Earth

  1. Earth

    The Big Dry

    Parts of Australia have suffered from severe drought for more than a decade, and people, vegetation, and animals are feeling the heat.

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  2. Earth

    Bad Acid: Ocean’s pH drop threatens snail defense

    As ocean waters trend toward acidity, a result of atmospheric greenhouse gas buildup, a shoreline snail's defense against predatory crabs may weaken.

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  3. Earth

    Arctic sea ice falls to modern low

    The area of sea ice in the Arctic is at its lowest in nearly three decades of satellite monitoring.

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  4. Earth

    A different spin

    A change in the properties of Earth's mantle at high pressure and temperature may influence seismic waves in a novel way.

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  5. Earth

    Invasive, Indeed

    Some people may live lightly on the land, but the demands of the world's population as a whole consume nearly a quarter of Earth's total biological productivity.

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  6. Agriculture

    They fertilized with what?

    Fields fertilized with human urine yield bigger cabbages.

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  7. Earth

    Iron to blame

    Typhoons that drench Madagascar and spill iron-rich runoff into the Indian Ocean account for that region's massive but sporadic algal blooms.

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  8. Agriculture

    Web Special: You fertilized with what?

    A study shows that farmers can substitute human urine for conventional fertilizer.

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  9. Earth

    Clearly Concerning

    The toxicity of a chemical that leaches from a widely used plastic receives conflicting evaluations in two new reviews.

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  10. Earth

    Toxipedia

    Ever wonder whether some chemical in a bathroom cleanser, herbicidal spray, or paint is toxic? Just how poisonous is that chemical described in last week’s Science News? Toxicologists are developing one-stop shopping for such information at Toxipedia. Like Wikipedia, it allows the public—experts, advocates, or policymakers—to post information. Unlike Wikipedia, there is a rating system […]

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  11. Earth

    Meteor dust layers taint Antarctic ice

    Two layers of deep Antarctic ice, each hundreds of thousands of years old, are rich in meteoritic dust.

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  12. Earth

    Grazing on the Periodic Table: Some ancient microorganisms lived on a diet of pure sulfur

    Microorganisms that lived 3.5 billion years ago obtained energy by metabolizing pure sulfur.

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