earth and environmental sciences
Sign up for Vanderbilt’s Osher Lifelong Learning winter term
Nov. 16, 2017—African American pioneers in sports and entertainment, media in a time of fake news, and climate change and human health are among the winter offerings of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Vanderbilt.
Reverse engineering mysterious 500 million-year-old fossils that confound our tree of life
Jun. 21, 2017—In "The Conversation," Vanderbilt paleontologist Simon Darroch explains how computational fluid dynamics can help researchers understand some of the earliest life on Earth.
Wet and stormy weather lashed California coast…8,200 years ago
Jun. 20, 2017—A study of stalagmite records from the White Moon Cave in the Santa Cruz Mountains finds the California coast was lashed by exceptionally wet and stormy weather for 150 years...8,200 years ago.
Climate change took away ancient animals’ food supply; holds implications for today’s wildlife
Jun. 2, 2017—Analysis suggests that climate change had a significant impact on megafauna diets and was a primary factor in their extinction.
Vanderbilt researchers studying Bangladesh for harbinger of climate change impact
Jun. 2, 2017—An island off the nation's coast demonstrates land use mismanagement can be far more damaging than rising sea levels.
Expert: Private industry, better messaging can help overcome damage from Paris withdrawal
Jun. 2, 2017—Vanderbilt University law and earth science professors contend initiatives that reduce carbon emissions from corporations and households can fill some of the gap.
Northern coast of Peru was a hospitable rest stop for early Americans
May. 24, 2017—Vanderbilt researchers found a place where early Americans paused on their migrations south and "settled in for a good long while," suggesting a slower pace of settlement than originally believed.
Life in the Precambrian may have been much livelier than previously thought
May. 18, 2017—An interdisciplinary study suggests the strange creatures that lived in the Garden of the Ediacaran more than 540 million years ago may have been much more dynamic than experts have thought.
National assessment overstates public access to safe drinking water in Bangladesh
May. 12, 2017—According to the latest national assessment, 85 percent of the people in Bangladesh have access to safe drinking water. However, a new study raises serious questions about the nation's water security.
The tale teeth tell about the legendary man-eating lions of Tsavo
Apr. 19, 2017—Analysis of the microscopic wear on the teeth of three man-eating lions reveals that painful dental disease may have been what drove the cats to hunt humans instead of larger prey.
Fossils at the Fort is March 25
Mar. 15, 2017—Fossils at the Fort is happening on Saturday, March 25, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Fort Negley Visitors Center and Park. The event is free and will take place rain or shine.
Climate change helped kill off super-sized Ice Age animals in Australia
Jan. 26, 2017—A new study has compared the diet of a variety of Australian megafaunal herbivores from the period when they were widespread (350,000 to 570,000 years ago) to a period when they were in decline (30,000 to 40,000 years ago) by studying their fossil teeth. The analysis suggests that climate change had a significant impact on their diets and may well have been a primary factor in their extinction.