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Charles Darwin became the founder and mythic hero of modern evolutionary biology with the publication of his work On the Origin of Species 150 years ago. The book bears the signature of a geological thinker who had turned to a faster-moving discipline.
Mass production of meat is on the rise, but it comes at a cost to both climate and environment. A radical change in our diets seems to be the easiest path to long-term sustainability.
David Rubin and Patrick Hesp spent a night in a labour camp come hotel while trying to uncover the factors that shape sand dunes in the Qaidam Basin, China.
The terrestrial biosphere is assumed to take up most of the carbon on land. However, it is becoming clear that inland waters process large amounts of organic carbon and must be considered in strategies to mitigate climate change.
Mike Gagan, Michael Griffiths and colleagues negotiated knee-deep mud while up to their neck in water in an Indonesian cave, all to reconstruct Australasian monsoon rainfall over the past 12,000 years.
Palaeoclimate research increasingly portrays itself as a means to understanding future climate change. It would serve the science and scientists better to regard the study of the past as an end in its own right.
Comprehensive abatement strategies will be needed to limit global warming. A drastic reduction of black-carbon emissions could provide near-immediate relief with important co-benefits.
