Earth

Earth

E-Waste Hazards: Chinese gear recyclers absorb toxic chemicals

People who live in an area of China where electronic devices are dismantled and recycled, as well as villagers 50 kilometers away, have high concentrations of flame retardants in their blood.

Earth

As the last ice age waned, a great lake was born

Lake Agassiz, a huge and now vanished freshwater lake, formed almost 14,000 years ago, toward the end of the last ice age.

Earth

Polymer Breakdown: Reaction offers possible way to recycle nylon

A new chemical process offers hope that the thousands of tons of nylon thrown away every year could one day be recycled.

Earth

Icebergs can be biological hot spots

Icebergs carry nutrients from the land and shed them into the sea, nourishing life in the frigid waters near Antarctica.

Earth

Double-acting bacteria immobilize toxic nanoparticles

Bacteria lurking in the bowels of an abandoned Wisconsin mine might help remove toxic metals from polluted water.

Earth

A Gemstone’s Wild Ride

Diamonds may be carried to the surface in explosions of gas and rock fizzing up from deep within Earth's mantle.

Earth

Tree rings tell tale of megadroughts

Tree rings in ancient timber show that the Colorado Plateau experienced a 60-year drought in the 12th century.

Earth

Storm Center

Scientists aboard planes that flew into the cores of Katrina and other hurricanes in 2005 collected unprecedented data on the structure and development of the massive storms.

Earth

Trouble for forests of the northern U.S. Rockies?

Climate change over the coming decades may cause forests in northern portions of the U.S. Rockies to stop absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and instead become net emitters of the gas.

Earth

Darker days during Arctic summer

Satellite observations indicate that Arctic regions reflected less sunlight into space in the summer of 2006 than in other recent years, a change that may exacerbate the warming of Earth's climate.

Earth

Dust Bowl affected midwestern climate

During the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, immense clouds of airborne soil blocked so much sunlight that much of the Great Plains region was significantly cooler than normal during summer months.

Earth

Age and gender affect soot’s toxic impact

Except in young females, small blood vessels in rodents lost the ability to precisely regulate blood flow after exposure to an oily constituent of diesel soot.