Pollution
- Environment
Mercury contamination in California to last 10,000 years
Toxic remnants of gold rush will seep into San Francisco area waterways for millennia.
- Environment
Feedback
Readers respond to "Solving soot," trade-offs of horn size for male Soay sheep and the huge galactic explosion story from 50 years ago.
- 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.
- Environment
Cool Idea
While nations concede a pressing need for attacking carbon dioxide emissions, other pollutants offer quicker paybacks.
- 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.
- Chemistry
High methane in drinking water near fracking sites
Well construction and geology may both play a role in pollution.
- 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.
- 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.
- Environment
Gases dominate Gulf’s subsea plumes
Shipboard experiments in June show that natural gas dominates the Gulf oil plumes and that its components are the favorite choice of microbes.
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- Environment
Down with Carbon
Scientists are exploring strategies for capturing carbon dioxide and storing it safely away in order to limit the levels of that greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.
- Environment
Old thermometers pose new problems
Though health groups advocate getting mercury thermometers out of the home, obtaining sound advice on how to dispose of the thermometers can be problematic.
