Earth
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Climate
‘Climate-gate’: Beyond the embarrassment
The United Nations Climate Change meeting, which I arrive at tomorrow in Copenhagen, is currently deadlocked on more important issues than who said what impolitic thing about somebody else in a private email to a colleague.
By Janet Raloff -
Life
Dinosaurs broiled, not grilled
Debris from K-T impact could have been heat source and heat shield.
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Paleontology
New fossil helps solidify dino origins
The dog-sized creature bolsters the notion that early dinosaurs first appeared in what is now South America.
By Sid Perkins -
Earth
Earth’s atmosphere may be extraterrestrial in origin
Analyses of krypton, xenon hint that air didn’t fizz from within the planet.
By Sid Perkins -
Earth
The big spill: Flood could have filled Mediterranean in less than two years
Discovery of a distinctive channel and new calculations of possible water movement suggest a fast and furious flow formed the sea.
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Ecosystems
Greening Christmas
I love the smell of balsam and firs and decorating holiday cookies – preferably with the sound of popular holiday standards in the background. I even enjoy shopping for and wrapping carefully chosen presents in seasonal papers festooned with huge bows. So when my hosts, this week, asked what I wanted to see during my visit, the answer was simple. Take me to one of Germany’s famed Christmas markets. And literally within a couple hours of my plane’s landing, they were already ushering me into the first of what would be a handful of such seasonal fairs. But as I also quickly learned, this first was an unusual one: a "green" bazaar.
By Janet Raloff -
Humans
Another livestock drug endangers vultures
After one veterinary NSAID almost wiped out vultures in South Asia, one of the possible replacements turns out to be toxic too.
By Susan Milius -
Climate
EPA: Greenhouse gases still endanger health
In April, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that based on its reading of the science, greenhouse gases threaten public health. Since then, the public and legions of interest groups have weighed in on the subject, shooting EPA some 380,000 separate comments. “After a thorough examination of the scientific evidence and careful consideration of public comments on the ruling,” EPA today reiterated its so-called “endangerment” assessment of greenhouse gases
By Janet Raloff -
Life
Bacteria seen swimming the electron shuffle
Researchers have captured the bacterium Shewanella’s behavior on film, and the microbes didn’t behave as expected
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Climate
Newspapers issue strong warning on climate
SN senior editor Janet Raloff blogs from Hamburg, Germany, before going to Copenhagen to attend the climate talks.
By Janet Raloff -
Earth
Countering Copenhagen’s Carbon Footprint
The United Nations’ Climate Change Conference, beginning Monday (Dec. 7), will draw legions of people to Copenhagen from 192 countries. Traveling to Denmark — sometimes from the far corners of the Earth — will expend huge amounts of energy. And spew plenty of the very carbon dioxide that the meeting negotiators are trying to rein in. So several bodies will be offsetting the carbon footprint of this gathering — with bricks. Or brick ovens, anyway.
By Janet Raloff -
Planetary Science
Pluto’s cloud components verified
Newly analyzed observations suggest that particles are tiny spherules of frozen nitrogen and carbon monoxide.
By Sid Perkins