Earth

  1. Earth

    Watering fields in California boosts rainfall in Southwest

    Irrigation has downstream effects on climate and runoff to Colorado River.

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  2. Earth

    Chemical tied to intergenerational obesity

    Mice ingesting the compound tributyltin pass effects to grandchildren.

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  3. Humans

    Cold spells were dark times in Eastern Europe

    Cooler periods coincided with conflicts and disease outbreaks, a tree-ring study spanning the last millennium finds.

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  4. Earth

    Glaciers carve path for future buildup

    Previously sculpted landscapes accumulate ice more quickly than steep valleys.

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  5. Earth

    Quakes may bring nearby rocks closer to rupture

    Lab studies could explain how a seemingly stable geologic fault can fail.

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  6. Earth

    Antarctic subglacial drilling effort suspended

    A British-led team has called off this season’s campaign to penetrate Lake Ellsworth.

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  7. Earth

    West Antarctica warming fast

    A reconstructed temperature record from a high-altitude station shows an unexpectedly rapid rise since 1958.

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  8. Tech

    Antarctic test of novel ice drill poised to begin

    Any day now, a team of 40 scientists and support personnel expects to begin using a warm, high pressure jet of water to bore a 30 centimeter hole through 83 meters of ice. Once it breaks through to the sea below, they’ll have a few days to quickly sample life from water before the hole begins freezing up again. It's just a test. But if all goes well, in a few weeks the team will move 700 miles and bore an even deeper hole to sample for freshwater life that may have been living for eons outside even indirect contact with Earth’s atmosphere.

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  9. Life

    Early life forms may have been terrestrial

    A controversial theory suggests that at least some of the earliest widespread complex life forms lived on land.

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  10. Environment

    Big drain on groundwater

    Overuse of freshwater supplies poses risks.

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  11. Climate

    Climate change goes to extremes

    Some recent weird weather tied to warming.

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  12. Science & Society

    Descending to the Challenger Deep

    Director James Cameron reveals the science of his deep-sea exploration.

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