Earth
- Animals
Lucky break documents warbler tornado warning
Warblers fitted with data collecting devices for other reasons reveal early and extreme measures when dodging April’s tornado outbreak.
- Earth
South Napa earthquake revived bone-dry streams
The South Napa earthquake freed groundwater trapped in nearby hills, revitalizing previously dry streams.
- Environment
Air pollution linked to autism
Air pollution may double a pregnant woman's risk of having a child with autism, a new study suggests.
- Climate
Super typhoon shoved supersized boulder
Typhoon Haiyan pushed a 180-ton boulder, the most massive rock ever seen moved by a storm.
- Agriculture
Restoring crop genes to wild form may make plants more resilient
Restoring wild genes could make plants more resilient in tough environments.
- Oceans
Alcatraz escapees could have made it safely to shore
Detailed simulations of the San Francisco Bay suggest that three prisoners who escaped from the prison on Alcatraz Island in 1962 could have made it safely to shore.
- Health & Medicine
Year in review: Risks of e-cigarettes emerge
Electronic cigarettes dispense water vapor laced with flavors and often a hefty dose of nicotine. These vapors may be far from benign, studies in 2014 suggested.
- Earth
Year in review: Life thrives under Antarctica
Thousands of microbe species thrive in Lake Whillans deep beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet.
- Climate
Year in review: Climate warnings heat up
Climate change is here and the world is unprepared, scientists and policy makers declared multiple times in 2014.
- Environment
Year in review: Microbes exploit their killer
Triclosan, an unregulated antimicrobial chemical found in consumer products, may aid, rather than deter, microbes that invade people’s bodies.
- Earth
Mega volcanism indicted in dinosaur demise
Precision dating strengthens idea that climate-altering Deccan volcanism contributed to dinosaur extinction.
- Earth
Mineralogy’s link to ecology makes an Earth twin unlikely
Earth’s unique blend of minerals emerged with the evolution of life, making it extremely unlikely that another planet has Earth’s exact mineral composition.
