Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Tech
Nuclear energy: As Germany goes…
The German government surprised many energy analysts May 30, with its pledge to phase out use of nuclear power. What makes the announcement particularly noteworthy is that this government is not offering to walk away from a bit player. Nuclear power currently supplies almost one-quarter of that nation’s electrical energy — more than its share in the United States.
- Life
Fish ignore alarming noises in acidifying seawater
Something about changing ocean chemistry could make young clownfish behave oddly around normally alarming sounds.
- Life
Mellow corals beat the heat
Species that overreact to distress signals from algae are more likely to succumb to warming.
- Earth
Earth & Environment
Cities can break up passing storms, plus wild boar contamination, altered spider sense and more in this week’s news.
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- Tech
Cans bring BPA to dinner, FDA confirms
Federal chemists have confirmed what everyone had expected: that if a bisphenol-A-based resin is used to line most food cans, there’s a high likelihood the contents of those cans will contain at least traces of BPA.
- Life
Microbes may sky jump to new hosts
The role of microbes in cloud formation and precipitation may not be an accident of chemistry so much as an evolutionary adaptation by certain bacteria and other nonsentient beings, a scientist posited at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
- Earth
Germy with a chance of hail
Aerial microbes can trigger precipitation and may influence global warming.
- Earth
Earth/Environment
Earth’s iron heart can melt, plus Atlantic weather and more ice thinning in this week’s news.
- Physics
Rogue waves captured
Re-creating tiny versions of these monster swells in a laboratory tank reveals their mathematical underpinnings.
- Life
Numbers flap has minor implications for global extinctions
A statistical technique used to estimate rates of species disappearance is flawed, two ecologists charge — but not enough to invalidate recent dire assessments.
- Humans
It’s time to put a price on carbon, NRC says
“It is imprudent to delay actions that at least begin the process of substantially reducing emissions [of greenhouse gases],” according to a May 12 report by the National Research Council. It didn’t get a lot of press play in the past week, perhaps because its 144 pages don’t say anything readers might not have expected this august body to have proclaimed years ago. But that shouldn’t diminish the significance of this report, its authors contend.
