Warming springs can cause plants to bloom earlier, alter hibernation times and locations for migrating animals, and increase insect populations

Across the south-eastern US, trees are unfurling their clouds of leaves after winter. Yet this picturesque and usually welcome development is this year cause for consternation.

New data from the USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) shows that in parts of North Carolina, South Carolina and northern Florida, spring has arrived more than three weeks earlier than average, and earlier than at any point in the last 39 years it has been tracked.

Parks have remained open amid the coronavirus and become a haven over the past week, prompting fears for staff and large crowds

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Even as Broadway shows were shuttered and Disneyland was closed due to the Covid-19, most US national parks were open for business on Tuesday, confounding public health officials and worrying park staff who did not want to be exposed to the virus.

National parks have become a haven over the past week as the public seeks places to go during spring break. One park employee reported on Facebook that a visitor center at Big Bend national park was full on Monday with hundreds of people. Another shared a photo of shoulder to shoulder crowds at Zion national park waiting to board shuttle buses. (The park closed its shuttle bus system later in the day.)

More than half the National Park Service’s unit remain open but local police and health officials are urging people to stay away

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As mild temperatures and spring blooms emerged in southern Utah this past weekend, so did the tourists. At Capitol Reef national park, the trailhead parking lot was full of cars bearing plates from states such as California, Washington, Colorado and Georgia, all Covid-19 hotspots. The hikers were either oblivious to or ignoring the plea from the local sheriff’s office that outsiders stay away.

“While we would normally welcome visitors to enjoy the beauty of Wayne county, we really don’t want visitors during the Covid-19 pandemic,” stated a 3 April post on the sheriff’s Facebook page. Wayne county, where Capitol Reef is located, has 2,600 residents and little in the way of healthcare services. “If you don’t live here, please don’t come here.”

Bank of England governor warns of financial collapse linked to climate emergency

• Top asset managers oversee $300bn fossil fuel investments
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Companies and industries that are not moving towards zero-carbon emissions will be punished by investors and go bankrupt, the governor of the Bank of England has warned.

Mark Carney also told the Guardian it was possible that the global transition needed to tackle the climate crisis could result in an abrupt financial collapse. He said the longer action to reverse emissions was delayed, the more the risk of collapse would grow.

Asian giant hornet, which became more active in the state in April, is the world’s largest and can kill humans with multiple stings

• Alarm over deaths of bees from rapidly spreading viral disease
  

Researchers and citizens in Washington state are on a careful hunt for invasive “murder hornets”, after the insect made its first appearance in the US.

The Asian giant hornet is the world’s largest and can kill humans. But it is most dangerous for the European honeybee, which is defenseless in the face of the hornet’s spiky mandibles, long stinger and potent venom.

Workers at ‘most toxic place in America’ are terrified to return to a site where there has been very little protection from the outbreak

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For more than a month, coronavirus has brought cleanup of a 586-square-mile decommissioned nuclear production complex in south-eastern Washington state to a near standstill.

Most of the more than 11,000 employees at the Hanford site were sent home in late March, with only essential workers remaining to make sure the “most toxic place in America” stays safe and secure.

The NCAA struck back at the University of Kansas and its men's basketball program Thursday, calling five Level I violations that are alleged to have occurred “egregious” and arguing that they undermine and threaten" college athletics.

Mike Storen, a former ABA commissioner and multisport marketing whiz and the father of ESPN broadcaster Hannah Storm, died Thursday. He was 84.

It seems like everyone but Patriots’ head coach Bill Belichick is worried about the quarterback situation in New England. 

Former Los Angeles Lakers player Shannon Brown was arrested last week for allegedly firing a gun at two people who entered his Georgia home that was listed for sale.

The Washington Capitals announced Friday that forward Brendan Leipsic was placed on unconditional waivers after his private messages were leaked on social media Wednesday.

The NFL Players Coalition and other athletes and coaches called on the Justice Department and the FBI to launch a federal investigation into the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery in a letter Friday.

