Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Danger in the Air
To minimize the threat of volcanic ash plumes to aircraft, scientists are improving methods of satellite detection and developing ground-based gas and ash-plume sensors to monitor volcanic activity.
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- Planetary Science
Celestial population boom
Large meteoroids are probably more common than telescopic surveys suggest, new analyses find.
- Earth
Unusual advances
New glacier model helps explain how ice masses can grow even in a generally warming climate.
- Earth
Sun is setting on incandescent era
After more than a century, Edison's light bulbs stand poised to go extinct.
- Earth
Cash for clunkers II: Appliances
States could soon roll out programs that help consumers replace energy hogging home appliances.
- Earth
Oh, rats — there go the snails
A food fad among introduced rats has apparently crashed a once-thriving population of Hawaii’s famed endemic tree snails.
- Earth
A trip to the garbage patch
Scientists bring back samples from the oceanic garbage patch off the coast of California.
- Chemistry
Nitrous oxide fingered as monster ozone slayer
Nitrous oxide has become the leading threat to the future integrity of stratospheric ozone, scientists report.
- Chemistry
Styrofoam degrades in seawater
Study suggests besides the visible plastic, smaller bits are fouling the waters
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- Animals
Back off, extinct moa
A New Zealand tree’s peculiar leaves may have served as defenses against long-gone giant birds.
