Maddie Stone, Author at Gizmodo

Researchers Discover Antarctic Ice Shelf ‘Alive’ With Tiny Icequakes

For about six to 12 hours as the sun dips low on the horizon in the late spring and early summer, an Antarctic ice shelf comes alive. Tiny quakes rattle the ice by the hundreds of thousands—and their existence could help scientists track how glaciers are melting across the frozen continent. These quakes, documented in…

Earth Science Maddie Stone

These Scientists Ground an iPhone to Dust to Figure Out What’s Inside

You probably don’t spend a lot of time pondering what your smartphone is made of. But maybe you should, because the average phone is a dizzyingly complex compendium of metals and minerals sourced from all over the Earth. Now, a team of scientists at the University of Plymouth is attempting to demystify the ingredient list,…

Earther Maddie Stone

Dirty Diapers, Used Needles, and More: The Worst Things Americans Try to Recycle

Recycling is in trouble. There are many reasons for this, chief among them a string of new bans and restrictions on recycled goods set forth by China. But there’s another, related reason why so much of what Americans try to recycle is now winding up at an incinerator or a landfill. We toss a lot…

Conservation Maddie Stone

Scientists Might Finally Know Why Some Icebergs Are Bright Green

In the 18th-century English ballad The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a storm drives a sailor’s ship toward the South Pole, where he encounters all manner of fantastical sights, including floating icebergs “as green as emerald.” It may sound like author Samuel Coleridge was taking some poetic license, but emerald-colored icebergs are a real thing—and…

Earth Science Maddie Stone

Behind the Hype of Apple’s Plan to End Mining

There are 118 elements on the periodic table. An iPhone contains about 75 of them. We don’t have an exact number because Apple wouldn’t provide one, which is going to be a theme of this story. And while some of those elements, like aluminum and lithium, are familiar in both name and function, others, like…

Conservation Maddie Stone

Recycling Is Broken

In Philadelphia, people like to recycle. Together, all 1.6 million of us generate about 400 tons of recyclable material each day. But since last fall, roughly half of the bottles and cans my neighbors and I have placed dutifully curbside in our blue bins every week haven’t made their way to a sorting facility. They’ve…

Conservation Maddie Stone

Australia Just Sweated Through Its Hottest Summer Ever

In case you haven’t heard, it’s been hot in Australia. So it comes as no great shock that the Australian government has officially declared the summer of 2018-19 the country’s hottest on record. “It won’t come as a surprise to many that this summer will be our warmest on record,” Andrew Watkins, manager of long-range…

Climate Change Maddie Stone

New Map of Hawaii Shows Where Kilauea’s Lava Piled Up Over 900 Feet High

Kilauea’s largest eruption in at least 200 years may be over, but scientists are still learning about how it reshaped Hawaii’s Big Island. Case in point: We now have a map showing just how high the lava piled up. Last week, scientists with the USGS Hawaii Volcano Observatory (HVO) released a preliminary map showing the…

Earth Science Maddie Stone

An Iceberg 30 Times the Size of Manhattan Is About to Break Off Antarctica

An Antarctic ice shelf that’s been cracking up for years is now very close to giving birth to an iceberg roughly 30 times the size of Manhattan. With a long-term scientific research station right in the neighborhood, the far-flung event is being watched closely, and with some trepidation. On Wednesday, NASA released a new image…

Earth Science Maddie Stone

Political Group Launches ‘Aggressive Targeting Strategy’ to Get More Scientists Elected in 2020

2018 was a banner year for scientists getting elected to public office. Now, a group that pushed hard to send some of those technically-minded folks to Capitol Hill is redoubling its efforts ahead of the 2020 election. Last week, 314 Action, a political action committee that focuses on getting scientists and other STEM professionals elected…

Earther Maddie Stone

Why America’s Northernmost City Is Having a Weird, Hot Winter

Something strange is happening to the northernmost city in the United States. It’s the dead of winter, and temperatures in Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow) should be well below zero. Late last week, they soared into the 20s and 30s—practically beach weather for Arctic Alaska. On February 7, temperatures in Utqiaġvik flirted with the freezing mark, possibly…

Climate Change Maddie Stone

A Giant Atmospheric River Is About to Dump Loads of Rain on California’s Snowpack, Threatening Floods

California gets most of its rain during the winter, but this wet season has proven especially juicy so far. The moisture parade continued on Wednesday with a major atmospheric river descended on the Golden State, raising concerns of flooding and mudslides as it dumps heavy rain and snow across a wide region through Thursday evening.…

Earther Maddie Stone

Earth’s ‘Third Pole’ Contains Less Ice Than We Thought

The glaciers blanketing the high mountains of central Asia are smaller than we thought, according to a new analysis published Monday in Nature Geoscience. Given that they’re also facing a rapid meltdown, this is pretty bad for the hundreds of millions of people who use their water. Last week, a major analysis concluded that most…

Earth Science Maddie Stone

Melting Ice Sheets Could Throw Earth’s Climate Into Disarray, Alarming Models Predict

It’s no secret that Earth’s ice sheets are shrinking as temperatures rise. But this planetary meltdown isn’t just a problem for coastal residents dealing with rising sea levels. New research suggests it could be a problem for all of us as the effects of ice loss ripple through the oceans and atmosphere. Models published Wednesday…

