Human engineering appears to have moved the planet, literally. According to new research published this month, the global boom in dam construction over the past two centuries has caused measurable ...

Star trails above the Three Gorges Dam in Yichang, Hubei province, China. Large dams like this one are shifting the Earth's poles away from its axis of rotation. In an ideal model of our planet, the ...

Russell has a PhD in the history of medicine, violence, and colonialism. His research has explored topics including ethics, science governance, and medical involvement in violent contexts. Russell has ...

Discover how the Earth started spinning, the impact of the Theia collision, and how the Moon's gravity is gradually slowing ...

Last Word is New Scientist’s long-running series in which readers give scientific answers to each other’s questions, ranging from the minutiae of everyday life to absurd astronomical hypotheticals. To ...

If you haven’t accomplished as much this summer as you had hoped to, you can blame forces far beyond your control: a few of these dog days, by one measure, are among the shortest you’ve ever lived ...

Every second, the Earth spins at an incredible speed, completing a full rotation in just 24 hours. While this may seem ordinary, the simple act of our planet turning on its axis is responsible for the ...

Last Word is New Scientist’s long-running series in which readers give scientific answers to each other’s questions, ranging from the minutiae of everyday life to absurd astronomical hypotheticals. To ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

Earth’s rotation is the continuous spinning of the planet around its axis, an imaginary line running from the North Pole to the South Pole. One full rotation takes about 24 hours, creating the cycle ...