Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Bacteria binged on BP oil but didn’t grow
Researchers suspect the spilled crude didn’t provide a balanced diet.
- Earth
Marine microbes prove potent greenhouse gas emitters
Earth’s oceans emit an estimated 30 percent of the nitrous oxide, or N2O, entering the atmosphere. Yet the source of this potent greenhouse gas has puzzled scientists for years. Bacteria — long the leading candidate — can generate nitrous oxide, but the seas don’t seem to contain enough to account for all of the nitrous oxide that the marine world has been coughing up. Now researchers offer a better candidate.
- Earth
Eels point to suffocating Gulf floor
In June, scientists predicted that the Gulf of Mexico’s annual dead zone — a subsea region where the water contains too little oxygen to support life — might develop into the biggest ever. In fact, that didn’t happen. Owing to the fortuitous arrival of stormy weather, this year’s dead zone peaked at about 6,800 square miles, scientists reported on Aug. 1 — big but far from the record behemoth of 9,500 square miles that had been mentioned as distinctly possible.
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- Humans
EPA considers new call for toxicity testing of BPA
The Environmental Protection Agency solicited public comment, July 26, about whether to require new toxicity testing and environmental sampling of bisphenol A, an ingredient in many plastics and food-contact resins.
- Earth
Earth/Environment
A killer methane belch, radon-siphoning trees, deep oil-spill science and more in this week’s news.
- Earth
Small volcanoes add up to cooler climate
Airborne particles sent skyward by eruptions since 2000 have counteracted the warming effects of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide.
- Earth
Earth/Environment
Tracking carbon dioxide, fingerprinting uranium and understanding phthalates in boys in this week's news.
- Tech
Airports’ leaden fallout may taint some kids
People who live below the flight path of piston-engine aircraft — or downwind of airports serving such small planes — are exposed to lead from aviation fuel. A new study now links an airport’s proximity to somewhat elevated blood-lead levels in children from area homes.
- Life
Oil spill didn’t hurt seagrass-dwelling juvenile fish
Long-term effects of early exposure to hydrocarbons remains unknown.
- Humans
Young minds at risk from secondhand smoke
Children exposed to secondhand smoke at home are at least twice as likely to develop a neurobehavioral disorder as are kids in smokefree homes, a new study finds. And roughly 6 percent of U.S. children — some 4.8 million — encounter smoke at home.
- Earth
Simulation tracks ocean’s missing heat
Climate scientists suggest energy is buried deep undersea or released to space.