Earth Science Maddie Stone

America Had a Wet, Hot 2018

On Tuesday, NOAA and NASA released their much-anticipated analyses of global climate trends for 2018. As we expected, the agencies confirmed it was the fourth-warmest year on record for planet Earth. But the reports also highlighted just how striking a year it was for the U.S. specifically, with most of the country feeling the heat…

Earther Maddie Stone

Scientists Will Once Again Try to Explore Alien Ecosystem Exposed by Giant Antarctic Iceberg

Last year, a team of scientists embarked on a mission to explore the seafloor exposed when a Delaware-sized iceberg popped off the Antarctic Peninsula in 2017. Frustratingly, their ship had to turn around mid-voyage thanks to impenetrable sea ice. This year, amidst near-record low Antarctic sea ice levels, another team of scientists will make an…

Earther Maddie Stone

Alarming Number of Americans Think Climate-Change Deniers Deserve to Get Hit by Natural Disasters, Survey Finds

When Hurricane Michael flattened entire communities in the Florida Panhandle last fall, most Americans and media outlets responded with an appropriate level of horror and empathy. A few, however, engaged in a pretty ugly form of victim-blaming; observing that the conservative districts that suffered damage voted for politicians who deny climate science—the implication being these…

Earther Maddie Stone

Bummer: Global Warming Won’t Make Giant Winter Snow Storms Go Away

Climate change is going to have a lot of unpleasant consequences. But at least those of us on the East Coast won’t face as many nasty winter snowstorms, right? Well… a new study is throwing a bit of cold water on that silver lining. Residents of the Northeast are all too familiar with nor’easters, cold-weather…

Earther Maddie Stone

Key Data For NASA’s Ice-Monitoring Satellite in Trouble Thanks to Shutdown

Last month, NASA researchers were gleefully sharing the early returns from their recently launched ice-monitoring satellite, ICESat-2, at the world’s largest annual meeting of Earth scientists. This month, many of those same researchers are furloughed as a vital airborne campaign needed to calibrate the satellite faces mounting delays due to the U.S. government shutdown. Science…

Earther Maddie Stone

Greenland’s Ice Can No Longer Handle Hot Summers

A team of scientists is warning that the double whammy of a naturally recurring weather pattern and rising temperatures is triggering dramatic melting on the Greenland ice sheet—a problem the researchers liken to recent global coral bleaching events, which have been fueled by the one-two punch of El Niño and climate change. The research, published…

Climate Change Maddie Stone

Maddie Stone

Researchers Discover Antarctic Ice Shelf ‘Alive’ With Tiny Icequakes

These Scientists Ground an iPhone to Dust to Figure Out What’s Inside

Dirty Diapers, Used Needles, and More: The Worst Things Americans Try to Recycle

Scientists Might Finally Know Why Some Icebergs Are Bright Green

Behind the Hype of Apple’s Plan to End Mining

Recycling Is Broken

Australia Just Sweated Through Its Hottest Summer Ever

New Map of Hawaii Shows Where Kilauea’s Lava Piled Up Over 900 Feet High

An Iceberg 30 Times the Size of Manhattan Is About to Break Off Antarctica

Political Group Launches ‘Aggressive Targeting Strategy’ to Get More Scientists Elected in 2020

Why America’s Northernmost City Is Having a Weird, Hot Winter

A Giant Atmospheric River Is About to Dump Loads of Rain on California’s Snowpack, Threatening Floods

Earth’s ‘Third Pole’ Contains Less Ice Than We Thought

Melting Ice Sheets Could Throw Earth’s Climate Into Disarray, Alarming Models Predict

America Had a Wet, Hot 2018

Scientists Will Once Again Try to Explore Alien Ecosystem Exposed by Giant Antarctic Iceberg

Alarming Number of Americans Think Climate-Change Deniers Deserve to Get Hit by Natural Disasters, Survey Finds

Bummer: Global Warming Won’t Make Giant Winter Snow Storms Go Away

Key Data For NASA’s Ice-Monitoring Satellite in Trouble Thanks to Shutdown

Greenland’s Ice Can No Longer Handle Hot Summers

‘The Mummy 4’ Is Getting the Family Back Together

JD Vance Says UFOs Are Actually Demons

Breville Barista Express Espresso Machine Hits Its Lowest Price of the Year for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, Cut Your Daily Coffee Costs at Home

Amazon Clears Out Govee LED Smart Light Bulbs (2-Pack) at a Record Low, Each Bulb Costs Just a Few Dollars

The First Proper ‘Ghost in the Shell’ Trailer Is a ’90s Anime Fever Dream

JBL PartyBox Club 120 Speaker Drops Back to Black Friday Pricing for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale Only

YouTuber Resolves Fraternal Disagreement With Excavator and Hilariously Large Sword

Should We Be Hyped—or Freaked Out—About Nuclear Microreactors?

Roku’s 2025 Streaming Stick HD Is 40% Off to Compete With Amazon Fire TV Stick During Spring Sale

Epstein Victims Sue Google, Claim AI Mode Exposed Personal Information

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets

Apple Studio Display XDR Review: It Looks So Good, I Wish It Were an iMac

RayNeo Air 4 Pro Review: My Eyes Love These Video Glasses, but My Nose Disagrees