Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Snowpack chemistry can deplete ozone
Pollutants trapped in Arctic snow can be reactivated by sunlight when the sun returns to high latitudes in the spring, leading to ozone depletion in the snowpack and at low altitudes.
- Earth
Pollution in India may affect climate
Computer models show that air pollution over India could be preventing up to 15 percent of the sunlight from reaching the ground in the springtime, possibly causing temperature drops of up to 2 degrees Celsius.
- Earth
Y2K: One of the hottest, wettest yet
Preliminary data from the National Climatic Data Center indicate the year 2000 will be one of the six hottest and one of the ten wettest years on record.
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- Agriculture
Tasteful new wrapping can protect produce
New, fruit- and vegetable-based edible packaging could reduce the amount of synthetic wrapping needed to protect food.
- Earth
Salmon puzzle: Why did males turn female?
Most of the spawning female Chinook salmon in one part of the Columbia River appear to have started life as males.
- Earth
Can Banking Carbon Cool the Greenhouse?
Stockpiling carbon dioxide in plants and soil may be effective only for the short term, if at all.
- Earth
New accord targets long-lived pollutants
Negotiators drafted an agreement to ban or phase out some of the world's most persistent and toxic pollutants.
- Earth
Wafting pesticides taint far-flung frogs
Agricultural pesticides blowing into California's wilderness areas have played a role in mysterious declines in frog populations.
- Earth
Chalk reveals greatest underwater landslide
Seismic waves generated by an extraterrestrial object crashing into Mexico 65 million years ago appear to have sent sediment from shallow waters sliding off the continental shelf.
- Earth
Lemon-scented products spawn pollutants
Some fragrances used in home-care products can play a role in generating potentially harmful air pollution.
- Earth
Life Landed 2.6 Billion Years Ago
Unusually carbon-rich rocks found in eastern South Africa may push back the evidence of life on land to 2.6 billion years ago, more than twice the current age of indisputably terrestrial organisms.
