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Tracking animals with DNA
Genetic material left behind by animals can provide critical clues to aid conservation and research. New research shows studying DNA in soil samples can be more effective, efficient and affordable than traditional tracking methods, such as camera traps, for assessing biodiversity.
Fact or fiction? The science of Star Wars
How did those planets form? Could they exist in our universe? Could Star Wars really happen? Stanford Earth experts on planetary formation, processes and habitability discuss the science behind the fictional saga.
Why some planets eat their own skies
A new study suggests a reason why exoplanets rarely grow larger than Neptune: the planet’s magma oceans begin to eat the sky.
Editor's picks: Top 10 Stanford Earth Matters stories of 2019
In a roundup that spans energy, geology, geophysics and Earth systems, here are some of the most interesting, high-impact and popular research stories from 2019.
Global analysis of submarine canyons may shed light on Martian landscapes
On a map, submarine canyons seem identical to land canyons – so much so that researchers surmised they are shaped by the same physical laws. New research reveals distinct differences for the first time.
Archaea hold clues to ancient ocean temperatures
Scientists at Stanford have identified molecules that tough microbes use to survive in warming waters, opening a window more broadly into studying conditions in ancient seas.
Stanford researchers discuss changes to Endangered Species Act
America’s signature legislation for saving species faces a major overhaul. Conservation and legal experts examine likely impacts of the new rules and legal options for challenging them.
Why are mountains so high?
Researchers have analyzed mountain ranges worldwide to show that a theory relating erosion and mountain height doesn’t always add up.
Ancient die-off greater than the dinosaur extinction
When significant oxygen entered the atmosphere, ancient life multiplied. But after a few hundred million years, Earth’s oxygen plummeted, resulting in a die-off likely greater than the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Q&A: Modeling an exoplanet’s atmosphere
New research using data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has provided a rare glimpse at the surface of a rocky planet outside our solar system. The planet may be similar to Mercury or Earth’s moon, with little to no atmosphere.
How the weathering of rocks cooled the Earth
Earth’s climate entered a long phase of cooling 15 million years ago, resulting in an ice age. A team of researchers has now found new indications as to what initiated this cooling and kept it going.
Summer reading: Sparking curiosity and conversations about our planet
Faculty at Stanford's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences recommend these 22 books for your summer reading.
In a first, researchers identify reddish coloring in an ancient fossil
X-rays reveal an extinct mouse was dressed in brown to reddish fur on its back and sides and had a tiny white tummy.
Conservation clues from scant DNA
The challenges of collecting DNA samples directly from endangered species makes understanding and protecting them harder. A new approach promises cheap, rapid analysis of genetic clues in degraded and left-behind ma
Species evolve ways to backup life's machinery
A new analysis of biological data reveals that every species from bacteria to primates has developed ways to bypass breakdowns in the networks of proteins vital to sustaining life.
Our 2.5-million-year obsession with stuff
When early humans first started using tools to make things, they kicked off a cycle of people depending on objects and the materials needed to make them – with ripple effects for the global climate today.
To save native grasslands, study invasive species
The order of arrival determines which invasive grasses predominate, according to a combination of experiments and computational modeling. The results could help in efforts to preserve the native plants that remain.
Strength in weakness: Fragile DNA regions key to vertebrate evolution
DNA regions susceptible to breakage and loss are genetic hot spots for important evolutionary changes. New research suggests they may have allowed vertebrates to successfully adapt to rapidly changing environmental
Why deep oceans gave life to the first big, complex organisms
Why did the first big, complex organisms spring to life in deep, dark oceans where food was scarce? A new study finds great depths provided a stable, life-sustaining refuge from wild temperature swings in the shallows.