7,733 results
- Planetary Science
Hole from on high
Researchers discover a fresh meteorite impact crater using Google Earth.
-
2010 Science News of the Year: Earth
Credit: Alvaro Ybarra Zavala/Getty Images Inside the Haiti quake Some 230,000 Haitians died when a magnitude-7 earthquake struck just outside Port-au-Prince on the afternoon of January 12. Scientists from around the world scrambled to the scene (SN Online: 1/16/10) to assess which fault had ruptured and whether more people were at risk. Early ideas held […]
- Earth
Japan quake location a surprise
Based on regional tectonics, seismologists expected the biggest events in the island's southern half.
- Space
Famous Martian meteorite younger than thought
The famous fragment of Mars, once proposed to hold signs of extraterrestrial life, is still pretty old. But the rock appears to have formed about 400 million years later than earlier analyses indicated.
-
Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Paleontologists probe the majestic reptiles’ origin and rise.
-
- Life
Just warm enough
Mammals may have evolved a characteristic body temperature to avoid fungal infections without burning too hot.
- Humans
Neandertals blasted out of existence, archaeologists propose
An eruption may have wiped out Neandertals in Europe and western Asia, clearing the region for Stone Age Homo sapiens.
- Chemistry
Bacterium grows with arsenic
A microbe appears to substitute a normally toxic element for a basic ingredient of life, raising intriguing questions about the limits of biochemistry.
- Planetary Science
Warmth in the dark age
Lower reflectivity kept Earth from freezing under a fainter young sun.
- Humans
2012 budget offers pain and gain for R&D
In a year of federal belt-tightening, the administration prioritizes basic research, education, clean energy and environmental science.
-
Building better can reduce catastrophic quake deaths
Thanks to the planet’s exploding population, more than a billion housing units will be built during the next half century. Many of those will be in urban areas that are vulnerable to catastrophic earthquakes such as the magnitude-7 quake that killed more than 200,000 people in Haiti in January. Roger Bilham, a seismologist at the […]
