Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Agriculture
Demand for Ethanol May Drive Up Food Prices
The production of ethanol from corn and other crops for fuel could drive up food prices.
- Earth
Global warming heats up nursery of hurricanes
Sea-surface temperatures in the North Atlantic Ocean reached record highs last year.
- Earth
Alaskan coral beds get new protection
To protect cold-water corals, huge areas of Alaskan waters will be off limits to trawls and other fishing gear that typically scrape the seafloor.
- Earth
Radiation Redux: Forest fires remobilize fallout from bomb tests
A sensor installed to monitor fallout from modern nuclear tests has detected small amounts of radioactive cesium produced by bomb tests decades ago and sent skyward by forest fires.
- Earth
Asbestos fibers: Barking up a tree
Sixteen years after a mine with asbestos-contaminated ore shut down, trees in the area still hold hazardous concentrations of wind-deposited asbestos.
- Earth
Warning: Slow down for whales
To protect a major population of right whales, the U.S. government is proposing periodic go-slow rules for big ships passing through the animals' migration routes.
- Agriculture
Farm Fresh Pesticides
For people who live near croplands, traces of agricultural chemicals can find their way into homes by hitchhiking on windblown dust.
- Earth
Visiting RadTown
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched an interactive Web site that uses an animated town to provide basic information on radiation in the environment—from lasers in a stadium light show to x rays at the dentist’s office. This virtual community shows the wide variety of radiation sources commonly encountered in everyday life. The site […]
- Earth
The Long Burn: Warming drove recent upswing in wildfires
Major forest fires in the western United States have become more frequent and destructive over the past two decades, in step with rising average temperatures in the region.
- Earth
Underwater landslides tallied near Puerto Rico
An oceanographic survey off the northern coast of Puerto Rico has found remnants of many underwater landslides, a handful of which were large enough to have caused deadly tsunamis.
- Earth
Fast-food flies ferry foul fauna
Houseflies buzzing around fast-food restaurants could be spreading antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
- Earth
Asian sediments betray age of nearby desert
Grains of silt embedded in thick sediments of northwestern China may settle a debate about the age of the Taklimakan Desert.
