Earth

Climate

Alaskan peatlands expanded rapidly as ice age waned

The rapid growth of Alaskan wetlands before 8,600 years ago was due to hotter summers and colder winters, which could spell trouble in a warmer world, a new study suggests.

Chemistry

Skin as a source of drug pollution

Traces of over-the-counter and prescription meds taint the environment. The presumption Ì and it's a good one Ì has been that most of these residues come from the urine and solid wastes excreted by treated patients. But in some instances, a leading source of a drug may be skin Ì either because the medicine was applied there or because people sweat it out.

Planetary Science

Warmth in the dark age

Lower reflectivity kept Earth from freezing under a fainter young sun.

Chemistry

Mothballs deserve respect

I don’t use mothballs — except sometimes to sprinkle down the burrows of animals excavating tunnels beneath the deck floor of my pergola. It’s the most effective stop-work order for wildlife that I’ve found. But I won’t use these stinky crystals inside my home because they scare me. And those fears appear justified, according to Linda Hall of the California Environmental Protection Agency.

Tech

Smokin’ entrees: Charcoal grilling tops the list

At the American Chemical Society meeting, earlier this week, I stayed at a hotel that fronted onto the kitchen door of a Burger King. This explained the source of the beefy scent that perfumed the air from mid-morning on – the restaurant’s exhaust of smoke and meat-derived aerosols. A study presented at the meeting confirmed what my nose observed: that commercial grilling can release relatively huge amounts of pollutants.

Humans

Wildlife trade meeting disappoints marine scientists

The 15th meeting of signatories to the CITES treaty ended on March 25 without passing several proposals to protect high-profile fish species.

Earth

Alternative flame retardants leach into the environment

Supposedly safer chemicals are spotted in peregrine falcon eggs in California.

Paleontology

Tyrannosaurs lived in the Southern Hemisphere, too

Australian fossils suggest the kin of T. rex dispersed globally 110 million years ago.

Chemistry

Building a cheaper catalyst

Using perovskite instead of platinum in catalytic converters could shave many hundreds of dollars off the cost of a diesel car.

Chemistry

The skinny on indoor ozone

Indoor concentrations of ozone tend to be far lower than those outside, largely because much gets destroyed as molecules of the respiratory irritant collide with surfaces and undergo transformative chemical reactions. New research identifies a hitherto ignored surface that apparently plays a major role in quashing indoor ozone: It’s human skin. And while removing ozone from indoor air should be good, what takes its place may not be, data indicate.

Earth

Bacteria show new route to making oxygen

New discovery adds to the few known biological pathways for making and metabolically using the gas.

Chemistry

BPA found beached and at sea

Food chemists have been showing for years that bisphenol A, an estrogen-mimicking building block of polycarbonate plastics and food-can coatings, can leach into food and drinks. But other materials contain BPA – and leach it – such as certain resins used in nautical paint. And Katsuhiko Saido suspects those paints explain the high concentrations of BPA that he’s just found in beach sand and coastal seawater around the world.