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By Mindy Weisberger, CNN (CNN) — A well-preserved human skeleton that scientists recently excavated in Vietnam dates back about 12,000 years ago to the Ice Age and contains the oldest human mitochondrial DNA found in the region. It belonged to a man who died when he was around 35 years old after being pierced in

By Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — When Hurricane Erin explosively intensified in the Atlantic Ocean last week, the alarming part wasn’t solely how dangerous it had become as a Category 5 monster: It was also just how typical such an ultra-rapid rate of intensification – winds accelerating by 85 mph in 24 hours – has

By Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — A small group of about 10 writers, researchers and web development ninjas are launching an ambitious effort to preserve key climate data that the Trump administration has taken offline, including a landmark, congressionally mandated report and the contents of the climate.gov website. The data, writings and reports will be

By Mindy Weisberger, CNN (CNN) — In a rocky outcrop on Mount Carmel, in what is now Israel, a group of ancient humans buried their dead about 140,000 years ago. Scientists uncovered the site, called Skhul Cave, in 1928, and about three years later they found the remains of more than a dozen individuals. The

Story by Reuters (CNN) — Around 165 million years ago on a coastal floodplain in what is now Morocco lived one of the most extreme dinosaurs on record, lavishly adorned with armor and spikes – some about three feet long – unlike that of any other known creature. Researchers on Wednesday described extensive fossilized remains

By Jessica Jordan, CNN If you follow the Mississippi River to where it meets the ocean, you will be in Plaquemines, Louisiana’s southernmost parish. Known for its seafood and offshore oil and gas, Plaquemines is also where an unknown rose withstood the brutal force of Hurricane Katrina. The genesis of this climbing rose bush, which

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — How will the climate crisis affect one of the ocean’s fiercest predators? New research published Wednesday has examined what might happen to sharks’ highly specialized, flesh-cutting teeth. As carbon emissions increase, the ocean is absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, lowering pH levels and making seawater more acidic,

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Astronomers have spotted the brightest fast radio burst yet coming from a nearby galaxy. Observations of this phenomenon, a powerful flash of radio waves that lasts only about a millisecond, could shed light on one of the most mysterious cosmic phenomena ever studied. Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, were

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — The most powerful rocket system ever constructed is headed for its next test — using a version of the vehicle that has been at the center of a series of explosive missteps and failures. SpaceX said it is aiming to launch its Starship megarocket on an hour-long test flight

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Astronomers have observed what they are calling a new type of supernova, which has provided an unparalleled glimpse into what happens deep within a star just before it explodes. A study detailing the surprising discovery published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Massive stars are like celestial onions: the outermost

By Mindy Weisberger, CNN (CNN) — Modern humans are evolutionary survivors, thriving generation after generation while our ancient relatives died out. Now, new research into our brain chemistry suggests that an enzyme unique to Homo sapiens may have made us more efficient water seekers than our closest extinct relatives. About 600,000 years ago, modern humans

By Issy Ronald, CNN Paleontologists have discovered a new dinosaur species with a very distinctive feature, a sail-like structure running down its back, the Natural History Museum in London announced on Friday. The bones of Istiorachis macarthurae, named in honor of record-breaking British sailor Ellen MacArthur, were uncovered on the Isle of Wight, a small

By Gina Park, CNN (CNN) — The moon goes by many names. August saw the full sturgeon moon while in March sky-gazers may have witnessed the blood moon, which occurs when the satellite appears to turn red during a lunar eclipse. You may have also heard of a blue moon, the second full moon to

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Astronomers using the powerful eye of the James Webb Space Telescope have spotted a previously unknown moon whirling around Uranus, according to NASA. The discovery boosts the number of moons known to be orbiting the ice giant to 29 — and there are likely more waiting to be found.

