Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Sustainable Resource Use
This British Web site provides educational material about the sustainable use of resources, including water, waste management, textiles, and timber. It provides puzzles, experiments, worksheets, and lesson plans, with links to a wide range of environmental information. Go to: http://www.e4s.org.uk/
- Earth
Gender Measure: Pollutant appears to alter boys’ genitals
Infant boys who were exposed in the womb to modest concentrations of certain common plasticizers and solvents developed genital changes.
- Earth
Last Gasp: Toxic gas could explain great extinction
Sudden venting of hydrogen sulfide from the deep sea could have caused the largest extinction in Earth's history by poisoning land animals and destroying atmospheric ozone that protects Earth from ultraviolet light.
- Earth
Muddy Waters
Even though human activities such as agriculture and deforestation are sending more sediment into streams and rivers, less of that material is reaching river deltas, a trend that exacerbates problems such as subsidence and coastal erosion.
- Earth
School buses spew pollution into young lungs
Children riding on school buses inhale heavy doses of diesel fumes, and reducing these emissions could be a cost-effective means of improving their health, a new study suggests.
- Earth
Portrait of destruction
A new simulation suggests where the most damaging ground motions would occur if a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the San Andreas fault east of Los Angeles.
- Earth
Air pollution linked to wheat diseases
The abundance of the air pollutant sulfur dioxide appears to influence which of two fungal pathogens plague more wheat plants.
- Earth
Mind the Gap: Inadequate monitoring at many U.S. volcanoes
A report just released by the U.S. Geological Survey ranks the threats posed by the nation's volcanoes.
- Earth
Nanowaste: Predicting the environmental fate of buckyballs
The potentially harmful effects of buckyballs in aquatic environments could vary depending on the chemistry of the water.
- Earth
Bed of Armor: Large rocks hold fast in flooding streams
The relative proportions of rocks of various sizes in gravel-lined streams remain constant, even during substantial floods.
- Agriculture
Insecticide Inside: Gene-modified rice cuts chemical spraying in China
In the hands of Chinese farmers, varieties of rice genetically modified to fend off insects reduce pesticide use and increase crop yields.
- Earth
Oysters under siege: Heat and pollution
With global warming, some polluted waters could become graveyards for certain shellfish.
