Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Antibacterial agent can weaken muscle
Triclosan impairs the power of the heart and other muscles in two species and at relatively low doses.
- Earth
Global groundwater use outpaces supply
Footprint measure reveals unsustainable use of the world’s aquifers.
- Earth
Extreme hot spells rising
Analyzing six decades of temperature records reveals inexorable warming and increasing episodes of extreme heat.
- Earth
Greenland enters melt mode
This year’s record-breaking island-wide thaw punctuates an ongoing warming trend.
- Animals
Epidemic of skin lesions reported in reef fish
A British-Australian research team has just found coral trout living on the south side of the Great Barrier Reef sporting dark skin raised, scablike, brown-black growths. Although the authors believe they’ve stumbled onto an epidemic of melanoma — a type of skin cancer — other experts have their doubts. Strong ones.
- Earth
Stronger storms may destroy ozone
Extra water vapor churned high into the atmosphere by climate change–fueled tempests could trigger destructive chemical reactions.
- Earth
External ills imperil tropical reserves
Impacts just outside park boundaries cause ecosystems within to decline.
- Earth
Night lights may foster depression
In animals, chronic dim light triggers brain changes that disappear with the return of nightlong darkness.
- Life
Polar bears’ ancient roots pushed way back
Full genetic blueprints suggest the animals split from brown bears millions of years ago.
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- Earth
Field test stashes climate-warming carbon in deep ocean
Strategically dumping the metal stimulates a bloom of microscopic creatures that carry the greenhouse gas to Davy Jones’s locker.
- Tech
FDA bans BPA in baby bottles, cups
From now on, U.S. manufacturers may no longer produce polycarbonate baby bottles and sippy cups (for toddlers) if the clear plastic had been manufactured from bisphenol A, a hormone-mimicking compound. Long-awaited, the announcement is anything but a bold gesture. The Obama administration decided to lock this barn door after the cow had died.
