Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Climate
Glacier melts are erasing climate record
Featured blog: As glaciers continue to dry up, so does any hope of gleaning information from them about the past climate record.
- Earth
Salinity sensors
Trace elements in the carbonate shells of freshwater mussels could serve as an archive of road salt pollution.
- Health & Medicine
Bad air for growing brains and minds
Preliminary evidence suggests that children’s regular exposure to heavy air pollution can be accompanied by brain inflammation and lowered scores on intelligence tests.
- Life
Climate warms, creatures head for the hills
Unusual data let scientists test predictions that global warming drives species up slopes.
- Earth
Lake Superior’s ups and downs
Analyses of trees and other organic material buried in a riverbank near Lake Superior’s northwestern shore shed new light on how much and when the lake level varied soon after the last ice age.
- Earth
Pterodactyls may soar once more
Paleontologists and aeronautical engineers are designing a reconnaissance drone that will mimic the flight of an ancient flying reptile.
- Humans
Arctic warming chills interest in fishing
Featured blog: An October 7 accord could put U.S. Arctic waters off-limits to fishing.
- Earth
World’s largest tsunami debris
Seven immense coral boulders — one of them a three-story-tall, 1,200-metric-ton monster — have been found far inland on a Tongan island and may be the world's largest tsunami debris.
- Earth
When trees grew in Antarctica
Fossils of trees that grew in Antarctica millions of years ago suggest a growth pattern much different than modern trees.
- Earth
Earthquake history recorded in stalagmites
Where stalagmites start and stop in caves could offer more precise clues about when major earthquakes have hit (and could again hit) the Midwest.
- Earth
A near-record Arctic melting
This summer, the area covered by Arctic sea ice dropped to its second-lowest since satellite measurements began in 1979.
- Earth
Sea-level history off the ice
For the first time, researchers have assembled a comprehensive record of how sea level varied between 542 million and 251 million years ago, more than doubling previous timelines for such fluctuations.
