Pollution
- Earth
Year in review: Ozone hole officially on the mend
Research this year confirms that the Antarctic ozone hole is healing — an international success attributed to cooperation and new technologies.
- Environment
Ocean plastic emits chemical that may trick seabirds into eating trash
Some seabirds might be eating plastic because it emits a chemical that smells like food.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, noise was a nuisance (it still is)
In 1966, scientists warned of the physical and psychological dangers of a louder world.
- Animals
Bees take longer to learn floral odors polluted by vehicle fumes
Car and truck exhaust mingling with a floral scent can slow down the important process of honeybees learning the fragrance of a flower.
- Climate
Despite volcanic setback, Antarctic ozone hole healing
The September extent of the Antarctic ozone hole has shrunk by about 4.5 million square kilometers since 2000, thanks in large part to the Montreal Protocol.
- Climate
World will struggle to keep warming to 2 degrees by 2100
Current plans to curb climate change aren’t ambitious enough to limit global warming below 2 degrees Celsius by 2100, new research shows.
- Earth
A third of the population can’t see the Milky Way at night
Light pollution conceals the Milky Way’s star-spangled core from more than a third of Earth’s population, a global atlas of artificial sky luminance reveals.
- Climate
Volcanic rocks help turn carbon emissions to stone — and fast
A pilot program in Iceland that injected carbon dioxide into basaltic lava rocks turned more than 95 percent of the greenhouse gas into stone within two years.
- Environment
Bikini Atoll radiation levels remain alarmingly high
Lingering radiation levels from nuclear bomb tests on Bikini Atoll are far higher than previously estimated.
- Animals
Tiny plastics cause big problems for perch, lab study finds
Researchers have linked microplastics to feeding behavior changes and development issues in Baltic Sea perch.
- Climate
Climate-cooling aerosols can form from tree vapors
Climate-cooling, cloud-seeding aerosols can form in the atmosphere without the sulfuric acid spewed from fossil fuel burning, new research suggests.
- Oceans
Here’s where 17,000 ocean research buoys ended up
A combined look at 35 years’ worth of ocean buoy movements reveals the currents that feed into ocean garbage patches.
