Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Agriculture
Cocoa yields are mushrooming—downward
A mushroom epidemic in Brazilian cacao trees, which has cut the production of cacao by 25 percent in 5 years, may be treatable with another fungus.
- Agriculture
Apple pests stand up to antibiotics
Scientists are concerned about new forms of antibiotic resistance cropping up in fire blight—a deadly disease of apple trees.
- Earth
Pollution Keeps Rain up in the Air
New satellite data indicate that aerosol pollution can break up water droplets in clouds and stop rain.
- Earth
Hey polluters! This billboard’s for you
Motorists generally like and respond to personalized billboard messages about when an engine tune-up may be warranted.
- Earth
Recent heat may indicate faster warming
A new analysis of temperature records indicates that global warming may be picking up its pace.
- Agriculture
Sprawling over croplands
Satellite imagery indicates that sprawling urban development has been disproportionately gobbling up those lands best able to support crops.
- 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
DDT treatment turns male fish into mothers
Injecting into fish eggs an estrogen-mimicking form of the pesticide DDT transforms genetically male medaka fish into apparent females able to lay eggs that produce young.
- Earth
Just how much do U.S. roads matter?
A Harvard researcher calculates that roads directly influence the ecology of a fifth of U.S. land area.
- Earth
Liquid Assets
Research provides guidance on how best to bank water during times of plenty for use during subsequent droughts
- Earth
Major mood swing alters Pacific character
The temperature of the North Pacific Ocean has apparently veered from one extreme to the other—a change that could alter North American weather for the next decade or two.
- Earth
Backyard burning is recipe for dioxin
A few rural households burning trash may generate more toxic dioxins than a major, properly operated municipal incinerator.
