Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Wildfire Below: Smoldering peat disgorges huge volumes of carbon
Set alight by wildfires, thick beds of decaying tropical plant matter can pump massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, rivaling those produced globally each year from the combustion of fossil fuels.
- Earth
Once Upon a Lake
As Earth warmed at the end of the last ice age, the immense volumes of fresh water that occasionally and catastrophically spilled from Lake Agassiz—the long-defunct lake that formed as the ice sheet smothering Canada melted—may have caused global climate change and sudden rises in sea level.
- Earth
More Frog Trouble: Herbicides may emasculate wild males
New studies of male frogs in the wild link trace exposures to common weed killers with partial sex reversal.
- Earth
Timely Climate
Science educators at the University of Colorado and the National Geophysical Data Center in Boulder have designed an online tool that lets users study climate change and variability on different time scales–from daily fluctuations to cyclic changes with periods that span 100,000 years. Focusing on climatic processes and specific climate events, each time-scale category has […]
- Earth
Air-Pollution Pileup: Mediterranean endures emissions from afar
Although most Mediterranean countries aren't big polluters, the area is a crossroads for pollution-carrying air currents from Europe, Asia, and North America.
- Earth
Snowball Melting? Ancient formation shows glacier activity
An ancient, well-preserved glacial formation in Oman provided evidence that Earth experienced intermittent ice ages like those in Earth's more recent history.
- Earth
Contraceptive-Patch Worry: Disposal concern focuses on wildlife
Some scientists now worry that discarded contraceptive patches may leak synthetic estrogen into the environment, potentially harming wildlife.
- Earth
Haze clears on sooty climate conditions
The results of a new study suggest that soot plays a bigger role in regional climate changes than scientists had previously realized.
- Earth
Shifting Sands
Sand dunes can provide scientists with clues about ancient patterns of wind and precipitation.
- Earth
Lawn Agent Cues Embryo Shortfall: Herbicide weeds out mice in the womb
Minuscule amounts of over-the-counter weed killers impair reproduction in mice.
- Earth
Clipping the Fin Trade
New research and policy developments aim to curb the wasteful and gruesome practice of killing sharks solely for their fins.
- Earth
Moderate flows help carve rivers
Measurements of erosion in a rocky river channel in Taiwan suggest that the day-to-day flow of water accounts for more rock wear there than occasional catastrophic floods do.
