Earth

  1. Agriculture

    Study decodes papaya genome

    Scientists have added another plant to the genome-sequencing roster: the tropical fruit tree papaya.

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  2. Earth

    Melt pond falls through ice in Greenland

    A lake of meltwater atop Greenland's ice sheet wedged open a crack in the underlying ice that drained the lake dry.

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  3. Environment

    Down with Carbon

    Scientists are exploring strategies for capturing carbon dioxide and storing it safely away in order to limit the levels of that greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.

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  4. Earth

    BOOK LIST | A Grain of Sand: Nature’s Secret Wonder

    Beautiful photos of sand grains up close reveal surprising diversity. Text describes a sand grain’s journey from mountain to beach. A GRAIN OF SAND Voyageur Press, 2008, 112 p. $20.

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  5. Climate

    Researchers rethink fate of celebrity plankton

    A poster-species for the hazards of greenhouse gas accumulation thrives in carbon dioxide-rich waters.

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  6. Agriculture

    Polluted Scents

    Insects and Bats May Face Confusion.

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  7. Earth

    Here’s a Title We’ll Gladly Relinquish

    China appears to be the world leader in carbon-dioxide emissions, but we may be partly to blame.

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  8. Earth

    Britain’s biggest meteorite strike

    An unusual layer of rock found along Britain's northwestern coast formed from the debris thrown out of a crater when a meteorite struck nearby more than 1 billion years ago.

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  9. Earth

    Refuge for the resilient

    Some conservationists recommend creating marine parks in areas most likely to survive climate change.

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  10. Earth

    Naming Your Tax Write-Off

    You can name this newly discovered sea slug — or nudibranch — housed in the Scripps Oceanographic Collections. The catch: It’ll cost you. But that “donation” will be tax deductible.

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  11. Earth

    Sense of Wonder Contest

    Rachel Carson aficionados will recognize The Sense of Wonder as the title of one of that environmentalist’s books. The Environmental Protection Agency is using that title to invite people young and old—literally and collaboratively—to explore that sense in poetry, essays, and photography. It’s inviting submissions from intergenerational teams “that best express the ‘Sense of Wonder’ […]

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  12. Earth

    Tibetan Plateau history gets a lift

    The Tibetan Plateau formed when the Indian and Eurasian plates collided, but scientists may have had the order of events wrong.

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