Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Physics
Salt clouds relieve some Arctic warming
Sea sprays from increasingly open waters exert a cooling effect in the region.
- Humans
Because some foods carry organophosphate residues
Three new papers link prenatal exposures to organophosphate (OP) pesticides with diminished IQs in children. Fruits and veggies are one continuing source of exposure to these bug killers. As to what we’re supposed to do with that knowledge — well, the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization, offers some guidance.
- Earth
Ozone loss made tropics rainier
Hole over Antarctica changes weather patterns all the way to the equator, simulations suggest.
- Chemistry
Pesticides tied to lower IQ in children
Chemicals once sprayed in homes — and still used on farms — were found to have significant effects in three studies.
- Earth
Earth/Environment
Breakfast may help get the lead out, plus burrowing trilobites and warmer truffles in this week's news
- Life
Complex life hit freshwater early
Tiny fossils in Scottish rock show that cells with nuclei had spread beyond the seas by a billion years ago.
- Earth
Seismologists rumble over quake clusters
Japan tremor may be part of a second grouping of great quakes since 1900, some scientists say.
- Life
Antarctic lake hides bizarre ecosystem
Bacterial colonies form cones similar to fossilized examples of Earth’s early life.
- Tech
Fishy fat from soy is headed for U.S. dinner tables
Most people have heard about omega-3 fatty acids, the primary constituents of fish oil. Stearidonic acid, one of those omega-3s, is hardly a household term. But it should become one, researchers argued this week at the 2011 Experimental Biology meeting.
- Earth
Earth/Environment
Forecasting volcanic eruptions, plus saving mangroves and long-distance pollution in this week’s news.
- Life
Why diversity rules
A new experiment demonstrates the way a multitude of specialized species absorb nutrients more effectively than a highly productive one.
- Earth
Arctic Ocean hosts weird freshwater pond
Odd, persistent winds prevent river inputs from mixing with the sea.
