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  1. Agriculture

    Silencing Pests: Altered plants make RNA that keeps insects at bay

    Engineered plants make genetic material that disables critical genes in insects that eat the plants, offering a possible new strategy for agricultural-pest control.

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  2. Earth

    Groundwater use adds CO2 to the air

    Pumping out groundwater for crop irrigation or industrial purposes releases planet-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

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  3. Agriculture

    Cleaning Up after Livestock

    Manure collection system sanitizes cattle wastes and makes hay—literally—while the sun shines.

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  4. Earth

    Clay That Kills: Ground yields antibacterial agents

    A special type of French clay smothers a diverse array of bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant strains and a particularly nasty pathogen that causes skin ulcers.

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  5. 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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  6. 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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  7. 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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  8. 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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  9. 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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  10. Agriculture

    They fertilized with what?

    Fields fertilized with human urine yield bigger cabbages.

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  11. 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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  12. Agriculture

    Web Special: You fertilized with what?

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

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