Earth

  1. Chemistry

    Oil magnets

    Featured blog: Nanomagnets and wires point to a potentially better mousetrap — or crude trap — for dealing with oil spills.

    By
  2. Ecosystems

    Fish Houses

    Tanked half-way houses allow people and fish to get acquainted on their own terms — and exhibit their individual personalities.

    By
  3. Plants

    Fugitives spread bumblebee diseases

    Pathogens hitchhike on commercial bees that escape from greenhouses. These escapees bring disease to wild bumblebees.

    By
  4. Plants

    Parasitic plant gets more than a meal

    The parasitic vine known as dodder really sucks. It pierces the tissue of other plants — some of which are important crops — extracting water and nutrients needed for its own growth. But it also consumes molecules that scientists could manipulate to bring on the parasite’s demise.

    By
  5. Earth

    Seafloor chronicles

    Survey of ocean floor reveals long history, from a geological fault to the wreckage of the Lusitania.

    By
  6. Agriculture

    Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out of Africa

    by Robert Paarlberg, Harvard Univ. Press, 2008, 235 p., $24.95.

    By
  7. Astronomy

    Science Future for August 2, 2008

    August 16–24 Australia celebrates National Science Week. Visit www.scienceweek.info.au September 18 and 19 University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Holtz Center presents “Climate Change is Global.” Visit www.sts.wisc.edu October 8 Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to launch as part of the final mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Visit www.nasa.gov/missions

    By
  8. Ecosystems

    Tracing Tahitian vanilla

    The discovery of Tahitian vanilla’s heritage could set off a custody battle between nations.

    By
  9. Agriculture

    Dirt Is Not Soil

    Probing the distinction in what you call the stuff that mud is made of.

    By
  10. Climate

    Hydrogen economy sustainable in 15 years

    Hydrogen fuel cells can eventually replace the combustion engine, but meanwhile a wider range of technologies will be needed to reduce carbon emissions.

    By
  11. Agriculture

    The Good Earth

    The Smithsonian is out to share the "secrets" of soil.

    By
  12. Oceans

    Death by magma

    Widespread extinctions in the world’s oceans millions of years ago may have been triggered by massive underwater volcanic eruptions that created much of the Caribbean seafloor.

    By