Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Humans
De-papering environmental summits
One token — but highly visible — gesture toward sustainability at the UN's 2012 Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio was a request for all attendees to shrink their paper footprints. Apparently, most complied.
- Life
New frontiers for coyotes may bring more Lyme disease
Forget the deer. Maybe it's coyotes on the move that can explain the recent increase in Lyme disease.
- Humans
What’s in your wallet? Another ‘estrogen’
A chemical cousin of bisphenol A, a hormone mimic, has turned up on banknotes from around the world in addition to tainting 14 other types of papery products. Owing to the near ubiquity of BPS in paper, human exposure is likely also “ubiquitous,” conclude the study's authors. Oh, and a second new study shows that BPS behaves like an estrogen.
- Earth
Icelandic volcanoes slumber today, but not forever
Eruptions pepper the North Atlantic island.
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- Earth
13th century volcano mystery may be solved
Indonesian volcano may be the culprit in the biggest eruption of the last seven millennia.
- Life
Grasshoppers’ terror outlives them
After an existence plagued by predatory spiders, the insects pass into oblivion, leaving a legacy of impoverished soil.
- Life
Calcium offers clues in mass extinction
Ocean acidification during Permian period may have caused the Great Dying.
- Earth
Ancient volcanoes destroyed ozone
Prehistoric eruptions gave off huge amounts of a gas that erodes the UV-blocking atmospheric layer.
- Life
Microbes flourish under Arctic sea ice
Oceanographic expedition surprised to find photosynthetic microorganisms thriving under frozen surface.
