Earth

  1. Earth

    Antarctic shoal breaks the ice

    Instruments on a massive berg help pinpoint a previously unreported undersea ridge.

    By Sid Perkins
  2. Animals

    Climate change may favor couch-potato elk

    With drought and rising temperatures in Wyoming, migratory animals suffer while stay-at-home members of the same herd thrive

    By Susan Milius
  3. Earth

    Even a newborn canyon is big in Texas

    A flood carved a surprisingly large gorge that may help understand features on Earth and Mars.

    By Sid Perkins
  4. Health & Medicine

    Feds probe Gulf spill health risks

    The Institute of Medicine will be hosting a small public workshop in New Orleans, June 22 and 23, on possible health risks to Gulf coast residents and workers in the wake of the catastrophic BP oil spill. A June 16 congressional hearing previewed some of the concerns likely to arise at the meeting. They ranged from potential long-terms risks of DNA damage to claims that BP failed to provide protective gear to contract crews hired to clean up oil.

    By Janet Raloff
  5. Earth

    Loop Current will determine spill’s ultimate fate

    Oceanographers track a newly formed eddy in the Gulf of Mexico and where it might carry oil.

    By Alexandra Witze
  6. Science & Society

    Citation inflation

    Many journals – and the authors who publish their novel data and analyses in them – rely on “impact factors” as a gauge of the importance and prestige of their work. However, a new analysis turns up subtle ways that journals can game the system to artificially inflate their impact factor.

    By Janet Raloff
  7. Earth

    Planes can trigger snowfall

    Under certain conditions, aircraft can trigger precipitation as they pass through moisture-laden clouds.

    By Sid Perkins
  8. Humans

    Crude pick-ups

    To date, 400 skimmers have retrieved some 18 million gallons of oiled water from the BP Gulf spill, according to Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen during a June 11 press briefing. After removing the entrained water, this translates to between 1.8 million and 2.7 million gallons of crude oil. Another 3.8 million gallons of oil have been burned at sea. Four million gallons more have been collected through a near-mile-long riser tube and a containment cap fitted over the broken Deepwater Horizon wellhead.

    By Janet Raloff
  9. Earth

    Operation Icewatch 2010 gears up

    Climate experts turn their gaze north to monitor this summer's Arctic melt.

    By Alexandra Witze
  10. Humans

    BP spill: Gulf is primed to heal, but . . .

    Every day, Mother Nature burps another 1,000 barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico, along with additional quantities of natural gas. Normally, these hydrocarbons don’t stick around long because local bacteria have evolved to eat them about as fast as they appear. Which is potentially good news, she explained in testimony during a pair of June 9 House subcommittee events on Capitol Hill, because those bugs are now in place to begin chowing down on the oil and gas entering the Gulf from BP's damaged Deepwater Horizon well.

    By Janet Raloff
  11. Earth

    Feds up estimates of BP-spill rate

    At a news briefing on June 10, Marcia McNutt, who chairs the National Incident Command’s brain trust of experts calculating the likely release rate of the ongoing Gulf of Mexico oil spill, pegged the best available estimates at between 20,000 and more than 40,000 barrels per day.

    By Janet Raloff
  12. Earth

    Ancient marine reptiles losing their cool

    Warm-bloodedness may help explain the creatures’ evolutionary success, a new study suggests.

    By Sid Perkins