Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Agriculture
Bugged wines
Stinky compounds emitted by ladybugs can impart a foul taste to wines made from grapes on which the insects had been feeding.
- Earth
Ash Detector: Laser device could protect aircraft in flight
Analysis of a volcanic plume that wafted over central Alaska suggests that polarized laser beams can detect airborne ash, which can be a threat to aircraft.
- Earth
Pregnancy and Pollution: Women living in areas with poor air quality have babies with lower birthweights
Pregnant women exposed even to moderate amounts of several common air pollutants tend to have babies with low birthweights.
- Earth
Dry winters heat European summers
When southern Europe receives scant rainfall in the winter, the whole continent tends to bake the following summer.
- Earth
Flotsam Science
Researchers have harnessed the power of flotsam—floating items as diverse as tennis shoes, tub toys, and hockey gloves—to chart the path and speed of the Pacific Subarctic Gyre, a group of currents in the North Pacific Ocean.
- Earth
Earth 911
Earth Day comes only once a year, but you can give Mother Earth a gift every day. The site Earth 911 makes it easy to be environmentally responsible. The Web portal offers ideas on how to recycle old electronics, dispose of hazardous materials, conserve energy, and shop green—and all its tips are tailored to your […]
- Earth
On the rocks
New research explains why a cancer-causing form of chromium has been turning up in ground and surface waters far from industrial sources.
- Earth
Increase in chemical disposals
Industrial facilities in the United States released more than 4 billion pounds of chemicals into the environment in 2005, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory.
- Earth
Greaseball Challenge
And they’re off! The participants in this charity biofuel car rally are on their way from the U.S. East Coast to San Jose, Costa Rica. Powered by biodiesel, vegetable oil, waste grease, and other alternative fuels, the vehicles will all be donated to local communities at the end of the rally, which runs until April […]
- Earth
On the move
A new study suggests how prions, the infectious agents that cause such disorders as chronic wasting disease, behave in soil and landfills.
- Earth
New solutions for unused drugs
Pharmacists and federal scientists have launched a program to discourage consumers from flushing unused prescription drugs down the toilet.
- Earth
Freeze-thaw cycles: How not to mix soil
The repeated cycles of ground freezing and thawing that occur in many places don't do a surprising poor job of churning the soil.
