Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Environment
World’s worst polluted
A new report by Green Cross Switzerland and the Blacksmith Institute lists places posing the greatest risk to human health.
- Climate
Coldest place moves from one Antarctic site to another
New record low measured by satellite.
- Ecosystems
Online map tracks forest shifts from space
By layering more than 650,000 satellite images onto a Google map, researchers have created a new tool to track forest cover.
- Earth
Earth’s plate boundaries may nurture diamond formation
An experiment mimicking conditions deep in the Earth suggests that some tectonic plate boundaries may make ideal diamond nurseries.
- Earth
Cryovolcano
An ice volcano that erupts slurries of volatile compounds such as water or methane instead of lava.
- Climate
Methane emissions may be far higher than estimated
U.S. fossil fuel and cattle industries may emit far more methane than government estimates indicate.
- Agriculture
Probiotics may protect piglets from E. coli infection
Beneficial bacteria could replace antibiotics in pig feed.
- Animals
Malformed frogs rarer than thought
Frogs with skin cysts or shortened or missing legs make up only 2 percent of the amphibians collected during a 10-year study.
- Climate
Arctic algae crusts preserve climate data
The records show that sea-ice cover has been declining since 1850.
- Earth
Fire may smolder under Antarctic ice
Quakes hint at moving magma that could influence glacial flow.
- Oceans
Extremely salty water is at least 100 million years old
Supersaline sediments off East Coast shed light on Atlantic Ocean’s early history.
- Animals
Gassed snails can’t jump
When exposed to high levels of carbon dioxide, some snails move like slugs and others don’t jump at all.