By Gina Park, CNN (CNN) — Archaeologists say they have discovered the ruins of what they believe are the boundaries of an ancient temple belonging to the mysterious Andean society of Tiwanaku that disappeared around AD 1000. The research team unearthed the immense temple complex in the highlands of what is now Bolivia’s municipality of

By Chris Mooney (CNN) — The contiguous United States has endured another searing summer. June was unusually warm, and a major heatwave afflicted nearly a third of the population late in the month, and July offered little relief. This is hardly a surprise: Summers in the Lower 48 are now 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit warmer on

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Ancient, fossilized teeth, uncovered during a decades-long archaeology project in northeastern Ethiopia, indicate that two different kinds of hominins, or human ancestors, lived in the same place between 2.6 million and 2.8 million years ago — and one of them may be a previously unknown species. The discovery provides

By Jacopo Prisco, CNN (CNN) — It stands to reason that a 95 million-year-old tooth shipped to my home would have a rich past. But what ensued after I bought it online for about $100 revealed how, for such relics and those who covet them, the present is in some ways much more complicated. I

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — Talks to finalize the world’s first treaty on plastic pollution in Geneva, Switzerland collapsed in failure Friday as countries remained bitterly divided how to tackle the crisis. The summit, held at the United Nations headquarters and attended by delegates from more than 180 countries, was supposed to end Thursday

By Anna Tunkova, CNN (CNN) — Bats have a bad reputation. Myths, folk tales, and negative media coverage mean people often link these flying mammals to vampires or blame them for disease outbreaks. But bat populations around the world are in decline, and without them, ecosystems lose key benefits like pest control, pollination and seed

By Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — Satellites, including those used for GPS and communications, will face greater risks in coming decades during solar-triggered geomagnetic storms because of the effect climate pollution has on Earth’s atmosphere, a new study found. The increasing volume of planet-warming carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere is likely to make the

By Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — Time is running out for US consumers to get money back for rooftop solar installations, electric vehicles, energy efficient appliances and more after President Donald Trump and Republicans slashed clean energy out of the tax code last month. And the potential savings are steep. The federal tax credit alone

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — The once-thriving Roman city of Pompeii resembles an eerie time capsule, seemingly unoccupied since a catastrophic volcanic eruption in AD 79, with the remains of its inhabitants forever frozen under a blanket of ash. But a closer look may reveal another bleak chapter in the tragedy’s aftermath, according to

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — A rare Martian meteorite, billed as the largest piece of Mars on Earth, captured attention when it fetched millions from an anonymous bidder at a recent Sotheby’s auction. But the move has caused Niger, the country in West Africa where the space rock was initially found, to question the

By Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — NASA is planning to decommission premier satellite missions that gather information on planet-warming pollution and other climate vital signs beginning as soon as October, sources inside and outside of the agency told CNN. The destruction of the satellites — which will be abandoned and allowed to eventually burn up

By Lex Harvey, CNN (CNN) — From the rainforests of Central and South America to the savannas of northern Australia, the world’s equatorial regions are home to thousands of unique bird species, from macaws to toucans to hummingbirds, who thrive in hot and humid environments. But as climate change accelerates, tropical regions are seeing ten

By Taylor Nicioli (CNN) — For thousands of years, a disease repeatedly struck ancient Eurasia, quickly spreading far and wide. The bite of infected fleas that lived on rats passed on the plague in its most infamous form — the Black Death of the 14th century — to humans, and remains its most common form

By Laura Paddison, Luke Snyder, CNN (CNN) — Europe is on track for its worst wildfire season on record as swaths of the continent — including France, Spain, Albania, Portugal and Greece — battle raging, deadly fires as temperature soar above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Wildfires are not unusual in Europe but the climate crisis is

By Gina Park, CNN (CNN) — It’s finally time to watch one of the best meteor showers of the year: the brilliant display known as the Perseids. The Perseid meteor shower, which is known for producing dozens of bright meteors that leave long streaks in their wake, peaked at 4 p.m. ET Tuesday. In previous

CNN By Gina Park, CNN (CNN) — It’s finally time to watch one of the best meteor showers of the year: the brilliant display known as the Perseids. The Perseid meteor shower, which is known for producing dozens of bright meteors that leave long streaks in their wake, peaked at 4 p.m. ET Tuesday. In

By Marlowe Starling, CNN (CNN) — Marine researchers exploring extreme depths say they have discovered an astonishing deep-sea ecosystem of chemosynthetic life that’s fueled by gases escaping from fractures in the ocean bed. The expedition revealed methane-producing microbes and marine invertebrates that make their home in unforgiving conditions where the sun’s rays don’t reach, according

