Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Climate
Ocean bacteria may have shut off ancient global warming
Ocean-dwelling bacteria may have helped end global warming 56 million years ago by gobbling up carbon from the CO2-laden atmosphere.
- Climate
IPCC calls for swift switch to alternative power
Rapid adoption of green power production will be necessary to avert a climate crisis, latest IPCC report says.
- Earth
Huge space rock rattled Earth 3 billion years ago
An asteroid almost as wide as Rhode Island may have plowed into Earth 3.26 billion years ago, leaving its mark in South Africa’s Barberton greenstone belt.
- Earth
Tiny minerals may have shaped Earth’s first plate boundaries
Simulations link weakened rock minerals to the origin of plate tectonics on Earth.
- Earth
Science can save lives, but only if society lets it
Society faces lots of problems that science can’t yet fix. But there are also plenty of cases in which scientists know enough to avert tragedy.
- Earth
Buying time when quakes hit
On the West Coast, geologists are developing an earthquake warning system that can provide seconds of notice before destructive shaking begins. The system could be ready before the next big quake hits.
- Earth
Seismic signals chronicle deadly landslide
Washington state’s deadly Oso landslide was recorded in seismic waves.
- Climate
World unprepared for changing climate, IPCC says
The latest intergovernmental report says planetwide impacts continue.
- Earth
Evolution of river systems
A river’s erosion downward and across a landscape is based on a variety of factors, including terrain steepness and the arrangement of tributaries.
- Paleontology
Microbes indicted in ancient mass extinction
About 252 million years ago an estimated 96 percent of all species were wiped from Earth, and now scientists have a new suspect in the killing — methane-belching microbes.
- Animals
As their homes warm, salamanders shrink
Many species of salamanders respond to climate change by getting smaller.
- Environment
Artists’ sunsets may reveal past pollution
The colors artists used in the sunsets of their paintings may provide clues to what was circulating in the air hundreds of years ago.
