Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Cool Harvest: Frost on sea ice may boost atmosphere’s bromine
Frost flowers, the delicate crystals that sometimes grow atop fresh sea ice, can be a substantial source of ozone-destroying bromine in lower atmosphere near the poles.
- Earth
No Deep Breathing: Air pollution impedes lung development
Spending one's childhood in a community with polluted air stalls lung development roughly as much as does having a mother who smokes.
- Earth
Compost reduces landfill gas
Field tests suggest that covering solid waste with compost instead of conventional soil could reduce methane-gas emissions from landfills.
- Agriculture
The Ultimate Crop Insurance
A new treaty renews hope that the waning diversity in agricultural crops can be slowed, and important genes preserved, both in the field and in gene banks.
- Earth
Paved Paradise?
The precipitation-fed runoff that spills from impervious surfaces such as buildings, roads, and parking lots in developed areas increases erosion in streams, wreaks ecological havoc there, and contributes to urban heat islands.
- Earth
There’s a Catch: Recreation takes toll on marine fish
Recreational fishing isn't just a tiny, harmless nibble on saltwater-fish populations.
- Earth
North and South: Equal melting from each hemisphere raised ice age sea levels
The gargantuan volumes of meltwater that boosted sea levels during the most recent round of ice ages derived equally from ice sheets in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
- Earth
Rounding Up Resistance: Weed sacrifices seeds to put up with a herbicide
Use of herbicides containing glyphosate can drive evolution in the tall morning glory, even though the weed must simultaneously sacrifice a measure of its fertility.
- Earth
Early Shift: North Sea plankton and fish move out of sync
As ocean temperatures in the North Sea have warmed in recent decades, the life cycles of some species low in the food chain have accelerated significantly, sometimes wreaking ecological havoc.
- Agriculture
Bees increase coffee profits
Scientists studying a Costa Rican coffee farm have estimated the monetary value of conserving nearby wooded habitat for the bees that pollinate coffee plants.
- Earth
Protecting Baby: Calcium in pregnancy reduces lead exposure
By taking calcium supplements during pregnancy, a mother can significantly reduce the lead exposure of her fetus.
- Earth
Infectious stowaways
A new study finds that ballast water can move huge quantities of cholera germs and other microbes between ports around the globe.
