Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Drug Overflow: Pharmaceutical factories foul waters in India
A treatment plant in India that processes waste from drug factories feeds enormous amounts of antibiotics and other drugs into local waterways.
- Earth
Bad for Baby: New risks found for plastic constituent
Early exposure to bisphenol A, a building block of polycarbonate plastics, can trigger a variety of later health problems.
- Earth
Beware summer radon-test results
Measuring household radon levels in summer may give misleadingly low results.
- Earth
Cholesterol boosts diesel toxicity
Nanoparticles in diesel exhaust can activate genes that worsen cholesterol's damaging effects.
- Earth
Hammered Saws
Sawfish, shark relatives that almost went extinct several decades ago, have now gained protection by international treaty.
- Earth
Asian Forecast: Hazy, Warmer—Clouds of pollution heat lower atmosphere
Clouds of smoke and soot that blanket many regions of Asia heat the lower atmosphere by the same amount that rising greenhouse gases do.
- Earth
Slick Death: Oil-spill treatment kills coral
Chemicals used to disperse marine oil spills are more harmful to coral than the oil itself.
- Earth
Metal spews from tires and brake pads
A study in Stockholm says that tires and brake pads emit a variety of metal pollutants despite European regulations aimed at cleaning up these parts.
- Earth
Light reaches deep in southeast Pacific
In a remote part of the southeastern Pacific where marine life is sparse, ultraviolet light penetrates to unprecedented depths.
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- Earth
Stunting Growth: Ozone will trim plants’ carbon-storing power
Increasing ground-level ozone due to pollution will stifle the growth of vegetation in many regions, accelerating the buildup of planet-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
- Earth
Erosion accelerates along Alaskan coast
Alaska's northern coast is falling into the sea at an accelerating rate.
