Rain may have been an essential ingredient for the origin of life, according to a study published on Wednesday. Life today exists as cells, which are sacs packed with DNA, RNA, proteins and other molecules. But when life arose roughly four billion y
You’re reading the Climate Forward newsletter, for Times subscribers only.News and insights for a warming world. Get it with a Times subscription. The race to electrify America’s cars is looking more like a slog these days. In the past few months, se
You’re reading the Climate Forward newsletter, for Times subscribers only.News and insights for a warming world. Get it with a Times subscription. As Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump take the stage for their first, and possibly only, de
You’re reading the Climate Forward newsletter, for Times subscribers only.News and insights for a warming world. Get it with a Times subscription. Climate change wasn’t a big topic in the debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump o
On a recent afternoon, Tudor Achim gave a brain teaser to an A.I. bot called Aristotle. The question involved a 10-by-10 table filled with a hundred numbers. If you collected the smallest number in each row and the largest number in each column, he
Large parts of Brazil, a country that holds over a tenth of the world’s fresh water, are on fire. They include vast areas of the Amazon rainforest and the Pantanalsabong live, the world’s largest wetlands, as well as the Cerrado grasslands and the A
The dodo was a flightless bird about the size of a male turkey that had a long, hooked beak and the goofy charm of an emperor penguin. Its ancestor first appeared on Earth more than 25 million years ago, and by 1662, because of humans, it had vanish
You’re reading the Climate Forward newsletter, for Times subscribers only.News and insights for a warming world. Get it with a Times subscription. When government agencies are choosing how to spend tax dollars, they typically have one primary benchma
The spotted lanternflies seem to have gone AWOL. Just a year ago, New York City’s flashiest new insects were impossible to miss. At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, these invasive insects were out in force, their crimson, polka-dot bodies blanketing the
betplays Stalking the Wild Banana
2024-09-25Gabriel Sachter-Smith is a banana aficionado who has identified some 500 varieties of banana on expeditions around the tropical world. “It’s like collecting Pokémon,” Mr. Sachter-Smith said at his farm, Hawaii Banana Source, on the North Shore of Oa