The Planet (on, and off)

You may have seen stories over the past week or so with headlines like, “Part of the sun breaks free and forms a strange vortex, baffling scientists,” or “Unbelievable moment a piece of the sun BREAKS OFF baffles scientists” or even “NASA captures piece of sun breaking off, baffles scientists.” Read more…

Genetically modified seedlings from biotechnology company Living Carbon have been planted in a low-lying tract of southern Georgia’s pine belt. According to a paper that has yet to be peer reviewed, these trees are engineered to grow 50 percent faster than non-modified ones over five months in the greenhouse. The Read more…

The European Parliament on Tuesday formally approved a law to effectively ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the European Union from 2035, aiming to speed up the switch to electric vehicles and combat climate change. The landmark rules will require that by 2035 carmakers must achieve Read more…

Two “two enormous cracks” in the Earth’s crust have opened up near the Turkish-Syrian border after two powerful earthquakes Monday: Researchers from the U.K. Centre for the Observation & Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes & Tectonics (COMET) found the ruptures by comparing images of the area near the Mediterranean Sea coast Read more…