Earth
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Earth
A limit for carbon emissions: 1 trillion metric tons
To reduce risks of severe damage from climate change, humans should burn no more than 1 trillion tons of carbon in total, researchers suggest.
By Sid Perkins -
Plants
Climatic effects of tree-killing hurricanes
A new analysis suggests storm damage returns millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year.
By Sid Perkins -
Physics
Obama pledges 3 percent of GDP for research
Pledges for big budget increases for research, permanent tax credits for reseach by industry and more were announced today.
By Janet Raloff -
Ecosystems
Living Physics
From green leaves to bird brains, biological systems may exploit quantum phenomena.
By Susan Gaidos -
Plants
Landscaper’s darling hybridizes into an environmental nuisance
Variation underlies the Callery pear tree’s transformation .
By Susan Milius -
Earth
A little air pollution boosts vegetation’s carbon uptake
Aerosols bumped up world’s plant productivity by 25 percent in the 1960s and 1970s, new research suggests.
By Sid Perkins -
Earth
Fossil of a walking seal found
A fossil skeleton discovered in the Canadian Arctic could represent a missing link in pinniped evolution.
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Agriculture
News from Experimental Biology
Senior editor Janet Raloff blogs from the 2009 meeting gathering dozens of societies together in New Orleans
By Janet Raloff -
Climate
EPA says greenhouse gases ‘endanger’ health
Featured blog: New ruling is a likely first step toward federal moves to cut tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide and more.
By Janet Raloff -
Earth
An earlier appearance for the first land plants
Fossilized pollen could show that modern land plants evolved earlier than thought.
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Planetary Science
Antarctic ecosystem holds unusual microbes
Long isolated deep under a glacier, life thrives in dark, salty water by breathing iron and eating sulfates.
By Sid Perkins -
Earth
Nickel down, oxygen up
Researchers point to the early ocean's concentration of nickel as the possible start for events that allowed Earth's atmosphere to accumulate oxygen.