Environment / Mountain, Desert, & Forest

10 Zany (or Genius?) Plans for Green Cities of the Future

Floating cities. A building with a million residents. An oil rig turned into a tourist getaway. Some architects are dreaming of a wild green revolution. 05.26.2009

Beautiful Images of Strange Fruits

The scarlet pimpernel's has a natural hinge. The blueberry glows brightly—in ultraviolet light. The Buddha's hand looks like… You guessed it. 03.11.2009

Six Sites That Are the Galapagos For Modern Darwins

Researchers see amazing twists of evolution at the biological hot spots. 02.10.2009

Super Trees Clean up Superfund Sites

One remarkable forest is busy purifying the planet. 12.26.2008

#49: Plant Migration Tied to Climate Change

When the going gets hot, vegetation runs for the hills. 12.13.2008

Want to Save the Trees? Try Paying People Not to Chop Them Down.

A few test projects show that landowners protect forest when it's valuable to them. 08.20.2008

The Thrill-Seeker's Travel Guide

5 difficult journeys to excite even the bravest science buff. 04.15.2008

Captive Wilderness

In the wildest place in the continental United States, visitors flirt with untrammeled nature, while scientists try to study, defend, and preserve it. 08.01.2006

Barren Jungles, Beautiful Deserts

Life's bounty, where you least expect to find it 06.25.2006

Are the Desert People Winning?

There's a big difference between people from forests and those from arid lands. 08.06.2005

Trees

Visual proof that ancient is better 12.03.2004

Discover Data

10.01.2004

Return of the King of Trees

Can biologists resurrect the mighty chestnut that once dominated the forests of eastern America? 05.29.2004

Geology

01.02.2004

Rivers Ran to It

01.02.2004

Lush Life

An Australian sand plain with wretched soil mysteriously yields more diversity than a rain forest 12.03.2003

Ask Discover

Ask Discover 11.22.2003

Oh, Deer

Exploding populations of white-tailed deer are stripping our forests of life 03.01.2003

Environment

01.01.2003

If All The Trees Fall in the Forest

Two sleuthing scientists track down the cause of sudden oak death, a new disease that threatens every oak, redwood, and Douglas fir in the country 12.01.2002

Science Travel

The narrow road up Mauna Kea leads to the deep sky 08.01.2002

The Life, Death, and Life of a Tree

The only real threat the majestic redwood has ever faced is us 05.01.2002

Environment

Year In Science 01.13.2002

Works in Progress

Even the best technology in the world can't seem to calculate how high this mountain really is 05.01.2000

Avalanche!

If a scientist stands in the way of 150 tons of snow crashing down a mountain at 50 mph, can he figure out why it let loose and when it will again? 12.01.1999

Under the Volcano

Look out Tacoma and Seattle. Majestic Mount Rainier is overdue for a shattering and deadly eruption 11.01.1999

A Shot in the Woods

10.01.1999

Beasts in the Mist

If David Oren could find just one of the horrifying creatures he knows are out there-- huge sloths with giant claws and a reputation for twisting off the heads of humans--he could save the world's largest rain forest 09.01.1999

Desert Trove

02.01.1999

A Briquette a Day

07.01.1998

The Year in Science: Earth 1997

A Sleeping Mountain Wakes 01.01.1998

The Year in Science: Plants 1997

New Harmony on Main Street 01.01.1998

Life on the Edge

12.01.1997

The Web Below

11.01.1997

Falling Flanks

10.01.1997

Singing Sand

08.01.1997

Raising the Rockies

04.01.1997

Travels of America

Half a billion years ago, a large chunk of North America went missing. That chunk has now turned up in the Andes of Argentina. 09.01.1996

The Vertical Forest

Canadian researchers have found a bizarre, ancient forest that may be the slowest-growing on Earth. They didn't have to travel to Yakutsk or Tasmania to find it--they had only to look at a cliff not far from Toronto. 02.01.1996

A Giant's Malaise

03.02.1995

The High Life

Why do mountains kill some people--or make them so ill they may wish they were dead--while leaving others quite unscathed? 10.01.1993

The Trembling Giant

The quaking aspen, one of this country's most beautiful trees, also makes up the world's most massive organism. 10.01.1993

An Untidy Wonder

For two decades a team of scientists has been trying to find out what makes a forest work. 10.01.1992