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN (CNN) — The human genome is made up of 23 pairs of chromosomes, the biological blueprints that make humans … well, human. But it turns out that some of our DNA — about 8% — are the remnants of ancient viruses that embedded themselves into our genetic code over the course

CNN By Jackie Wattles, Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Famed NASA astronaut Jim Lovell, who commanded the harrowing Apollo 13 mission that was forced to abandon a lunar landing attempt in 1970, has died. He was 97. Lovell died on August 7 in Lake Forest, Illinois, according to a NASA news release. The cause of

By Jackie Wattles, Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Famed NASA astronaut Jim Lovell, who commanded the harrowing Apollo 13 mission that was forced to abandon a lunar landing attempt in 1970, has died. He was 97. Lovell died on August 7 in Lake Forest, Illinois, according to a NASA news release. The cause of death

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — There’s a giant blob of incredibly hot rock beneath New Hampshire — and it may be part of the reason the Appalachian Mountains are still standing tall, according to new research. It has, however, been slowly moving and is on course for New York in the next 15 million

By Ella Nilsen, Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — Dozens of veteran climate scientists are launching a coordinated response to a Trump administration report that casts doubt on the severity of climate change. The report, released last week alongside proposals to deregulate some polluting sectors, was authored by five researchers well-known for sowing doubt over the

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — A new image has revealed the clearest glimpse yet of an interstellar visitor zipping through our solar system. The Hubble Telescope and its Wide Field Camera 3 got an incredible view of the comet named 3I/ATLAS, which came from beyond our solar system, on July 21 when the object

By Gina Park, CNN (CNN) — Sky-gazers can catch a glimpse of the full moon at its peak illumination this week. August’s full moon, also called the sturgeon moon, will be visible from Friday night into the early hours of Saturday. It will be at its fullest around 3:55 a.m. ET Saturday, according to EarthSky.

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Archaeologists have uncovered primitive sharp-edged stone tools on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, adding another piece to an evolutionary puzzle involving mysterious ancient humans who lived in a region known as Wallacea. Located beyond mainland Southeast Asia, Wallacea includes a group of islands between Asia and Australia, among which

By Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — Energy Sec. Chris Wright said Tuesday night the Trump administration is updating the National Climate Assessments that have been previously published, which the administration recently removed from government websites. “We’re reviewing them, and we will come out with updated reports on those and with comments on those reports,” Wright

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — Firefly Aerospace, the first private company to successfully land upright on the moon, is set to make another high-stakes foray — this time into the stock market. Firefly’s stock will begin trading on the Nasdaq Thursday morning under the ticker symbol “FLY.” Founded in 2017 by ex-SpaceX engineer Tom

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — Astronaut Butch Wilmore is retiring from NASA less than five months after he returned from a troubled test mission that left him aboard the International Space Station far longer than expected, the space agency announced Wednesday. Wilmore, along with NASA astronaut Suni Williams, piloted the first crewed flight of

By Jessie Yeung, CNN (CNN) — Parts of Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef, famed for its stunning colors and biodiversity, suffered the biggest decline of coral on record last year after a marine heatwave bleached vast swathes of hard coral, a new report has found. The reef had its worst summer on record in 2024

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN (CNN) — Research vessel Blue Heron trawls the Great Lakes, gathering data from the water. The floating laboratory’s most recent discovery, however, came from an unexpected location: its own rudder. While docked after a long cruise to study algae blooms in lakes Erie and Superior in September, the crew noticed a

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — The humble modern-day potato, first domesticated about 10,000 years ago, got its start in the Andes mountains before becoming a key crop the world depends on. But because plants don’t preserve well in the fossil record, its lineage has remained largely a mystery. Now, a team of evolutionary biologists

By Jack Guy, CNN (CNN) — Archaeologists have used cutting edge techniques to reveal new information about the intricate tattoos of a woman that lived in Siberia during the Iron Age. Although the prehistoric remains date from more than 2,000 years ago, the skin, and therefore the tattoos, of mummies from the region’s Pazyryk culture

