Earth

Planetary Science

Pluto’s cloud components verified

Newly analyzed observations suggest that particles are tiny spherules of frozen nitrogen and carbon monoxide.

Earth

Ocean’s carbon dioxide uptake varies year to year

Data taken hourly by cargo ships show that how much of the greenhouse gas North Atlantic waters absorb varies more than thought.

Chemistry

Pollutants: Up in flames

Forest fires have the potential to release toxic industrial and agricultural pollutants previously trapped on soil. After glomming onto smoke particles, these chemicals can hitch long-distance rides — sometimes across oceans — before they’re grounded and contaminate some new region, scientists report.

Paleontology

Major eruption cooled the climate but went unnoticed

Ice-core records suggest that a major 1809 eruption cooled Earth even before the Tambora eruption and ‘the year without a summer’.

Ecosystems

Dining: Bugged on Thanksgiving

Earlier this week, I met with Zack Lemann at the Insectarium, a roughly 18-month-old Audubon museum. He gave me a behind-the-scenes tour of its dozens of living exhibits hosting insects and more -- including tarantulas and, arriving that day for their Tuesday debut, white (non-albino) alligators. But the purpose of my noon-hour visit was to sample the local cuisine and learn details of preparations for a holiday menu that would be offered through tomorrow at the facility’s experiential cafe: Bug Appetit. There’s Thanksgiving turkey with a cornbread and wax worm stuffing, cranberry sauce with meal worms, and Cricket Pumpkin Pie. It’s cuisine most Americans would never pay for. But at the Insectarium, they don’t have to. It’s offered free as part of an educational adventure.

Humans

Beefy hormones: New routes of exposure

On any given day, some 750,000 U.S feedlots are beefing up between 11 million and 14 million head of cattle. The vast majority of these animals will receive muscle-building steroids — hormones they will eventually excrete into the environment. But traditional notions about where those biologically active pollutants end up may need substantial revising, several new studies find.

Earth

GPS bolsters view that big Cascadia quakes could hit inland

Satellite tracking of plate movements shows that a magnitude-9 tremor in Pacific Northwest could strike close to urban areas.

Agriculture

Nation by nation, evidence thin that boosting crop yields conserves land

Intensifying agriculture may not necessarily return farmland to nature without policy help.

Earth

Toxic playgrounds

No kid should ever play in arsenic. Especially at school. Yet many probably do, according to findings of a study presented today.

Chemistry

PCBs: When green paint isn’t ‘green’

It seems we're literally painting the air -- from the Great Lakes to Antarctica -- with persistent pollutants. Including at least one whose safety has never been studied.

Chemistry

Case of the toxic gingerbread man

Featured blog: A search for the source of some indoor-air anomalies turns up a surprising culprit.

Earth

Where humans go, pepper virus follows

Plant pathogen could help track waters polluted with human waste.