Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
- Earth
Dirty Little Secret
Recognition is growing that many communities have soils laced with asbestos, which has prodded several federal agencies to probe the hazards they might pose.
- Earth
Toxic Leftovers: Microbes convert flame retardant
Bacteria can break down a common flame retardant into more-toxic forms.
- Earth
Something’s fishy about these hormones
Synthetic steroids used to beef up cattle can impair reproduction in female fish and even give them macho physical traits.
- Earth
Main source of airborne pollen varies by month
A 15-year study conducted in the New York City area charts how air concentrations of different types of allergy-causing pollen vary throughout an average year.
- Earth
Mineral Deposit: Asbestos linked to lupus, arthritis
Already known to cause lung cancer, asbestos has now been associated with three autoimmune diseases.
- Earth
Cleaning up pollution, whey down deep
Lab and field tests hint that dairy whey, a lactose-rich by-product of the dairy industry, could be used to clean up underground water supplies tainted by the solvent trichloroethylene.
- Earth
Subglacial lakes may not be isolated ecosystems
Large volumes of water may occasionally flow between the lakes that lie deep beneath Antarctica's kilometers-thick ice sheet.
- Earth
Gasp! Ozone limits don’t protect babies
In healthy infants, even ozone concentrations well below those allowed by federal law trigger asthmalike symptoms.
- Earth
Toxic Tides: Another reason to worry about hurricanes
The hurricanes that struck Florida in the summer of 2004 also may have triggered an intense, widespread, and long-lasting red tide that afflicted the state's west-central coast throughout 2005.
- Earth
Deep-sea action
Scientists using remotely operated vehicles have reported the first close-up observations of a deep undersea volcano during its eruption.
