Environment

  1. Agriculture

    Fertilizer has staying power

    Nitrogen-based fertilizer may remain in the soil for eight decades, complicating efforts to reduce pollution from runoff into rivers.

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  2. Environment

    Pregnant women carry fewer traces of flame retardants

    Class of toxins linked to IQ deficits dropped drastically in three years, a new study shows.

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  3. Environment

    Cattle chemical can return in the night

    Steroid to beef up cows breaks down, but can reassemble under the right conditions.

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  4. Environment

    Cool Idea

    While nations concede a pressing need for attacking carbon dioxide emissions, other pollutants offer quicker paybacks.

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  5. Environment

    Grain alcohol in gasoline?

    An excerpt from the September 21, 1963, issue of Science News Letter.

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  6. Environment

    Atomic ant sand

    Robb Hermes asked for sand ants to get samples of Trinitite, a material created in the test blasts of the first atomic bomb.

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  7. Chemistry

    High methane in drinking water near fracking sites

    Well construction and geology may both play a role in pollution.

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  8. Earth

    Cave detective hunts for clues to past sea level

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  9. Environment

    Big drain on groundwater

    Overuse of freshwater supplies poses risks.

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  10. Environment

    Elevated carbon dioxide may impair reasoning

    Insufficient ventilation allows exhaled gas to build up indoors, diminishing decision-making abilities.

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  11. Animals

    Classic sooty-moth tale bolstered by new results

    A scientist’s six-year backyard experiment strengthens the scenario for evolutionary changes due to industrial pollution.

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  12. Science & Society

    Methane from BP spill goes missing

    Latest sampling suggests either that microbes have already devoured the most abundant hydrocarbon produced by the leak — or that researchers have simply lost track of it.

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