Earth
- Earth
Seafloor Chemistry: Life’s building blocks made inorganically
Hydrocarbons in fluids spewing from hydrothermal vents on the seafloor in the central Atlantic were produced by inorganic chemical reactions deep within the ocean crust, a finding with implications for the possible origins of life.
- Earth
A crack and a fault in paradise
Mauna Loa, Hawaii's most massive volcano, may be splitting the Earth's crust.
- Earth
Fabulon: Looking less fabulous
The source of polychlorinated biphenyls found heavily tainting some homes—and their dwellers—appears to be a durable topcoat for hardwood floors that was widely used a half-century ago.
- Earth
Identifying Polluters
Three major business schools have teamed up to map some 20,000 sources of industrial pollution. You can search for polluters in a particular region, in a designated industry, or those associated with a named company, then probe their emissions by type and quantity, look at how their pollutant trends have changed over time, and compare […]
- Environment
How Plastic We’ve Become
Uncle Sam has confirmed it: Our bodies carry residues of kitchen plastics.
- Earth
Bird’s-eye view of Antarctic ice loss
Satellite images of Antarctica between 1992 and 2006 indicate that the continent was losing ice much faster at the end of that period than it was a decade before.
- Earth
Switchgrass may yield biofuel bounty
Making ethanol from switchgrass yielded more than 5 times more energy than needed to grow the crops in a large-scale farming trial.
- Agriculture
A Sweeter Hops
Federal scientists have bred a new, antimicrobial-rich hops variety for tea.
- Earth
Hued Afterglow: Fingerprinting diamonds via phosphorescence
The eerie phosphorescence displayed by a rare form of blue diamond can be used as an easy, cheap, and nondestructive way to identify individual gemstones and to distinguish natural blue diamonds from synthetic ones.
- Earth
Focus on Our Planet
Although the United Nations has officially designated 2008 as the International Year of Planet Earth, the 3-year celebration actually began a year ago and will continue through December 2009. The program’s ultimate goal: “to build safer, healthier and wealthier societies around the globe” through a better appreciation for and harnessing of Earth sciences. The UN […]
- Earth
Plowing the Ancient Seas: Iceberg scours found off South Carolina
Recent sonar surveys off the southeastern United States have detected dozens of broad furrows on the seafloor that were carved by icebergs during the last ice age.
- Earth
In 2007, Greenland set a melting record
The duration and extent of ice melt across high-altitude portions of the Greenland ice sheet last year were the highest they've been in recent decades, satellite observations indicate.
