Earth

  1. Earth

    4.1-billion-year-old crystal may hold earliest signs of life

    A carbon impurity embedded inside an ancient zircon crystal suggests that life on Earth appeared before 4.1 billion years ago.

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  2. Earth

    4.1-billion-year-old crystal may hold earliest signs of life

    New evidence suggests that life on Earth arose before 4.1 billion years ago, 300 million years earlier than previous estimates.

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  3. Paleontology

    New evidence weakens case against climate in woolly mammoths’ death

    Hunters responsible for woolly mammoths’ extinction, suggests a chemical analysis of juveniles’ tusks.

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  4. Climate

    High-flying birds recruited for meteorology

    Monitoring the midflight movements of high-flying birds can provide valuable meteorological data, new research shows.

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  5. Environment

    Air pollutants enter body through skin

    Although scientists have largely viewed skin as an unimportant portal to blood for toxic air pollutants, new human data show that skin can surpass lungs as a route of entry.

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  6. Earth

    Surface spills near fracking sites implicated in water contamination

    Chemical spills from fracking operations are the likely source of chemicals found in drinking water wells in northeastern Pennsylvania.

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  7. Oceans

    Oxygen in Black Sea has declined by more than a third since 1955

    The Black Sea’s oxygen-rich surface layer shrank by more than a third from 1955 through 2013, compressing marine habitats and bringing toxic hydrogen sulfide closer to the surface.

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  8. Animals

    Jumping conchs triumph at overheated athletics

    “Simple” circulatory system outdoes fancier ones in delivering oxygen for jumping conchs in simulated climate change conditions.

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  9. Oceans

    Widespread coral bleaching threatens world’s reefs

    The world’s corals are experiencing their third major bleaching event in 17 years.

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  10. Animals

    What happens to animals in a hurricane?

    Hurricanes can be devastating to animals on land and in the sea, but they can also provide opportunities.

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  11. Earth

    Giant asteroid may have triggered deadly volcano eruptions

    Increased volcanic eruptions coincided much more closely with an asteroid impact and the extinction of the dinosaurs than previously believed, a new study suggests.

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  12. Animals

    Some seabirds will be hit hard by sea level rise

    Seabird species that nest on low-lying islands in stormy winter months could see huge losses as sea levels rise, a new study finds.

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