Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Ice Age Ends Smashingly: Did a comet blow up over eastern Canada?
An extraterrestrial object apparently exploded above Canada about 12,900 years ago, sparking devastating wildfires and triggering a millennium-long cold spell.
- Earth
Using seismometers to monitor glaciers
Seismic instruments could be used to estimate the amount of ice that shears away from glaciers as they flow into the sea, offering a way to better estimate sea level rise due to the breakup of those ice masses.
- Earth
Fish Free Fall: Hormone leads to population decline
Trace amounts of the synthetic estrogen used in birth control pills can cause a fish population to collapse.
- Earth
Southern seas slow their uptake of CO2
In recent decades, the rate at which oceans in the Southern Hemisphere soak up atmospheric carbon dioxide has slowed.
- Earth
Biological Hot Spots: Ocean eddies may not always lock away carbon
The carbon in the tissues of organisms that bloom inside some ocean eddies doesn't always sink to the ocean floor to be locked away in sediments when those organisms die.
- Earth
Emissions tied to global warming are on the rise
The United States emitted nearly 1 percent more greenhouse gases in 2005 than it did in the year before.
- Earth
Not-So-Clear Alternative: In its air-quality effects, ethanol fuel is similar to gasoline
Switching the nation's vehicles from gasoline to ethanol may not reduce air pollution.
- Earth
Lake Superior is warming faster than its local climate
In recent decades, the waters of Lake Superior have warmed significantly faster than have air temperatures at nearby sites onshore, a trend caused in part by a long-term decrease in the lake's winter ice cover.
- Agriculture
Bugged wines
Stinky compounds emitted by ladybugs can impart a foul taste to wines made from grapes on which the insects had been feeding.
- Earth
Ash Detector: Laser device could protect aircraft in flight
Analysis of a volcanic plume that wafted over central Alaska suggests that polarized laser beams can detect airborne ash, which can be a threat to aircraft.
- Earth
Pregnancy and Pollution: Women living in areas with poor air quality have babies with lower birthweights
Pregnant women exposed even to moderate amounts of several common air pollutants tend to have babies with low birthweights.
- Earth
Dry winters heat European summers
When southern Europe receives scant rainfall in the winter, the whole continent tends to bake the following summer.
