Earth

Agriculture

Web Special: You fertilized with what?

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

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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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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 […]

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.

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.

Earth

How Green Are Your Travels?

This website offers a rough gauge of the carbon-dioxide emissions associated with flying around the country. Just plug in a starting point and destination and it gives you a round-trip estimate of the greenhouse-gas “footprint” of your travel. The goal is to encourage visitors to buy carbon-offsets to cover the greenhouse-gas cost of their treks. […]

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Laser printers can dirty the air

Some laser printers emit substantial amounts of potentially hazardous nanoscale particles.

Earth

Lack of oxygen stunts fish reproduction

Seasonal oxygen shortages in coastal waters, increasing in severity because of pollution, may impair fish reproduction.

Earth

What Goes Up

A massive scientific field study in Mexico City, along with lab experiments and computer simulations, show that pollution from the world's megacities has a global impact.

Earth

Sonic Sands: Uncovering the secret of the booming dunes

The age-old mystery of sand dunes that produce loud, thrumming noises is explained by a new theory that involves a resonant layer of dry sand.

Earth

Oxygen Rocks: Volcanoes spurred early atmospheric change

Earth owes its oxygen-rich atmosphere to a change in volcanic activity about 2.5 billion years ago.

Earth

Tiny tubes, big pollution

Making carbon nanotubes also produces a lot of airborne carcinogens.