Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Planetary Science
Worldwide slowdown in plant carbon uptake
A decade of droughts has stifled the increasing growth of terrestrial vegetation.
- Earth
Tsunami triggered by one-two punch
Geologists report the first recorded observation of an unusual earthquake sequence.
- Health & Medicine
Traffic may drive some people to diabetes
Urban air pollution — especially the particles and gases emitted by heavy traffic — can increase a senior citizen’s risk of developing type-2 diabetes, according to a new German study. If confirmed, its authors say, pollution would represent a “novel and potentially modifiable risk factor” for the metabolic disorder.
- Earth
Perforated blobs may be early sponges
Odd shapes in Australian rocks could be the oldest fossil evidence of multicellular animals.
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- Earth
Forest loss slows in Brazilian Amazon
Between 2004 and 2009, the rate of clearing dropped almost 75 percent.
- Health & Medicine
‘Miracle’ tomato turns sour foods sweet
Pucker no more: That seems to be one objective of research underway at a host of Japanese universities. For the past several years, they’ve been developing bio-production systems to inexpensively churn out loads of miraculin — a natural taste-altering protein that makes sour foods seem oh so sweet. Their newest biotech reactor: grape tomatoes.
- Earth
Rodent poop gauges ancient rains
The size of chinchilla pellets reveals past desert environment.
- Health & Medicine
Chicken poses significant drug-resistant Salmonella threat
More than one-in-five retail samples of raw chicken collected in Pennsylvania hosted Salmonella, a new study found — twice the prevalence reported in a 2007 U.S. Food and Drug Administration survey. And where the bacteria were present, more than half were immune to the germicidal activity of at least one antibiotic. Nearly one-third were resistant to three or more.
- Health & Medicine
Drumming up anthrax
Mention anthrax and about the last thing that comes to mind is whether there’s a drum in the room. Yet tom-toms — or at least the stretched animal hides on their heads — can sometimes spew toxic anthrax spores into the air. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently highlighted the case of a previously healthy 24-year-old woman who nearly died, last December, after attending a “drumming circle” in New Hampshire.
- Life
Emerging disease may wipe out common bat in the Northeast
Hard-hit region could lose little brown myotis to white-nose syndrome within decades
- Chemistry
Receipts a large — and largely ignored — source of BPA
A host of small studies raises a big alarm about exposure to a hormone-mimicking chemical.
