Rebecca Dzombak

3 days ago | nytimes.com | Rebecca Dzombak

Higher temperatures caused by climate change are driving complex processes that make droughts bigger and more severe, new research shows. Look down from a plane at farms in the Great Plains and the West and you'll see green circles dotting the countryside, a kind of agricultural pointillism. They're from center-pivot sprinklers.

6 days ago | nytimes.com | Rebecca Dzombak

From bee science to understanding the impact of a warming world on plant life, here's what the Ecosystems Mission Area does. The Trump administration's proposed budget for 2026 slashes about 90 percent of the funding for one of the country's cornerstone biological and ecological research programs.

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Rebecca Dzombak

Glacial ice will melt for centuries even if global temperatures stop rising now, according to new research. There's news about glaciers, and it's grim. Regardless of climate mitigation strategies, the world's glaciers are on track to shrink significantly over hundreds of years, according to new study published on Thursday. They're locked in to losing ice.

2 weeks ago | nytimes.com | Rebecca Dzombak

A Microsoft model can make accurate 10-day forecasts quickly, an analysis found. And, it's designed to predict more than weather. Weather forecasters rely on models to help them make decisions that can have life-or-death consequences, so any advantage is welcome. Artificial intelligence holds promise to deliver more accurate forecasts quickly, and tech companies including Google, Nvidia and Huawei have produced A.I.-based forecasting models.

4 weeks ago | nationalgeographic.com | Rebecca Dzombak

Zombie fungi have become notorious in pop culture and from videos of them bursting through ants, but it’s time for their redemption arc. Scientists know very little about how zombie fungi work, but they and closely related fungi could help farmers kill costly pests like mealybugs and aphids. These pests are wreaking increasing havoc on the world’s crops as climate change helps them spread.