The geysers of Yellowstone National Park owe their existence to the "Yellowstone hotspot" -- a region of molten rock buried deep beneath Yellowstone, geologists have found.

A solution to the world's worst case of ongoing mass poisoning, linked to rising cancer rates in Southern Asia, has been developed by researchers from Queen's university Belfast.

A fall in levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, close to that of pre-industrial times, explains the transition from a mostly ice-free Greenland of three million years ago to the ice-covered region we see today.

For many years, fingers have been pointed at agriculture whenever pesticides are detected in rivers and streams. Studies now show that built-up areas also account for a considerable proportion of such inputs. For example, substances can be leached out of facade renders and paints by rainwater and enter the environment, where they may have toxic effects on organisms.

A new LIDAR measurement system -- unique in the world -- will provide continuous data on atmospheric humidity for Western Switzerland's weather forecasting headquarters.

Oxygen is constantly leaking out of Earth's atmosphere and into space. Now, ESA's formation-flying quartet of satellites, Cluster, has discovered the physical mechanism that is driving the escape. It turns out that the Earth's own magnetic field is accelerating the oxygen away.

Is your alma mater among those stepping up to green their campuses? Are our colleges preparing students for a greener future? You can find out in National Wildlife Federation's just-released Campus Environment 2008 Report Card, a comprehensive look at nationwide trends in sustainability among America's institutions of higher learning. The report compares findings with the previous study conducted in 2001.

Conservation zones are in the wrong place to protect vulnerable coral reefs from the effects of global warming, an international team of scientists warned today. Now the team say that urgent action is needed to prevent the collapse of this important marine ecosystem.

Following last summer's record minimum ice cover in the Arctic, current observations from ESA's Envisat satellite suggest that the extent of polar sea-ice may again shrink to a level very close to that of last year.