Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Environment
Five years on, Deepwater Horizon oil spill’s impact lingers
Five years after the Gulf of Mexico’s largest disaster, researchers are still studying its ecological impact and struggling to learn the fate of most of the spilled oil.
- Earth
Spot the northern lights with Aurorasaurus
Crowdsourced Aurorasaurus project uses Twitter to track the northern lights.
- Climate
Fewer cold snaps in the forecast
Rapid Arctic warming will reduce the frequency of cold snaps throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere, new research suggests.
- Earth
Plate loss gave chain of Pacific islands and seamounts a bend
The sinking Izanagi tectonic plate may have rerouted the mantle flow beneath the Pacific, halting the Hawaiian hot spot.
- Environment
Tampons: Not just for feminine hygiene
Tampons soaked in polluted water glow under UV light, revealing detergent-filled wastewater in rivers.
- Environment
Fracking chemicals can alter mouse development
Hormone-disrupting chemicals used in fracking fluid cause developmental changes in mice, new experiments show.
- Materials Science
Suds turn silver nanoparticles in clothes into duds
Bleach-containing detergents destroy antibacterial silver nanoparticles that coat clothes.
- Climate
Antarctic ice shelves rapidly melting
Melting around Antarctica is accelerating, with several ice shelves projected to vanish entirely within 100 years.
- Chemistry
Air pollution molecules make key immune protein go haywire
Reactive molecules in air pollution derail immune responses in the lung and can trigger life-long asthma.
- Life
A vineyard’s soil influences the microbiome of a grapevine
Vineyard soil microbes end up on grapes, leaves and flowers, study finds.
- Environment
Manganese turns honeybees into bumbling foragers
Ingesting low doses of the heavy metal manganese disrupts honeybee foraging, a new experiment suggests.
- Climate
Rain slows whipping hurricane winds
Taking raindrop drag into account — which may slow hurricane winds by as much as 30 percent — could help improve hurricane forecasts.
