Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
New contender for Earth’s oldest rocks
Observing rare isotopes in rocks along the Hudson Bay in Northern Quebec suggest the rocks have remained intact for 4.28 billion years, making them Earth's oldest.
- Earth
Continental clash cooled the climate
The collision between India and Asia set off events that caused long-term cooling in Earth’s climate, new research suggests.
- Climate
(Political) party animals
Featured blog: When it comes to attitudes about climate change, the chasm between Democrats and Republicans is wide. Political-polling analysts speculate that a McCain win in November might do more than an Obama victory to win over the minds of climate-change skeptics.
- Climate
Energy: Apollo-like Program Needed
Big action and big bucks are needed to deal with the United States' energy problems, research leaders argued today.
- Climate
Heat waves stunt grassland growth
An abnormally hot year can significantly suppress growth in grasslands, a stifling effect that lingers well into the next year even if temperatures return to normal. It can also hinder how well the grasslands absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
- Astronomy
McCain Is Bullish on R&D
Featured blog: John McCain weighs in on science and technology issues with long-awaited written responses to the Science Debate 2008.
- Paleontology
Dino domination was in the cards, maybe
A new study finds that early dinosaurs coexisted with and were outnumbered by a competing species. Dinosaurs eventually reigned supreme anyway, but perhaps not because they were better.
- Tech
Cops Might Get Pollution Sniffers
One day soon, precise up-to-minute air pollution data might be available at a street-by-street level.
- Agriculture
Network Antennas — Yum!
Sensor designers might have to consider engineering in bovine deterrence.
- Earth
Don’t blame the cities
Urban sprawl is sometimes blamed for skewing weather data and creating a false signal of global warming, but a new study suggests this idea is just a lot of hot air.
- Earth
Mammoth migrations
Ancient DNA shows North American woolly mammoths migrated back to Asia and displaced Siberian mammoths.
- Earth
Mighty hurricanes get mightier
Peak winds in North Atlantic hurricanes and similar storms elsewhere in the world have gained speed during the past three decades, thanks to a warming trend in many of the ocean basins where such storms are spawned.
