Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Invasive, Indeed
Some people may live lightly on the land, but the demands of the world's population as a whole consume nearly a quarter of Earth's total biological productivity.
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- Earth
Iron to blame
Typhoons that drench Madagascar and spill iron-rich runoff into the Indian Ocean account for that region's massive but sporadic algal blooms.
- Agriculture
Web Special: You fertilized with what?
A study shows that farmers can substitute human urine for conventional fertilizer.
- Earth
Clearly Concerning
The toxicity of a chemical that leaches from a widely used plastic receives conflicting evaluations in two new reviews.
- Earth
Toxipedia
Ever wonder whether some chemical in a bathroom cleanser, herbicidal spray, or paint is toxic? Just how poisonous is that chemical described in last week’s Science News? Toxicologists are developing one-stop shopping for such information at Toxipedia. Like Wikipedia, it allows the public—experts, advocates, or policymakers—to post information. Unlike Wikipedia, there is a rating system […]
- Earth
Meteor dust layers taint Antarctic ice
Two layers of deep Antarctic ice, each hundreds of thousands of years old, are rich in meteoritic dust.
- Earth
Grazing on the Periodic Table: Some ancient microorganisms lived on a diet of pure sulfur
Microorganisms that lived 3.5 billion years ago obtained energy by metabolizing pure sulfur.
- Earth
How Green Are Your Travels?
This website offers a rough gauge of the carbon-dioxide emissions associated with flying around the country. Just plug in a starting point and destination and it gives you a round-trip estimate of the greenhouse-gas “footprint” of your travel. The goal is to encourage visitors to buy carbon-offsets to cover the greenhouse-gas cost of their treks. […]
- Earth
Laser printers can dirty the air
Some laser printers emit substantial amounts of potentially hazardous nanoscale particles.
- Earth
Lack of oxygen stunts fish reproduction
Seasonal oxygen shortages in coastal waters, increasing in severity because of pollution, may impair fish reproduction.
- Earth
What Goes Up
A massive scientific field study in Mexico City, along with lab experiments and computer simulations, show that pollution from the world's megacities has a global impact.