Baltimore Ravens safety Earl Thomas appears to have reconciled with his wife after reports emerged earlier this week that she held him at gunpoint last month after discovering an alleged affair. 

Over time, trash that has been floating in the ocean gets covered in algae and other micro-organisms

Astronomers have more places to look for signs of intelligent life and more advanced tools to find it

On a ship frozen in the Arctic, scientists have spent all winter to shed light on exactly how the world is changing

Studying how bats behave when they’re feeling ill could help researchers better understand how pathogens move through close-knit populations

The newly launched #SmithsonianEdu campaign highlights 1.7 million online tools geared specifically toward students and teachers

These scientists and inventors set out to change the planet with these out-of-the-box ideas

Deepen your understanding of the natural world with these free resources

Yes, most infectious diseases are seasonal. But waiting for COVID-19 to wane on its own is a bad idea

Dineobellator was a formidable predator and boasts the battle scars to prove it.

Though COVID-19 likely makes recovered patients immune, experts aren't sure how long protection lasts

Find a hobby, for starters, and don't forget the mission, say scientists who have worked at remote research stations

So-called gynandromorphs are rare, but they can teach us a lot about development and evolution

Researchers suggest that the Humboldt squid uses bioluminescent backlighting for visual cues in the dark deep sea

Researchers see promise in recruiting red siskin pet traders as conservation partners

One detects an active infection; another signals that the virus has already left the body. Both are critical for tracking the spread of disease

The pandemic has left many unable to leave harbor, creating a window for fishing grounds to recover from years of overfishing

Congratulations to first-time mother Echo the cheetah!

False information about the pandemic is rampant; here’s how experts say you can identify what news to trust and what might be faulty

Fossil teeth uncovered in Peru reveal that an extinct family of primates, thought to have lived only in Africa, made it across the ocean

These letters and journals offer insights on how to record one's thoughts amid a pandemic

As a biological anthropologist focused on health, diseases are part of Sabrina Sholts' specialty

Lendbreen, a pass high in the Norwegian mountains, was an important route from the Roman era until the late Middle Ages

The fourth installment in our weekly series spotlights titles that may have been lost in the news amid the COVID-19 crisis

Paleontologists seek the ancestors that could explain how bats became the only flying mammals.

An American doctor operating out of Philadelphia made clinical observations that where patients lived, not how they lived, was at the root of the problem

The two-day virtual event will bring scientists and many other experts to highlight success stories in conservation

Smithsonian's Earth Optimism Summit features CNN's Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir

The outbreak was far deadlier than COVID-19, but the empire survived

Spencer's ideas laid the groundwork for social Darwinism, but scholars say there was much more to the Victorian Age thinker than that

What lies inside the icy cavern seems more and more like a captive, rare animal, an Earth form that might soon be lost

A new book argues that controlling cancer is within reach if scientists are able to anticipate the evolution of resistance to traditional treatments

While COVID-19 stymies travel, help conserve those things—from cacti to manta rays—that will beckon you later

The sixth installment in our weekly series spotlights titles that may have been lost in the news amid the COVID-19 crisis

Repurposing existing medicines focused on known drug targets is likely to offer a more rapid hope of tackling COVID-19 than developing and manufacturing a vaccine, argue an international team of scientists.

The extent to which Brazilian soy production and trade contribute to climate change depends largely on the location where soybeans are grown, according to a new study. In some municipalities, carbon dioxide emissions resulting from the export of soybean and derivatives are more than 200 times higher than in others.

High-temperature superconductors have the potential to revolutionize today's technologies. 'Higgs spectroscopy' could bring about a watershed as it reveals the dynamics of paired electrons in superconductors. Remarkably, the dynamics also reveal typical precursors of superconductivity even above the critical temperature at which the materials investigated attain superconductivity.

Researchers analyzed patient data from 10 countries. The team found a correlation between low vitamin D levels and hyperactive immune systems. Vitamin D strengths innate immunity and prevents overactive immune responses. The finding could explain several mysteries, including why children are unlikely to die from COVID-19.