Environment
- Environment
Humans’ environmental rap sheet gets longer
Ice cores reveal human-caused air pollution 240 years before the Industrial Revolution.
By Beth Mole - Environment
Funding canceled for clean coal plant
The Department of Energy has scrapped funding for FutureGen, a project to use new technology to sequester carbon dioxide emissions from a coal power plant.
By Beth Mole - Environment
Funding canceled for clean coal plant
The Department of Energy has scrapped funding for FutureGen, a project to use new technology to sequester carbon dioxide emissions from a coal power plant.
By Beth Mole - Health & Medicine
E-cigarettes lower immunity to flu and other germs
Electronic cigarettes produce substantial amounts of lung inflammation, a new mouse study finds. They may also reduce the ability to fight off infections from strep and flu germs.
By Janet Raloff - Environment
Tuna mercury rising
From 1998 to 2008, mercury levels in Hawaiian Yellowfin tuna have increased by 3.8 percent per year, researchers suggest.
By Beth Mole - Agriculture
Superbugs take flight from cattle farms
Winds can carry antibiotics and drug-resistant bacteria from cattle farms to downwind communities.
By Beth Mole - Environment
Atrazine’s path to cancer possibly clarified
Scientists have identified a cellular button that the controversial herbicide atrazine presses to promote tumor development.
By Beth Mole - Environment
More toxic chemicals found in oil and gas wastewater
High levels of ammonium and iodide found in wastewater from oil and gas exploration can harm aquatic life and form dangerous byproducts in tap water.
By Beth Mole - Environment
Trash researcher tallies ocean pollution
Marcus Eriksen has always had a thing for trash, and now he tallies ocean pollution.
By Julia Rosen - Environment
Air pollution linked to autism
Air pollution may double a pregnant woman's risk of having a child with autism, a new study suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Year in review: Risks of e-cigarettes emerge
Electronic cigarettes dispense water vapor laced with flavors and often a hefty dose of nicotine. These vapors may be far from benign, studies in 2014 suggested.
By Janet Raloff - Environment
Year in review: Microbes exploit their killer
Triclosan, an unregulated antimicrobial chemical found in consumer products, may aid, rather than deter, microbes that invade people’s bodies.
By Beth Mole