Earth

Humans

Germs’ persistence: Nothing to sneeze at

Years ago, I read (probably in Science News) that viruses can’t survive long outside their hosts. That implied any surface onto which a sneezed-out germ found itself — such as the arm of a chair, kitchen counter or car-door handle — would effectively decontaminate itself within hours to a day. A pair of new flu papers now indicates that although many germs will die within hours, none of us should count on it. Given the right environment, viruses can remain infectious — potentially for many weeks, one of the studies finds.

Life

Biology’s big bang had a long fuse

The fossil record’s earliest troves of animal life are the result of more than 200 million years of evolution.

Life

Cretaceous Thanksgiving

A fossilized feathered dinosaur dined on bird not long before its own demise.

Earth

Oxygen a bit player in Earth’s outer core

Sulfur and silicon may be more abundant in the planet’s heart than thought.

Animals

Lost to history: The “churk”

More than a half-century ago, researchers at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center outside Washington, D.C., engaged in some creative barnyard breeding. Their goal was the development of fatherless turkeys — virgin hens that would reproduce via parthenogenesis. Along the way, and ostensibly quite by accident, an interim stage of this work resulted in a rooster-fathered hybrid that the scientists termed a churk.

Climate

Matt Crenson, Reconstructions

In ancient Southwest droughts, a warning of dry times to come.

Earth

Dirty air fosters precipitation extremes

Changes to clouds encourage drought in dry areas and torrential downpours in moist places.

Tech

Hooking fish, not endangered turtles

A tuna fisherman has taken it upon himself to make the seas safer for sea turtles, animals that are threatened or endangered with extinction worldwide. He’s designed a new hook that he says will make bait unavailable to marine birds and turtles until long after it’s sunk well below the range where these animals venture to eat.

Humans

Contrasting the concerns over climate and ozone loss

On November 7, ozone and climate scientists met in Washington, D.C., to discuss whether the history of stratospheric ozone protection offered a useful case study about how to catalyze global action on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The simple answer that emerged: No.

Earth

Pollution may be strengthening Asian cyclones

Sooty brown clouds may underlie the recent emergence of mega-storms striking from India to the Middle East.

Humans

Infected bats can recover . . . with lots of help

Researchers reported new data today confirming that with enough coddling, many heavily infected bats can recover. The rub: These scientists also pointed out that there really aren’t sufficient resources to save more than a handful this way.

Earth

A particulate threat to diabetics

As levels of soot and other fine air pollutants increased, so did blood pressure in patients whose disease was not well-controlled, a study finds.