Earth
- Humans
BP gusher left deep sea toxic for a time, study finds
In the early weeks after the damaged BP well began gushing huge quantities of oil and gas, a toxic brew was developing deep below the surface in plumes emanating from the wellhead. Finned fish and marine mammals probably steered well clear of the spewing hydrocarbons. But planktonic young — larval critters and algae that ride the currents — would have been proverbial sitting ducks.
- Humans
When to welcome ‘invading’ species
As climate changes, some environments are becoming hostile to the flora and fauna that long nurtured them. Species that can migrate have begun to move into regions where temperatures and humidity are more hospitable. And that can prove a conundrum for officials charged with halting the invasion of non-native species, notes Jon Jarvis, a biologist who for the past year has headed the National Park Service.
- Paleontology
India yields fossil trove in amber
Insect remains suggest the continent hosted a surprisingly wide variety of creatures 50 million years ago.
- Humans
GNP’s glaciers: Going, going . . .
Climate warming will eliminate them within a generation, data indicate.
- Animals
Wolverine: Climate warming threatens comeback
BLOG: New data point to unexpected sociability and filial behavior in carnivore.
- Life
Climate changes, and there goes the neighborhood
The ranges of rattlesnakes and voles are likely to shift drastically with warming, analyses of past changes suggest.
- Earth
‘Fossil’ mountains entombed by ice
Cold temperatures have kept a buried Antarctic range fresh for hundreds of millions of years.
- Life
New species a little nipper
A mongoose-like creature from Madagascar is the first new carnivore to be discovered in more than two decades.
- Health & Medicine
Mice robbed of darkness fatten up
Time of day can affect calories' impact, a study shows.
- Earth
Oceanographers with flippers
Tracking seal dives off Antarctica reveals seafloor troughs that affect ocean circulation.
- Health & Medicine
Pesticide in womb may promote obesity, study finds
One-quarter of babies born to women who had relatively high concentrations of a DDT-breakdown product in their blood grew unusually fast for at least the first year of life. Not only is this prevalence of accelerated growth unusually high, but it’s also a worrisome trend since such rapid growth during early infancy has — in other studies — put children on track to become obese.
- Earth
Warming is accelerating global water cycle
Fresh water evaporates from the oceans, rains out over land and then runs back into the seas. A new study finds evidence that global warming has been speeding up this hydrological cycle recently, a change that could lead to more violent storms. It could also alter where precipitation falls — drying temperate areas, those places where most people now live.
