Earth
-
Earth
Aquatic predators affect carbon-storing plant life
Freshwater predator species can prevent the overgrazing of plants that suck up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
By Janet Raloff -
Life
Melting Arctic may make algae flourish
More sunlight penetrates thinning Arctic sea ice, enabling algal growth.
By Erin Wayman -
Life
Antianxiety drugs affect fish, too
Perch swim more and eat faster when exposed to concentrations of an antianxiety medication found in rivers.
By Erin Wayman -
Life
Diversity breeds disease resistance in frogs
Species-rich amphibian communities prove better at fending off limb-deforming parasitic infections.
-
Life
Ancestors of today’s placental mammals may never have shared the Earth with dinosaurs
A newly constructed family tree dovetails with the fossil record, but differs considerably from previous genetic studies by suggesting that placental mammals emerged after the dinosaur extinction.
By Erin Wayman -
Animals
Compared with rodents, bat species carry more viruses
Viruses that can jump from animals to people may find the flying mammals a fine place to lurk.
By Susan Milius -
Earth
Salvage Job
With fertilizer prices skyrocketing, scientists scramble to recover phosphorus from waste.
By Roberta Kwok -
Earth
Magnitude 8.0 earthquake strikes Solomon Islands
Temblor is the largest in a month of seismic activity on Australian-Pacific plate boundary.
By Erin Wayman -
Chemistry
Gold-digging microbe
By spitting out a molecule, a bacterium draws solid gold out of solution.
-
Earth
Indonesian mud eruption will soon die out, scientists predict
Spewing muck since 2006, volcano will calm to a sputter by 2017.
By Erin Wayman -
Oceans
Life found deep below Antarctic ice
Lake buried under 800 meters of ice hosts cells, researchers find.
By Janet Raloff -
Earth
Warmer is not always wetter
Compared to global warming caused by solar radiation, global warming caused by greenhouse gases results in less rainfall, simulations suggest.
By Erin Wayman