7,733 results
- Earth
Past gasps
Earth’s atmosphere during some past geological ages wasn’t as oxygen-deprived as previously thought, new experiments suggest.
- Space
MESSENGER glimpses Mercury’s Western hemisphere, new features
The results are in from MESSENGER’s second flyby of Mercury, one of the least-explored planets in the solar system.
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- Humans
Origins of Maya pottery material remain mysterious
Scientists haven’t yet identified the source of volcanic ash used in Maya pottery, but they now have geochemical clues about the ash’s composition.
- Agriculture
Network Antennas — Yum!
Sensor designers might have to consider engineering in bovine deterrence.
- Earth
Corals, turfgrass and sediments offer stories of climate past and future
Science News reports from San Francisco at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union
- Life
Bacteria use poison to make food
Bacteria from Mono Lake conduct photosynthesis with arsenic, a form of the process that may be a relic of life on Earth before the advent of an oxygen atmosphere.
- Earth
Firm evidence that Earth’s core is solid
Faint yet distinct ground motions recorded by a large network of seismic instruments in Japan in early 2006 are the strongest, most direct evidence that Earth’s inner core is solid.
- Space
Sharpshooting Enceladus
Swooping within 49 kilometers of Saturn’s tiny, geologically active moon Enceladus, the Cassini spacecraft has pinpointed the locations of the icy geysers that erupt from the southern hemisphere of this wrinkled moon’s surface.
- Earth
Climate clues in ice
A kilometers-long ice core from Antarctica has been recording climate information for the past 800,000 years and has revealed a three millennia–long period when carbon dioxide levels in the air were lower than any previously measured.
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- Humans
Machu Picchu’s far-flung residents
A new chemical analysis of skeletons at the Inca site of Machu Picchu strengthens the idea that the royal estate was maintained by retainers who had been uprooted from homes throughout the empire.
