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!
In recent decades the scientific enterprise has produced many technological revolutions but few conceptual revolutions. Professor Gerald Pollack describes the reasons why. He goes on to describe how the newly founded Institute for Venture Science will restore science to
The ability of microorganisms to overcome antibiotic treatments is one of the top concerns of modern medicine. The effectiveness of many antibiotics has been reduced by bacteria's ability to rapidly evolve and develop strategies to resist antibiotics. Bacteria achie
Researchers have demonstrated the existence of five large accumulations of plastic waste in the open ocean, which match with the five major twists of surface water circulation…However, central surface waters of the oceans may not be the final destination of plastic de
"After much deliberation, we made the decision to release this full documentary. Year by year the evidence for global electric scarring of Mars continues to grow. Bringing the facts to public attention will be amongst our highest priorities in coming months."I
A team of scientists studying the x-ray emissions of a so-called neutron star tell us that the existing theoretical models cannot explain what they are seeing. Astronomers say that neutron stars are very small yet massively dense objects that spin at incredibly fast spe
New research has revealed the causes and warning signs of rare tsunami earthquakes, which may lead to improved detection measuresNew research has revealed the causes and warning signs of rare tsunami earthquakes, which may lead to improved detection measures.Tsunami ear
ESA has selected the Athena advanced telescope for high-energy astrophysics as its second ‘Large-class’ science mission.The observatory will study the hot and energetic Universe and takes the ‘L2’ slot in ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015–25 p
New research published today, Friday, June 27, 2014, in the journal Nature Scientific Reports has provided a major new theory on the cause of the ice age that covered large parts of the Northern Hemisphere 2.6 million years ago.The study, co-aut
On June 5, 2014, a giant filament erupted on the Sun. It released a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) which left the Sun at 1.2 million mph (512 km/s). Although majority of plasma cloud was directed away from Earth we were still hit by a small part, a glancing blow.The i
Surrounding the sun is a vast atmosphere of solar particles, through which magnetic fields swarm, solar flares erupt, and gigantic columns of material rise, fall and jostle each other around. Now, using NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, scientists have