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — Iran’s capital Tehran could be weeks away from “day zero,” experts say — the day when taps run dry for large parts of the city — as the country suffers a severe water crisis. Key reservoirs are shrinking, authorities are scrambling to reduce water consumption and residents are desperately

By Rebecca Cairns, CNN (CNN) — For the first time, archaeologists have used advanced scientific techniques on 4,000-year-old dental plaque to confirm traces of betel nut chewing in ancient Thai communities. Betel nuts are usually chewed as “quids,” a mix of slaked lime and ground betel nuts—which contain psychoactive compounds that boost energy, alertness, euphoria,

By Lianne Kolirin, CNN (CNN) — Archaeologists are facing a “race against time” to explore the wreck of an English warship that sank in a huge storm more than 300 years ago. Northumberland was a 70-gun warship built in Bristol, England in 1679 as part of the transformation of the English navy under Samuel Pepys

By Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump came into office promising to lower energy and electricity costs. But with the cost of electricity rising, congressional Democrats and left-leaning groups see an opening to go on the offense ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. A Wednesday letter led by Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — Scientists are exploring ways to mimic the origins of human life without two fundamental components: sperm and egg. They are coaxing clusters of stem cells – programmable cells that can transform into many different specialized cell types – to form laboratory-grown structures that resemble human embryos. These embryo models

By Jack Guy, CNN Archaeologists working at a site in Spain say they have uncovered evidence of what may have been a synagogue used by a hitherto unknown Jewish community. While excavating the site, previously believed to be a church dating from the 4th century, experts found materials and architectural evidence that led them to

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — A first-of-its-kind satellite has launched to track nearly imperceptible changes on Earth’s surface, an effort that could aid with responses to natural disasters. Called the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar mission, or NISAR, the spacecraft is equipped with two kinds of synthetic aperture radar designed by the US space agency

By Gina Park, CNN (CNN) — Sky-gazers may get a good chance to see fireballs streak across the night sky this week. Two meteor showers — the Alpha Capricornids and Southern Delta Aquariids — will reach their peak and another is ramping up. The Alpha Capricornids meteor shower, which is best known for producing very

By Ella Nilsen, Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — In one of its most significant reversals on climate policy to-date, the Trump administration on Tuesday proposed to repeal a 2009 scientific finding that human-caused climate change endangers human health and safety, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced. If successful, the repeal could strip away the federal government’s

By Ella Nilsen, Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration fired the last of the US climate negotiators earlier this month, helping cement America’s withdrawal from international climate diplomacy. It may also have handed a huge victory to China. The elimination of the State Department’s Office of Global Change — which represents the United

By Lianne Kolirin, CNN (CNN) — A 4,000-year-old handprint has been discovered on a clay model used for offerings in an Ancient Egyptian tomb. Researchers from Cambridge University’s Fitzwilliam Museum, in the United Kingdom, stumbled upon the imprint while preparing for an exhibition, which is set to open this fall. It was found on the

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Astronomers have observed what they believe to be a never-before-seen companion star orbiting Betelgeuse, a pulsating red supergiant star in the shoulder of the Orion constellation. One of the best known and most luminous stars in the night sky, Betelgeuse has long intrigued anyone who has gazed up and

By Julianna Bragg, CNN (CNN) — During the first week of July, the popular travel center and gas station chain Buc-ee’s opened its largest location in Georgia, just off coastal Interstate 95. But it’s not the beaver-branded merchandise or the smell of barbecue that’s attracting Georgia’s sea turtles — it’s the harsh glare of towering

By Lex Harvey, CNN (CNN) — What struck Scott Bennett most were the razor clams. The long saltwater clams, resembling old-fashioned razors, normally burrow into sand to avoid predators. But when Bennett, an ecologist, visited South Australia’s Great Southern Reef last month, he saw thousands of them rotting on the sea floor. “100% of them

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — Neanderthals had a voracious appetite for meat. They hunted big game and chowed down on woolly mammoth steak as they huddled around a fire. Or so thought many archaeologists who study the Stone Age. Fresh meat was far from the only thing on the menu, according to a growing