A Death Valley shrub optimizes its cells' organelles to photosynthesize in extreme heat

The three categories of photosynthesis, which each help plants survive in different environments

In the vast majority of plants, C3 photosynthesis produces three-carbon intermediate molecules in the Calvin cycle within the cells of leaves. Plants in hot, dry climates use C4 photosynthesis across two types of cells to produce four-carbon molecules before the Calvin cycle. Plants in drought conditions use CAM to store carbon dioxide as an acid at night, minimizing water loss.

View colorful flowers that grow on cacti and succulents, popular xerophilic organisms

These dry-loving organisms are able to retain the water they need to grow and reproduce in deserts and arid grasslands through a suite of adaptations, including thick, fleshy stems that store abundant water, a waxy coating that helps prevent water loss, and an uncommon form of photosynthesis that loses less water.

How greenhouse gases and climate change impact the efficiency of photosynthesis

A review in the Journal of Experimental Botany found that higher temperatures reduce the efficiency of enzymes involved in photosynthesis and impair a plant's ability to control water loss and regulate carbon dioxide uptake. While increased carbon dioxide levels are understood to accelerate plant growth by boosting photosynthesis, researchers suggest these effects more than offset the potential gain.

Learn about endoliths, the polyextremophiles that thrive inside rocks

These organisms include species that live in Antarctica, where they perform photosynthesis using light and water that makes it through pores in sandstone. Others residing in Earth's crust can survive temperatures reaching 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit) while generating energy through chemical reactions involving nutrients and gases trapped in rocks.

How MIT researchers have used genetic mutations to improve photosynthesis efficiency

Recognizing that RuBisCO—a protein that binds carbon dioxide to other compounds to produce the building blocks of organic molecules—often mistakenly binds oxygen, scientists performed directed evolution experiments to modify the geometry of a bacterial version of the protein to cause it to preferentially interact with carbon dioxide over oxygen.

As of 2025, scientists at B2 study the heat tolerance of cacao and coffee trees

The research at Biosphere 2 has led to the development of low-cost plant monitors, which can be provided to farmers worldwide to enable more precise monitoring of crops. Geodesic domes built within the ocean biome are used to investigate the best architectural structures for repopulating degraded reefs.

Heatstroke can reprogram your DNA, putting survivors at risk of future health problems

Severe illness from extreme heat exposure can alter DNA through epigenetics—turning genes "on" or "off" to shape disease risk. These changes can place an organism at greater risk of future health complications—unlike the epigenetic changes produced by moderate, repeated heat exposures.

Imagining if humans could perform photosynthesis and how it would change our anatomy

Since chloroplasts reflect green light, becoming photosynthetic would give our skin a green appearance. Because photosynthesis has efficiencies of only 5% to 9%, and humans burn 2,000 Calories daily compared to about 200 burned by a tree, becoming photosynthetic would also require us to adopt a less active, sun-filled lifestyle.

Adapt or freeze: How plants and animals thrive in the Arctic Tundra

This article explores the fascinating ways both animals and plants adapt to survive in Alaska's arctic tundra, an ecosystem marked by its extreme weather. Most tundra plants are perennials with short growing seasons that focus on gathering and...

Extreme temperature resilience appears to be temporary for tardigrades

Although often considered indestructible, scientists observed these creatures could endure temperatures near 150°C for only a few minutes in their tun state. Outside this state, only half the samples in a Danish study survived 37.1 degrees Celsius (98 degrees Fahrenheit) for 24 hours, making tardigrades extremotolerant rather than extremophiles.

Scientists testing how climate change affects plants found, in a years-long simulation study, that poison ivy grew 70% faster with the resulting extra carbon dioxide.

The extremophilic origins of watermelon snow and its impact on glacial melting

Also known as "blood snow," the red coloration is produced by snow algae that thrive in extremely cold conditions and take the shape of red spherical cysts in winter. To protect themselves from more intense summer solar radiation, these psychrophiles accumulate red, orange, and yellow pigments, intensifying their coloration and causing glaciers to reflect less sunlight than if they were white.

13 unconventional ways to stay cool during heat waves

While air conditioning is the default solution for many in a heat wave, it can get expensive while requiring the consumption of fossil fuel energy. So, how else can you stay cool during a heat wave? This list compiles some practical, at times quirky, suggestions, including an ice-pack-filled aubergine hat.

Poison ivy is projected to be larger and more resilient due to climate change

Elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide boosts the growth rate of the plant and the resulting leaf area. These larger plants contain more uroshiol—the substance most humans are allergic to—and are hardier, recovering from damage more quickly than their smaller counterparts.

