Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Agriculture
Sprawling over croplands
Satellite imagery indicates that sprawling urban development has been disproportionately gobbling up those lands best able to support crops.
- Earth
Chinese records show typhoon cycles
Historical records compiled by local governments along China's southeastern coast during the past 1,000 years suggest that there's a 50-year cycle in the annual number of typhoons that strike the area.
- Earth
Cave formations yield seismic clues
Analyses of toppled stalagmites and other fallen rock formations in two Israeli caves may provide hints about the rate of ancient earthquakes in the area.
- Earth
Recent heat may indicate faster warming
A new analysis of temperature records indicates that global warming may be picking up its pace.
- Earth
Uncertainty returns over sex-change fish
Scientists question whether a potentially gender-bending hormone found in polluted Florida streams is responsible for masculinized female fish.
- Earth
Climate’s Long-Lost Twin
New geological evidence suggests that humans have started exploiting fossil fuels and altering Earth's atmosphere at precisely the moment when greenhouse gases could do the most damage to climate.
- Earth
Global Impact: Space object may have spread debris worldwide
Sediments laid down about 3.47 billion years ago in what are now western Australia and eastern South Africa contain remnants of what may have been an extraterrestrial-object impact large enough to disperse debris over the entire planet.
- Earth
2002’s tornado tally well below average
As of August 1, barely half the usual number of tornadoes had struck the lower 48 states of the United States.
- Earth
Cigarette smoke can harm kitty, too
Compared with animals living in smokefree homes, cats who lived for some time with a smoker at least doubled their risk of developing the feline analog of the cancer non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
- Earth
Nature’s Own: Ocean yields gases that had seemed humanmade
Chemical analyses of seawater provide the first direct evidence that the ocean may be a significant source of certain atmospheric gases that scientists had previously assumed to be produced primarily by industrial activity.
- Earth
Killer Cocktails: Drug mixes threaten aquatic ecosystems
Trace amounts of pharmaceutical drugs in waterways may work together to deform and kill native microscopic organisms.
- Earth
El Niño: It’s back!
An increase in ocean temperatures in the central Pacific heralds the onset of El Niño, whose effects should show up in the United States this fall.
