Google has introduced a brand new type of driverless car that runs on electricity: one without a steering wheel, brake, or accelerator pedal.

Should Ozgur Sahin, associate professor of biological sciences and physics of Columbia University, continue expanding upon his work in researching how the tiny movements of microbes can be harnessed to create electrical and mechanical energy, it may pave the way for a world fueled by bacterial spores.

Coral reefs, some of the planet’s most beautiful and biodiverse ecosystems, face many natural and anthropogenic threats. Tremendous effort has gone into protecting and rehabilitating these reefs worldwide, but the mounting problem of ocean acidification has the potential to obliterate all progress made by marine scientists, conservationists, and policy-makers thus far.

Forests are a vitally important habitat for much of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. During this class you will learn key issues in forest ecology and management through an all-day field trip to Black Rock Forest, and study how pathogens and other invasive species affect forest structure and function.

Are we willing to compromise deep sea ecosystems and biodiversity for prodigious amounts of mineral materials? Will deep sea mining have the largest footprint of any single human activity on the planet? The race is on to create more progressive, environmental regulations concerning deep sea mining, but much more scientific research is still necessary to understand how to best regulate these ecosystems.

Jeffrey Potent discusses his upcoming course, the importance of understanding systems, and employing a knowledge systems approach to creating a sustainable future.

We have been harming our hard-earned water resources; is it too late to clean up our act? With the help of the nine principles of ecology we can work towards effectively and sustainably managing these ecosystems, which will help us preserve the quality of New York’s freshwater resources and maintain our high quality drinking water.

Genetics hold the secret to understanding evolutionary processes. They also hold the secret to how ecological and climatic factors influence the course of evolution. In fact, recent research—ranging in topics from butterfly speciation to the genetic diversity of immune systems in giant pandas—has found that genetics play a vital role in the outcome of conservation efforts, and thus the fate of entire species.

Scientists at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland created a new breed of robots to advance their research in robotic movements. But the cheetah-cub robot is not the first animal to bound across laboratory floors. Scientists have produced a “mechanical menagerie” of robots that mimic four legged mammals, compact insects, and everything in between.

As the Earth progressively warms with climate change, species that are not able to adapt to shifting temperatures will be propelled towards extinction. Yet according to a new study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) published in research journal Plos One, the majority of species that are most vulnerable to climate change are not given conservation priority.