Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
What’s in the Dirt?
Curious about the abundance of various chemical elements in the area where you live? The U.S. Geological Survey offers a database of more than 60,000 chemical analyses of stream sediment and soil in different parts of the United States. Color-coded maps provide county-by-county data on the concentrations of such elements as mercury, arsenic, selenium, and […]
- Earth
Warm Spell: Arctic algae record shift in climate
Analyses of sediment samples taken from remote arctic lakes indicate that the climate across large swaths of the Northern Hemisphere has been warming for many decades.
- Earth
Baking dirt to predict erosion after a fire
Lab tests suggest that a wide variety of soils exposed to the heat of intense wildfires end up with a similar resistance to erosion, a finding that may help scientists model that process more accurately.
- Earth
Winged solution to biopollution?
Government officials have released alien moths in hopes that they will rein in the spread of an aggressive climbing fern now invading some 100,000 acres in south Florida.
- Earth
Straight Flush
Scientists are evaluating the results of the flood they unleashed in the Grand Canyon last November, hoping that it will restore sandbars and beaches along the Colorado River just downstream of Arizona's Glen Canyon Dam.
- Earth
Lava fountain driven by reservoir of gas
The gases driving a lava fountain that spewed from Italy's Mount Etna in June 2000 had accumulated in a reservoir 1.5 kilometers below the mountain's peak, chemical analyses suggest.
- Earth
Adding mussel to environmental assessments
Researchers have developed a new technique, using mussel shells, that could aid in autopsies of aquatic ecosystems that perished for unknown reasons.
- Earth
PCBs damage fish immune systems
A common Arctic fish can suffer subtle immunological impairments from exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls at concentrations recorded in some remote polar waters.
- Earth
Sky High: Gamma-ray bursts are common in Earth’s upper atmosphere
Enigmatic bursts of high-energy gamma rays produced Earth's atmosphere are stronger and more frequent than previously thought.
- Earth
Subway air does extra damage
Airborne particles in subterranean transit stations may be more damaging to human cells than are particles from street-level air.
- Earth
Natural or Synthetic? Test reveals origin of chemicals in blubber
Natural compounds that are chemically akin to certain industrial chemicals wend their way up marine food chains and accumulate in whale blubber.
- Earth
Long-winded benefits
Certain wind-energy systems that store excess energy for a time using compressed air can be as reliable as and far cleaner than conventional electric-generating plants.
