Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Moderate climate warming could melt permafrost
Ancient cave formations in Siberia reveal effects of warmer past on frozen ground.
- Earth
Intensive care linked to BPA exposure in newborns
High levels of pollutant BPA occur in sickest babies, study finds.
- Earth
Blood levels of BPA become source of controversy
New data question whether human blood measurements of BPA reflect sample contamination or just exaggerated exposures.
- Earth
Aquatic predators affect carbon-storing plant life
Freshwater predator species can prevent the overgrazing of plants that suck up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
- Life
Melting Arctic may make algae flourish
More sunlight penetrates thinning Arctic sea ice, enabling algal growth.
- Life
Antianxiety drugs affect fish, too
Perch swim more and eat faster when exposed to concentrations of an antianxiety medication found in rivers.
- Life
Diversity breeds disease resistance in frogs
Species-rich amphibian communities prove better at fending off limb-deforming parasitic infections.
- Life
Ancestors of today’s placental mammals may never have shared the Earth with dinosaurs
A newly constructed family tree dovetails with the fossil record, but differs considerably from previous genetic studies by suggesting that placental mammals emerged after the dinosaur extinction.
- Animals
Compared with rodents, bat species carry more viruses
Viruses that can jump from animals to people may find the flying mammals a fine place to lurk.
- Earth
Salvage Job
With fertilizer prices skyrocketing, scientists scramble to recover phosphorus from waste.
- Earth
Magnitude 8.0 earthquake strikes Solomon Islands
Temblor is the largest in a month of seismic activity on Australian-Pacific plate boundary.
- Chemistry
Gold-digging microbe
By spitting out a molecule, a bacterium draws solid gold out of solution.
