Stories by Michael Marshall

For decades, an influential theory blamed the Rapanui for their own downfall—a story made famous by Jared Diamond’s book Collapse. New evidence tells a different tale

A model suggests a massive uplift caused by a phenomenon called “river piracy” partly explains Everest’s impressive height

Climate change, civil war and international sanctions all contributed to the devastation caused by some of Libya’s worst flooding ever, researchers say

Living things depend on water, but it breaks down DNA and other key molecules. So how did the earliest cells deal with the water paradox?

Researchers are beginning to untangle the common biology that links supposedly distinct psychiatric conditions