Earth

Earth

Nanoparticles’ indirect threat to DNA

Tiny metal nanoparticles can damage DNA, essentially by triggering toxic gossip.

Earth

Small earthquakes may not predict larger ones

Quakes far from tectonic plate boundaries may simply be aftershocks of ancient temblors.

Climate

Kyoto climate treaty’s greenhouse ‘success’

There are 33 days until the opening of formal negotiations in Copenhagen on the next global climate-protection treaty. The hoped-for accord would take up where the current treaty leaves off. But to get some perspective on just where that is, a new United Nations report describes for negotiators and the public just how much the Kyoto Protocol has achieved. And real strides have been made in slowing the growth of greenhouse-gas emissions, thanks to many European nations (albeit with little help from North American ones or Japan).

Climate

Mount Kilimanjaro could soon be bald

The world-renowned ice caps could disappear by 2022, new research suggests.

Chemistry

Aerosols cloud the climate picture

A NASA model incorporates how atmospheric aerosols and greenhouse gases interact, yielding better estimates of the gases' warming and cooling effects.

Earth

Unicorn fly of the Cretaceous

An ancient fly discovered trapped in amber sports a horn atop its head and topped with three eyes.

Earth

World’s longest cave formation still growing

Minerals still accumulate in New Mexico’s Snowy River.

Chemistry

How leaves could monitor pollution

Trees near high-traffic areas accumulate tiny particles.

Climate

Winter forecast: Sustained blizzard of climate news

At least in our area of the country, consumers are already being assaulted — well before Halloween — with Christmas music, decorations and holiday-themed goods. Reporters are smack in the throes of their own early seasonal blitz: News items carrying a climate or global-warming theme. And I don’t expect the crush of climate news and seminars to diminish until around Christmas. That’s when the next United Nations COP — or Conference of the Parties — will end this year’s pivotal round of negotiations in Copenhagen aimed at producing a new climate treaty.

Earth

Johnstown Flood matched volume of Mississippi River

A modern survey of terrain determines flow rate of the 1889 flood that was one of America's deadliest disasters.

Agriculture

Report tallies hidden energy costs

The average retail cost of U.S. coal-fired electricity was 9 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2007 (the most recent year for which data are available). But there are health and environmental costs of that power that consumers don’t pay, at least as part of their electric bill. According to a new report, accounting for those costs would double the true cost of shooting some electrons through the nation's power grid.

Agriculture

Update: U.S. swine infected with swine flu

Well, it's official. Over the weekend, Agriculture Department scientists found evidence that at least one pig exhibited at this year's Minnesota state fair was infected with the pandemic H1N1 strain of swine flu.