Earth

Health & Medicine

BPA and babies: Feds acknowledge concerns

Federal health and research officials outlined new guidance today for parents on the use of plastics made from bisphenol-A, a hard, clear plastic. Their bottom line: Minimize BPA-based products that could make contact with foods or drinks that infants or toddlers might consume — especially hot foods and drinks. But the Food and Drug Administration stopped short of recommending that parents pitch baby bottles and sippy cups made from BPA. Nor did it call for parents to avoid processed infant formulas and baby foods — some of which it acknowledges are contaminated with traces of BPA.

Earth

Copenhagen Meeting Highlights

Find all the Science News coverage of the 2009 United Nation's climate summit in one place.

Climate

Acidifying ocean may stifle phytoplankton

Chemical changes in seawater make a key nutrient less available to these organisms.

Health & Medicine

Study supports connection between BPA and heart disease

U.S. population data reveal possible relationship between cardiovascular risk and plastics chemical.

Earth

Hydrothermal vent environments not unchanging

Once-rare organisms can become dominant, probably as some environmental conditions change over time.

Earth

Footprints could push back tetrapod origins

Newly discovered trackways much older than previous evidence for sea-to-land transition.

Earth

Age of solar system needs a fresh look

Honed measurements show age overshot by amount significant to earliest stage of formation.

Earth

Danish sustainability: From coats to undies

The United Nations climate change conference may be over, but Denmark’s interest in climate-protection issues isn’t. Case in point: an exhibit at the Danish Design Center. Across the street from Copenhagen’s famed Tivoli Gardens, local fashion-design students are showcasing their idea of another type of greens – fashion-forward clothes that are kind to Mother Nature.

Climate

Warming has already boosted insect breeding

Museum records, publications suggest extra generations at same time as temperature increases

Earth

Tides in Earth’s crust trigger small, deep quakes

Study of one portion of the San Andreas fault finds that just a little added stress from crustal tides makes a quake more likely.

Earth

Mistletoe leaves a big carbon footprint in Yellowstone

Earth sciences reporter Sid Perkins blogs on new research from the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

Chemistry

Climate deal reached, importance debated

“Finally, we sealed the deal. And it is a real deal,” said United Nations Secretary General Ban ki-Moon this morning at an 11:15 press briefing. He was referring to a new climate accord – one aimed at reducing global greenhouse-gas emissions and setting up a green trust fund for mitigation and adaptation programs in the world’s poorest countries, ones that are already being hammered by a changing climate.