Earth

  1. Earth

    Warmer climate, decreased rice yield

    Agricultural data gathered over a dozen years at a Philippines rice paddy suggest that climate changes brought about by global warming could significantly diminish rice yields.

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  2. Agriculture

    A Maize-ing Travels

    Corn, an American native, has taken root the world over and is becoming increasingly important to agriculture in nations beyond the West.

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  3. Earth

    Sky Lights

    Devoted to atmospheric optics, this Web site offers beautifully illustrated explanations of spectacular phenomena ranging from rainbows to ice haloes. Created by physicist Les Cowley, it features amazing images, along with explanations of how the imaged effects were created by nature. The ice halo section offers downloadable software for simulating various types of halos. Go […]

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  4. Earth

    Sprawl’s aquatic pollution

    A new study links the traffic associated with urban sprawl to an unexpectedly large rain of air pollutants entering local waters.

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  5. Earth

    New database describes all the marbles

    Analyses of the isotope ratios of carbon and oxygen in hundreds of samples of Greek marble may help researchers identify the quarries that supplied the stone for some of Europe's most famous statues and architecture.

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  6. Earth

    Dead Heat

    New studies suggest that adverse health effects related to global warming aren't just a theoretical concern for the distant future.

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  7. Earth

    Long dry spell

    Falling reservoir levels in the western United States are just one symptom that the region is suffering through a drought that may be the worst to strike in the past 500 years.

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  8. Earth

    Cost of protecting the oceans

    Operating an extensive global network of marine parks in which fishing and habitat-stressing activities are restricted would probably be more affordable for governments than continuing to subsidize struggling fisheries at current levels.

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  9. Earth

    Blueberry Hills: Utah nodules resemble some found on Mars

    Analyses of small iron oxide nodules found within certain sandstones of the U.S. Southwest could shed light on how similar spherules may have formed on Mars.

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  10. Agriculture

    Coming Soon—Spud Lite

    A new variety of baking potato has about 25 percent fewer calories and 30 percent fewer carbohydrates per unit weight than the typical brown-skinned Idaho potato.

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  11. Earth

    Newspaper’s Footprint: Environmental toll of all the news that’s fit to print

    The environmental impacts of getting a newspaper dropped on your doorstep each morning vastly outweigh those of receiving the same information via a handheld electronic device.

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  12. Earth

    Limiting Dead Zones

    To limit algal blooms and the development of fishless dead zones in coastal waters, farmers and other sources of nitrate are investigating novel strategies to control nitrate runoff.

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