill in U.S. history, what's happened to the affected Alaskan environment? 08.01.2006
20 Things You Didn't Know About... Garbage
06.25.2006
Watch the Skies—For Junk
As head of NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office, Nicholas L. Johnson keeps tabs on deadly flying garbage, aka space junk. 06.05.2006
Toxic Inheritance
Frederica Perera, DNA-damage detective, suspects that if a mother breathes in pollution, her child may develop cancer. 03.06.2006
Whatever Happened to Global Cooling?
02.20.2006
The Year in Science: Environment
Siberian methane, the recovering ozone layer, hurricane history in tree rings, and more. 01.30.2006
Chernobyl: A Biodiversity Hot Spot?
01.21.2006
Biosphere 2: On the Block
12.01.2005
Early Polluters
12.01.2005
Discover Data
08.06.2005
Discover Data
07.24.2005
Aerosols to Fret About
07.24.2005
Saving Eden
Can the ecology and the economy of Iraq's once-glorious wetlands be restored? 07.24.2005
X
05.01.2005
Think Tank
What we learned in the last 25 years, and what we're likely to see in the next 25 04.28.2005
Our Preferred Poison
A little mercury is all that humans need to do away with themselves quietly, slowly, and surely 03.31.2005
Blown Away
Worldwide deforestation, mining, overgrazing, and the diversion of water have combined to create huge dust clouds that carry bacteria, viruses, soot, acids, radioactive isotopes, and pesticides from Asia and Africa to the United States 03.31.2005
43: Man-Made Particles Dim Sun
01.03.2005
64: China Promises Pollution Cleanup
01.02.2005
The Gulf's Dead Zone Lives
12.03.2004
The Pollution Blackout
11.25.2004
Do You Really Want to Eat That Tuna?
05.29.2004
MIT's Plasma Bus
03.28.2004
Chemistry
01.02.2004
Environment
01.02.2004
Fish on Prozac
Our pharmaceutical drugs are turning up in the environment and in animals. What will the consequences be? 12.27.2003
Got Pollution? Get Rust
12.03.2003
Testing Pesticides on Humans
Pesticide companies pay volunteers to swallow and inhale the neurotoxins they make. What's wrong with this picture? 12.03.2003
Fried Ice
Should we torch oil spills off Alaska with napalm? 11.08.2003
The Microbe Preservation Society
10.01.2003
Another Risk from DDT
08.01.2003
Turn Down the Lights
The party's over: when we turn up the lights, nature goes a little haywire 07.01.2003
Sludge: The New Fertilizer
06.01.2003
The Oils of War
03.01.2003
Home Remedy for Earth
03.01.2003
Transsexual Frogs
A popular weed killer makes some frogs grow the wrong sex organs. Your drinking water may have 30 times the dose they're getting 02.01.2003
Environment
01.01.2003
Discover Data: Sailing the Oily Seas
10.01.2002
Climate on the Wing
08.01.2002
Russia's Floating Nuclear Graveyard
07.01.2002
Fetuses take Air Pollution to Heart
04.01.2002
Sky Lights
Radiation levels are up and our satellite is down 02.01.2002
The Shooting Gallery
Orbital space around the Earth is full of deadly debris from old missions. Now NASA has to figure out how to keep a hail of space junk from bringing down the shuttle, the space station, and a lot of satellites 12.01.2001
Spliced Ham, The Cleaner Breakfast Meat
Genetically engineered pigs do less harm to the environment. 12.01.2001
Less Coral to Go Around
12.01.2001
Twinkle, Twinkle Little What?
11.01.2001
Petrol-Plastered Penguins in Peril
11.01.2001
Children of Chernobyl
08.01.2001
Winner - Transportation
Eric Olofsson; Combustion and Gas Exchange Manager, Saab Automotive AB; Södertälje, Sweden 07.01.2001
Transportation: Eric Olofsson
Discover Magazine Innovation Awards 07.01.2001
The Arsenic Eliminator
07.01.2001
Sea Sick
Killer whales that live near Seattle are dying too soon and too often. Are they harbingers of an oceanic collapse—and are we next? 02.01.2001
New Life in a Death Trap
Will algae blooming in an acidic, poisonous Montana mine lead us to an answer for Superfund sites? 12.01.2000
Silent Summer
This summer, many more Americans may have to choose between getting exposed to West Nile encephalitis or getting sprayed with a mild neurotoxin. Maybe they should just stay indoors. 07.01.2000
Sink the Nukes
07.01.2000
The Dragon Eats the Sun
05.01.2000
Dead Zones
03.01.2000
The Soils of War
11.01.1999
Tracking Toxics
09.01.1999
Frogs Legs Up
07.01.1999
It's Not Easy Being Green
07.01.1999
Here Comes the Plutonium
04.01.1999
Rainmakers
11.01.1998
The Year in Science: Environment 1997
The Value of the Free Lunch 01.01.1998
The Year in Science: Environment 1997
Not a Pretty Picture 01.01.1998
The Year in Science: Environment 1997
Uncleared Air 01.01.1998
The Year in Science: Environment 1997
Pollutants Are Androgynous 01.01.1998
The Year in Science: Environment 1997
The Jaws You Can't See 01.01.1998
The Danube Blues
08.01.1997
At Play on a Field of Trash
Hastily converted landfills can be unruly dragons, belching garbage, gas, and fire. But done right, a dump can be a thing of beauty. 06.01.1997
The Sheltering Junk
02.01.1997
Hope for Los Angeles, A City That Needs It
01.01.1997
A Slow-Healing Wound
01.01.1997
Ten Years After
01.01.1997
Groundwater Secrets
09.01.1996
Hormone Hell
Industrial chemicals can mimick natural hormones and wreak havoc in developing animals. 09.01.1996
Zebra Mussels--the Bright Side
08.01.1996
1996 Discover Awards: Environment
07.01.1996
Rhubarb to the Rescue
06.01.1996
Dragonfly Death Traps
05.01.1996
The Air of Ostrava
The EPA ran the gauntlent in a land of many risks: the pollution-rich Czech Republic. 05.01.1996
Smog Collectors
04.01.1996
Russia's Black Future
02.01.1996
Stomping on the Trees
01.01.1996
State of the Earth: 1995
01.01.1996
North Hole
01.01.1996
Peregrine's Progress
01.01.1996
Paper Trail
11.01.1995
Analysis of a Toxic Death
A year ago two dozen emergency room staff were mysteriously felled by fumes emanating from a dying young woman. Investigations turned up nothing--until a team of chemists from a nuclear weapons lab got involved. 04.01.1995
Unintended Consequences
03.01.1995
Losing a Lake
Lake Victoria is in danger of becoming the world's largest pool of dead water. Already half its native fish are extinct, and the 30 million people who eke out a living from its troubled waters are facing calamity. 03.01.1994
A Case of Nerves
In the name of peace, the Army will soon start incinerating millions of aging weapons filled with lethal nerve gas and mustard gas. But some residents of Utah, where the burning will begin, are a bit worried by that. 11.01.1993
Son of Ozone Hole
10.01.1993
Nuclear Detectives
In California some gumshoe physicists are using a particle accelerator to nab polluters. 04.01.1993
Ravaged Republics
Two months ago two countries emerged from the ashes of once-communist Czechoslovakia. But left intact is some of the world's worst pollution. 03.01.1993
9(unknown*no*no*0)&guid=ON){kind=small}
