Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
African fossils suggest complex life arose early
Researchers find evidence that Earth’s earliest multicellular life got going 2.1 billion years ago.
- Earth
Moby Dick meets Jaws
A recently discovered fossil demonstrates that giant whales weren’t always as gentle as they are today.
- Earth
Ivy nanoparticles promise sunblocks and other green products
I’ve developed a love-hate relationship with English ivy that’s been devolving towards hate-hate. But a new paper may temper my antipathy. Apparently this backyard bully also offers a kinder, gentler alternative to the potentially toxic metal-based nanoparticles used in today’s sunscreens.
- Earth
Antarctic shoal breaks the ice
Instruments on a massive berg help pinpoint a previously unreported undersea ridge.
- Animals
Climate change may favor couch-potato elk
With drought and rising temperatures in Wyoming, migratory animals suffer while stay-at-home members of the same herd thrive
- Earth
Even a newborn canyon is big in Texas
A flood carved a surprisingly large gorge that may help understand features on Earth and Mars.
- Health & Medicine
Feds probe Gulf spill health risks
The Institute of Medicine will be hosting a small public workshop in New Orleans, June 22 and 23, on possible health risks to Gulf coast residents and workers in the wake of the catastrophic BP oil spill. A June 16 congressional hearing previewed some of the concerns likely to arise at the meeting. They ranged from potential long-terms risks of DNA damage to claims that BP failed to provide protective gear to contract crews hired to clean up oil.
- Earth
Loop Current will determine spill’s ultimate fate
Oceanographers track a newly formed eddy in the Gulf of Mexico and where it might carry oil.
- Science & Society
Citation inflation
Many journals – and the authors who publish their novel data and analyses in them – rely on “impact factors” as a gauge of the importance and prestige of their work. However, a new analysis turns up subtle ways that journals can game the system to artificially inflate their impact factor.
- Earth
Planes can trigger snowfall
Under certain conditions, aircraft can trigger precipitation as they pass through moisture-laden clouds.
- Humans
Crude pick-ups
To date, 400 skimmers have retrieved some 18 million gallons of oiled water from the BP Gulf spill, according to Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen during a June 11 press briefing. After removing the entrained water, this translates to between 1.8 million and 2.7 million gallons of crude oil. Another 3.8 million gallons of oil have been burned at sea. Four million gallons more have been collected through a near-mile-long riser tube and a containment cap fitted over the broken Deepwater Horizon wellhead.
- Earth
Operation Icewatch 2010 gears up
Climate experts turn their gaze north to monitor this summer's Arctic melt.
