WaterOctober 25, 2023
Depleted Groundwater Could Be Refilled by Borrowing a Trick from Solar Power
In many places around the world, groundwater is being pumped out faster than nature replenishes it. A new model points to a possible solution
Stories by Erica Gies
Erica Gies is a regular contributor to Scientific American and the author of Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge.
OpinionApril 20, 2023
Ongoing Development Is Part of the Colorado River Problem
Using “slow water” methods can make the Colorado River Basin and its people more resilient
WaterDecember 13, 2022
How Water Cycles Can Help Prevent Disastrous Floods and Drought
To prevent devastating droughts and floods, humanity can tune in to natural solutions to repair water cycles that human development has disrupted
GeologyNovember 18, 2022
Hidden ‘Paleo Valleys’ Could Help California Survive Droughts
“Paleo valleys,” carved by ice age rivers and now underground, could provide spaces to recharge California’s depleted groundwater
ConservationApril 1, 2022
To Revive a River, Restore Its Liver
Radical reconstruction in Seattle is bringing nearly dead urban streams back to productive life
EnvironmentAugust 1, 2020
Expanding Paved Areas Has an Outsize Effect on Urban Flooding
Researchers have finally been able to determine just how much impervious surfaces exacerbate flood levels
EnvironmentMay 15, 2020
Expanding Paved Areas Has an Outsize Effect on Urban Flooding
Researchers have finally been able to pinpoint just how much impervious surfaces exacerbate flood levels
OpinionJanuary 29, 2020
What Lichens Can Teach Us
A new IMAX film highlights their beauty and resilience
EnvironmentJune 13, 2019
Ecological Detectives Hunt for San Francisco’s Vanished Waterways
Recovering “ghost creeks” from past landscapes can help protect the city’s future amid climate chaos
EnvironmentFebruary 18, 2019
Do Dams Increase Water Use?
Reservoirs may promote waste by creating a false sense of water security
EnvironmentFebruary 7, 2019
Slaking the World’s Thirst with Seawater Dumps Toxic Brine in Oceans
The salt and chemicals in the brine left over from desalination can threaten local marine ecosystems
EnvironmentDecember 1, 2018
Sponge Cities Can Limit Urban Floods and Droughts
Restoring natural water flows in cities can lessen the impacts of floods and droughts
EnvironmentJanuary 11, 2018
Like Oceans, Freshwater Is Also Acidifying
Rising CO2 in lakes and reservoirs may harm animals that live in those ecosystems
EnvironmentNovember 1, 2017
Capturing Floodwaters in Wet Years Could Help California Survive Drought Years
New tactics for capturing floods and surviving droughts could help communities across California and the world
EvolutionJune 1, 2017
Naturalist Trevor Goward Helps to Overturn a 150-Year-Old Truth of Science
How a naturalist’s observations in the wilds of British Columbia inspired a scientist to discover hidden symbioses—overturning 150 years of accepted scientific wisdom
EnergyNovember 2, 2016
Can Wind and Solar Fuel Africa's Future?
With prices for renewables dropping, many countries in Africa might leap past dirty forms of energy towards a cleaner future
EnvironmentSeptember 8, 2016
What a Healthy Jungle Sounds Like
Species may have evolved their wide array of sounds to fill unused parts of the frequency spectrum. This could also reveal the degree of biodiversity in an ecosystem
EnvironmentJune 6, 2016
Desalination Breakthrough: Saving the Sea from Salt
A chemist finds a way to cut supersalty discharge and CO2 as the Middle East relies ever more on seawater desalination
TechnologyFebruary 7, 2013
Unhealthy Glow: Fluorescent Tadpoles Expose Chemical Contamination
Transgenic fish fry and larval frogs light up when exposed to hormone-disrupting compounds in water