A weed from the mustard family facilitated the molecular era of botany

The small genome and rapid growth cycle of Arabidopsis thaliana have made it an ideal organism for genetic studies, with over 100,000 research papers exploring topics such as disease resistance, stress tolerance, and response to light. The first studies were done on plants that grew from seeds saved during the Hungarian Uprising of 1956.

Korey Stringer, of the Minnesota Vikings, died of heat-related illness in 2001

In response, the NFL overhauled its heat approach and no other player has since died from heat-related illness. Even at the high school level, research suggests safety measures should include: mandating water breaks, keeping a cool tub available, and having athletes acclimate to high-temperature playing conditions for a week or longer before donning the full set of protective equipment.

Ranking the 10 hottest places on Earth

Death Valley in California often gets the press for the hottest recorded air temperature in the world. What about the runners-up? This list compiles the rest of the Earth's hottest spots, from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to Kebili in Tunisia.

Cells cannot grow forever due to escalating inefficiency in transporting chemicals

As cells get larger, their volume grows much faster than the surface area through which nutrients and waste products pass, creating a bottleneck that eventually causes cells to die. This forces nearly all organisms visible to the naked eye to comprise enormous numbers of smaller cells, such as the approximately 30 trillion found in the average adult human.

Programmed cell death drives leaves to fall from trees

All living things have innate mechanisms to prompt organized cell death, typically to protect the integrity of the living organism. Leaves fall from trees to allow the tree to preserve resources and bloom again in the future.

Home energy performance can be boosted through home orientation and shading

When designing a home, placing living areas to the north maximizes sun exposure during winter, while eaves and awnings can limit excessive summer heat. Breezeways and entry air locks can also reduce the dependence on heating and cooling costs.

Water vapor is used to manage heat in high-end smartphones

While smartphones have traditionally been cooled using a highly conductive plate that dissipates heat from the chip, vapor chambers offer a higher heat-removal capacity. This technology has been utilized in laptops for decades to absorb heat by cycling a fluid between liquid and gaseous phases.

Webb's sunshield enables extreme cooling for precision space observation

To avoid interference from its own heat, the telescope uses a five-layer shield to stay ultra-cold and stable, allowing its instruments to function at cryogenic temperatures. One instrument, MIRI, gets so cold it needs a helium-powered cooler to reach just 7 Kelvin, or -447°F.

The air around lightning can be five times hotter than the sun's surface

The rapid discharge of electricity—flowing electrons—between oppositely charged regions across a narrow filament can raise temperatures to 30,000 degrees Celsius (54,000 degrees Fahrenheit). If lightning strikes a tree, the speed of the temperature spike can almost immediately turn all its water into pressurized steam, causing it to explode.

Photographer captures glowing flowers in ultraviolet light

Debora Lombardi utilizes ultraviolet light to reveal unseen colors in flowers, re-shaping their natural beauty. Beginning during the lockdown of March 2020, Lombardi's experimentation evolved, culminating in a series recognized by the World Photography Organization. Her work highlights vibrant purples, blues, and yellows, transforming flowers into surreal, otherworldly specimens by exposing them to UV light in her Italy-based studio.

Why Earth will be made uninhabitable by the sun far sooner than when the sun dies

The star has enough fuel to continue fusing hydrogen into helium for another 5 billion years, but the gradual increase in core temperature from these reactions will brighten the sun by 10% every billion years. Some models predict that the increased radiation will be enough to vaporize all of Earth's surface water about 1 billion years from now, long before the sun becomes a red giant and disintegrates the planet.

Watch how coral bleaching resembles an organism's immune system attacking itself

Microorganisms called zooxanthellae are in a symbiotic relationship with coral polyps and provide them with food created through photosynthesis. When ocean temperatures or sunlight exceed an optimal range, zooxanthellae release harmful chemicals that irritate coral cells. To protect themselves, corals sacrifice their food source and expel the colorful microorganisms, becoming white.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.

The boiling temperature of water decreases with increasing elevation because the molecules need less energy to overcome the lower atmospheric pressure associated with thinner air.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

Larger animals like giraffes, elephants, and blue whales have developed a unique defense against cancer, a phenomenon known as Peto's Paradox

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

When caught in the mouths of cardinal fish, seed shrimp release glowing, bioluminescent chemicals, which alert predators of the cardinal fish, prompting the shrimp's ejection.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

See how each of the more than two million known species relates to each other—and to common ancestors—in this zoomable tree of life.

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

Artificial coral reefs have been 3D printed from nontoxic, biodegradable terracotta clay, which coral polyps have used as a foundation for rebuilding marine ecosystems.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

Explore the archaeological treasures of Pompeii, the city buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.

Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings are often assumed to be sexual, though the artist claimed she was simply interested in highlighting the beauty of flowers that most people neglect