Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Scientists scramble to analyze Haiti quake
Teams work to understand and model what could happen next.
- 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.
