As global temperatures rise, many animal species are edging toward the poles and even climbing mountains to stay within their preferred temperature ranges. The result is a slow but noticeable shift in the world’s ecosystems, both on land and at sea.

Seventy percent of Earth’s surface is ocean, and without it, the other 30 percent would barely be inhabitable. The ocean absorbs and distributes heat around the globe, and it acts as a planet-sized CO2 scrubber, saving us all from a runaway greenhouse effect like the one that turned Venus into a hell-world. But the…

In more temperate parts of the world, ice is just ice, but in Antarctica, ice is everything. It defines Antarctica: Earth’s southern polar ice cap, a 5.4-million square mile ice sheet, covers 98% of the continent. But within the next hundred years, Antarctica stands to lose much of that ice, especially in its western…

The history of inoculation may sound a little dry, but it’s really an epic tale of human trafficking, semi-illicit experimentation, and high explosives. It’s a globe-hopping story that stars harem girls, noblewomen, prisoners, princesses, slaves, and even a witch hunter.

A new dinosaur species sheds some light on how duck-billed dinosaurs got their crests. Paleontologists say Probrachylophosaurus bergei is a missing link between two other species, and it fills in vital pieces of the story of how crests evolved.

There’s a neurological reason for apathy and laziness, according to new research. Inefficient connections between certain areas of the brain may make it harder for some people to decide to act.

The only Wyoming toads in the world live in Mortenson Lake National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Wyoming, where they were common until the 1970s, hopping around at the edges of creeks, ponds, and small lakes. Then they started to disappear.

The mineral veins that crisscross through the rock around this ridge tell an important story about Mars’ ancient past. So of course the Curiosity rover shot them with a laser.

If you’ve had surgery under anesthesia in the last couple of decades, your doctor was probably listening to her favorite music while operating. There’s growing debate in the medical field about whether music in the operating room really helps surgeons focus or creates a potentially dangerous distraction.

Conventional wisdom says that brains don’t fossilize, but these seven fossilized brains beg to differ.

Welcome to this week’s Reading List, our weekly collection of great science and technology stories from around the internet. This week, we’ll tour a former Soviet observatory that’s still watching the skies, meet the archaeologists studying history while it’s still alive and kicking, and more.

Astronomers in India have discovered a very unusual galaxy, and it’s dying. By now, in fact, it’s probably already dead.

It’s easy to get excited about new fossil discoveries, but sometimes a second look at an old find can reveal something just as surprising.

The Orion Nebula has taught astronomers a great deal about how stars are born and how planetary systems form.

Welcome to this week’s edition of Reading List, Gizmodo’s weekly gathering of fascinating science and technology stories from around the internet. This week, we’ll attend an Indonesian funeral, explore the darker side of tourism, and join an expedition to the unforgiving Greenland ice sheet.

Everyone knows you’re better off avoiding large cities in the event of a zombie pandemic. But if you’re going to take the risk of living in a city anyway, which one has the best chance of making it through the apocalypse?

This story is completely true. It happened right here on the internet, on a night just like this.

You’ve heard it before: In space, no one can hear you scream. That’s because sound doesn’t move through a vacuum, and everyone knows that space is a vacuum. The thing is, that’s not completely true.