Earth

  1. Chemistry

    Deep-sea oil plume goes missing

    Controversy arises over whether bacteria have completely gobbled oil up.

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  2. Earth

    Most BP oil still pollutes the Gulf, scientists conclude

    Below the surface, plumes of oil are proving slow to disperse and break down.

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  3. Planetary Science

    Worldwide slowdown in plant carbon uptake

    A decade of droughts has stifled the increasing growth of terrestrial vegetation.

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  4. Earth

    Tsunami triggered by one-two punch

    Geologists report the first recorded observation of an unusual earthquake sequence.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Traffic may drive some people to diabetes

    Urban air pollution — especially the particles and gases emitted by heavy traffic — can increase a senior citizen’s risk of developing type-2 diabetes, according to a new German study. If confirmed, its authors say, pollution would represent a “novel and potentially modifiable risk factor” for the metabolic disorder.

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  6. Earth

    Perforated blobs may be early sponges

    Odd shapes in Australian rocks could be the oldest fossil evidence of multicellular animals.

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  7. Earth

    Scour power

    Big storms shift coastal erosion into overdrive.

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  8. Earth

    Forest loss slows in Brazilian Amazon

    Between 2004 and 2009, the rate of clearing dropped almost 75 percent.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    ‘Miracle’ tomato turns sour foods sweet

    Pucker no more: That seems to be one objective of research underway at a host of Japanese universities. For the past several years, they’ve been developing bio-production systems to inexpensively churn out loads of miraculin — a natural taste-altering protein that makes sour foods seem oh so sweet. Their newest biotech reactor: grape tomatoes.

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  10. Earth

    Rodent poop gauges ancient rains

    The size of chinchilla pellets reveals past desert environment.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Chicken poses significant drug-resistant Salmonella threat

    More than one-in-five retail samples of raw chicken collected in Pennsylvania hosted Salmonella, a new study found — twice the prevalence reported in a 2007 U.S. Food and Drug Administration survey. And where the bacteria were present, more than half were immune to the germicidal activity of at least one antibiotic. Nearly one-third were resistant to three or more.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Drumming up anthrax

    Mention anthrax and about the last thing that comes to mind is whether there’s a drum in the room. Yet tom-toms — or at least the stretched animal hides on their heads — can sometimes spew toxic anthrax spores into the air. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently highlighted the case of a previously healthy 24-year-old woman who nearly died, last December, after attending a “drumming circle” in New Hampshire.

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