Resin leaks from a pine tree trunk. Photo by Robert Verzo / CC BY 2.0

Just as a bold piece of commentary recently published in Nature states in its title that we ought to “Classify Plastic Waste As Hazardous”, one researcher has come up with a unique proposal for making our societal addiction to plastic less harmful. Let’s use tree resin, suggests Chuanbing Tang from the University of South Carolina. That’s right: the impossibly sticky amber ooze that conifer, pine, and fir trees leak when something breaks their bark.

A mother giant petrel watches while her baby is weighed in Antarctica. Photo: Jeff Otten/NSF

Every week we post a funny animal photo that’s begging for a caption. Join in the fun! You’ve got til 11:59 pm (Eastern time) on Sunday to enter your suggestion (click “Read more” below). On Monday we’ll choose our three favorite captions and list them under the image.

Pacific black brant geese with goslings. Photo: Jeff Wasley/USGS

Birds, caribou, and oil companies will share vast Alaskan wilderness. “[It’s] a victory for birds, wildlife, and America’s future,” Audubon president and CEO David Yarnold said of the first-ever management plan for the 22.8 million acre reserve in northern Alaska. “It says that some places really are too precious to drill.”

Underwater phytoplankton. Photo by Richard Kirby.

The latest recruits in the name of citizen science are going to be a raucous lot—well, at least according to stereotype. They’re all sailors, and armed with phones, measuring tape, and a circular white “Secchi” disk, they’re being tasked with an important project: mapping the impact of climate warming on the concentrations of phytoplankton in our seas. 

The Rinjani Scops Owl. (Photo credit: Sangster G, King BF, Verbelen P, Trainor CR / CC-BY-2.5 via Wikimedia Commons)

The rinjani scops owl (Otus jolandae) makes a unique “poook, poook” hoot. But it wasn’t until recently that scientists figured out this bird—dubbed by Indonesian locals as “burung pok” for its call—was a new species. Turns out, it’s actually pretty common. 

An aerial view of sockeye salmon migration. (Photo Credit: USFWS Alaska/Togiak National Wildlife Refuge/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Sockeye salmon migrate 4,000 miles in the Pacific Ocean each year to return to their home river to spawn. It’s known that they rely on chemical cues to guide them short distances in their freshwater spawning rivers, but researchers, fisherman, and interested citizens alike have long pondered how salmon know how to make this journey. People have been so curious, you could say sockeye salmon have a certain captivating animal magnetism about them. 

UPDATE 2/19: We've selected the finalists. Click through to vote for your favorite!

Every week we post a funny animal photo that’s begging for a caption. Join in the fun! You’ve got til 11:59 pm (Eastern time) on Sunday to enter your suggestion (click “Read more” below). On Monday we’ll choose our three favorite captions and list them under the image.

A coyote in the wild. Photo by Todd Ryburn / CC BY 2.0

Study a photo of a coyote next to one of a wolf, and it’s pretty easy to distinguish the two animals. Wolves are stockier, heavier, with thicker legs, larger snouts, but thinner tails. Coyotes on the other hand, are more petite, with slim legs, tapering snouts, and bushy tails. In reality, telling the two apart is more challenging, particularly in low light, which has led to the deaths of several wolves during coyote hunts of late.

Franck Vervial/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

It's Valentine's Day, and many people are planning to celebrate with that special someone. It's also a good excuse to look at lovin' in nature. While humans may value monogamy, it turns out to be quite rare among animals in the wild.

America is at an energy crossroads, says Michael Levi, energy expert and member of the Council on Foreign Relations think tank. According to Levi, we are experiencing an energy-related climate crisis—global warming—in addition to localized environmental problems created by fossil fuels. Think the earthquake in Youngstown, Ohio, caused by a shale gas well drilled too close to a fault line.

We are also experiencing two energy revolutions: an oil and natural gas boom and the ascendance of renewable energy technology. With The Power Surge, Levi aims to help Americans understand every intricacy of this country’s energy scene, from energy independence to its economic significance to the environmental impact of oil, coal, natural gas, and renewable energy. [Photo: Courtesy of Oxford University Press]