The Watchers team and our contributors bring the latest on extreme weather, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, space weather, and all things science. We're all about making sense of the natural world and keeping you informed on what’s happening. Got a tip or a question? Hit us up using the form at newstips!
Problems in brief Myanmar’s struggling democracy and oppression on Rohingya minority have made the world media busy in covering the country, eventually hindering the news of numerous sufferings across the country. In most of the human development Myanmar ranks
The Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Perhaps the strangest solar system object ever observed up close in the course of the space age. It was the target of the Rosetta probe, whose 10-year journey began in March 2004, under the sponsorship of the European Space Agency.Th
Early discoveries by NASA’s newest Mars orbiter are starting to reveal key features about the loss of the planet’s atmosphere to space over time. The findings are among the first returns from NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) missio
New research into an Icelandic eruption has shed light on how the Earth's crust forms, according to a paper published today in Nature. When the Bárðarbunga volcano, which is buried beneath Iceland's Vatnajökull ice cap, reawakened in August
A low pressure system underwent what is known as "explosive cyclogenesis" – or less formally became a "weather bomb" – when it intensified rapidly with a steep decline in pressure, between Greenland and Iceland late on Monday and early on Tuesday. Th
Many countries in Europe reported unusually mild weather in November – with a surprising lack of frost for late autumn. There were several episodes of severe weather and extreme rainfall, however.Northern Italy and Switzerland had severe flooding in places, as well as l
Homo erectus on Java was already using shells of freshwater mussels as tools half a million years ago, and as a 'canvas' for an engraving. An international team of researchers, led by Leiden archaeologist José Joordens, published this discovery on Decembe
NASA marked a major milestone today on its journey to Mars as the Orion spacecraft completed its first voyage to space, traveling farther than any spacecraft designed for astronauts has been in more than 40 years.“Today’s flight test of Orion is a huge step
Source of volcanoes may be much closer than scientists thought… A long-held assumption about the Earth is discussed in today's edition of Science, as Don L. Anderson, an emeritus professor with the Seismological Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology
The city of Sao Paulo is home to 20 million Brazilians, making it the 12th largest mega-city on a planet dominated by shortsighted humans. Shockingly, it has only 60 days of water supply remaining. The city "has about two months of guaranteed water supply remaining
