Earth
- Climate
Annual Arctic ice minimum reached
Melt isn’t as bad as 2007, but still reaches number three in the record books.
- Agriculture
A taste of the chocolate genome
Competing teams have announced the impending completion of the cacao DNA sequence.
- Health & Medicine
DNA-damaging disinfection by-products found in pool water
A study detects subtle changes in swimmers’ cells after 40 minutes of laps.
- Ecosystems
Climate’s link to plague
Scientists have correlated changes in long-term Pacific Ocean temperature patterns with the incidence of a deadly bacterial pestilence, one spread by fleas living on and around mice and other rodents.
- Earth
What lies beneath
Studies of geology, soils and agricultural demand may prove useful in forecasting the climate effects of deforestation.
- Earth
Not in this toad’s backyard
Yellow crazy ants meet a hungry obstacle as they spread into cacao plantations.
- Ecosystems
No ‘dead zone’ from BP oil
As aquatic microbes dine, they consume oxygen. When too many congregate at some temporary smorgasbord of goodies, they can use up so much oxygen that a so-called dead zone develops — water with too little oxygen to sustain fish, mammals or shellfish. On Sept. 7, federal scientists reported that despite the massive release of oil from the damaged BP well in the Gulf of Mexico, no such dead zone developed.
- Health & Medicine
Gloves may head off ‘garden’ variety pneumonia
Compost feels so good, sifting through a gardener’s fingers. Unfortunately, data are showing, this soil amendment can host a germ responsible for Legionnaire’s disease, a potentially serious form of pneumonia.
- Earth
Geomagnetic field flip-flops in a flash
Rocks in Nevada preserve evidence of superfast changes in Earth’s magnetic polarity.
- Tech
Tar sands ‘fingerprint’ seen in rivers and snow
A new study refutes a government claim (one echoed by industry) that the gonzo-scale extraction of tar sands in western Canada — and their processing into crude oil — does not substantially pollute the environment.
- Health & Medicine
Wheat genome announcement turns out to be small beer
The DNA sequence released by U.K. team still requires assembly.
- Climate
Academies recommend that IPCC make changes
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an authoritative scientific organization set up in 1989 to assess climate science, took some heat today from a group that it commissioned to investigate its credibility. The oversight group reported findings procedural weaknesses that preclude IPCC from responding nimbly to events — or from reliably identifying errors in its assessments.
