Earth
- 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.
- Life
Emerging disease may wipe out common bat in the Northeast
Hard-hit region could lose little brown myotis to white-nose syndrome within decades
- Chemistry
Receipts a large — and largely ignored — source of BPA
A host of small studies raises a big alarm about exposure to a hormone-mimicking chemical.
- Tech
Cashiers may face special risks from BPA
“People working at places that use thermal paper can have continual contact with bisphenol A. And if they knew, I think they would be horrified,” notes Koni Grob, an analytical chemist with an official government food laboratory in Zurich, Switzerland. He’s describing the thermal paper commonly used throughout Europe and North America to print store receipts.
- Climate
EPA rejects climate-change deniers’ petitions
A number of people challenge that climate change is real, that it's due to greenhouse gases released by human activities and that it's a threat to human health and the environment. On July 29, the Environmental Protection Agency formally rejected those claims as it turned down 10 petitions asking the Obama administration to reconsider EPA’s “endangerment finding.”
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- Chemistry
More evidence that BPA laces store receipts
People interested in limiting exposure to bisphenol A — a hormone-mimicking environmental contaminant — might want to consider wearing gloves the next time a store clerk hands over a cash-register receipt. A July 27 report by a public-interest research group has now confirmed many of these receipts have a BPA-rich powdery residue on their surface.
- Earth
Researchers create global map of tree height
A new map shows forest height around the globe and will improve estimates of how much carbon is stored in trees.
- Math
Swarming locusts impossible to predict
A mathematical analysis shows that random factors underlie the insects’ movements across the landscape.
- Planetary Science
Hole from on high
Researchers discover a fresh meteorite impact crater using Google Earth.
- Animals
Fearless tadpoles give invaders the edge
Clueless larvae don’t heed the scent of nonnative turtles, giving newcomers an edge over native species, a European study finds.
- Agriculture
Germs eyed to make foods safer
Adding viruses to foods doesn’t sound appetizing, much less healthy. But it’s a stratagem being explored to knock some of the more virulent food poisoning bacteria out of the U.S. food supply. Scientists described data supporting the tactic July 18 at the Institute of Food Technologists’ annual meeting in Chicago.
