Deep Earth Is Teeming with Mysterious Life
It may seem fantastical, but there is a living world deep, deep beneath our feet. Go below the soil, beyond the…
Wildfires, Invasive Snakes, and Saying Goodbye to a Legend: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
It might be the second half of November, but the wildfire season in California is now functionally approaching a 365-day…
How Will We Know the World Is Ending?
Visions of the end of the world tend to extremes—the planet fatally fracked, flooded, hurricaned, nuke-cratered. No…
Earth's Oldest Rocks Could Have Been Formed by Meteorite Impacts
Some of the Earth’s oldest rocks may have formed from the high temperatures of meteorite impacts, a new study reports.
Physicists Think the Weather Can Trigger Blackouts in an Unexpected Way
Renewable resources are great, but they bring a new element of uncertainty to a power grid. This element can lead to…
Extreme Weather on Venus Might Change the Length of Its Days
Venus might seem rather Earthly, given its similar size and presence of a thick, carbon dioxide-filled atmosphere. But…
Are Jupiter and Venus Messing With Earth’s Climate?
Our planet is in a remarkably circular orbit around the Sun, but as new research points out, Earth’s orbit sometimes…
Millennials Can’t Buy Homes, But Can They Buy That the Earth Is Flat?
Hey, there’s another reason to shake our collective heads at everyone’s favorite generational punching bag. A recently-p…
Scientists Are Building a Mini-Earth With 8 Tons of Spinning Liquid Sodium
Admit it, you don’t really understand why the Earth has a magnetic field. Sure, movement inside the Earth’s outer core…
Ice Crystals in Diamonds Reveal Pockets of Water Deep in Earth's Mantle
Diamonds, the super-strong and brilliant crystals of carbon atoms produced under the Earth’s crushing pressures, are…
Strange Pole-Shifting Physics Conjures a Truly Alien World
Perhaps there’s a life-supporting, Earth-like planet orbiting close to a red dwarf star many light years away. Perhaps…
Van Allen Belt Mystery Solved With Student-Built Satellite
Oh, that Van Allen Belt—online crackpots love to use Earth’s belt of radiation to bolster their Moon landing…
The Switch to Outdoor LED Lighting Has Completely Backfired
To reduce energy consumption, many jurisdictions around the world are transitioning to outdoor LED lighting. But as new…
Earth's Underworld is Real and Scientists Just Mapped It
Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate, reads the gates to the Inferno. “Abandon all hope, you who enter,” which is a…
Earth's Explosive History Explains Its Strange Chemical Make-Up
If you made a building out of bricks and cinderblocks, then hundreds of years later you’d expect it to still be, well,…
How Aliens We’ve Never Met Could Help Humanity Escape Self-Destruction
Humans have had such a dramatic impact on Earth that some scientists say we’ve kickstarted a new geological era known…
Here Are the Horrible Ways You'd Die if You Brought a Piece of the Sun Back to Earth
With all the fascinating planets in our solar system, it sometimes feels like the Sun gets overlooked. The Sun is…
Life As We Know Could Have Come From Algae on Steroids
What was life really like here on planet Earth before animals were big enough to leave fossils behind? How did living…
Quantum Mechanics Could Shake Up Our Understanding of Earth’s Magnetic Field
Earth’s magnetic field does way more than guide our compasses and cause occasional worry. It’s part of the reason…
Why Did Montana Experience a Powerful Earthquake Last Night?
Last night, planet Earth rumbled in a place where it usually doesn’t rumble: Montana. But it also rumbled in the…