Earth

Earth

Manganese can make water toxic

Drinking water contaminated with manganese can subtly limit a child's intellectual development.

Earth

Warming climate will slow ocean circulation

Later this century, rising concentrations of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere could slow the ocean currents that bring warm waters to the North Atlantic.

Earth

A Little Less Green?

Emerging data indicate that use of pyrethroid pesticides, even by home owners, poses significant environmental risks.

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Seamount Expedition

Join scientists as they explore the cold waters of the Davidson Seamount off the central California coastline. This huge undersea mountain harbors a variety of spectacular marine life, including large, ancient, and fragile coral gardens. Students and the general public can share the expedition’s discoveries through NOAA’s Ocean Explorer Web site, which features daily logs, […]

Earth

Charting the Past: Surveys map two lost harbors of Phoenicia

By analyzing long tubes of sediment drilled from locations in and around the Mediterranean ports of Tyre and Sidon, scientists have rediscovered the harbors from which legions of ancient Phoenician mariners set sail.

Earth

Sinking Mercury: Light-based reactions destroy toxic chemical in Arctic lakes

Sunlight triggers the entry of poisonous mercury into polar lakes, but it also removes most of the toxic compound before fish can consume it.

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Diabetes from a Plastic? Estrogen mimic provokes insulin resistance

Exposure to trace amounts of an estrogenlike ingredient of polycarbonate plastic may increase the risk of diabetes, experiments in mice show.

Earth

Greenhouse Plants? Vegetation may produce methane

Lab tests suggest that a wide variety of plants may routinely do something that scientists previously thought impossible; produce methane in significant quantities in an oxygenated environment.

Earth

Mass movement

Two satellites designed to note small changes in Earth's gravitational field detected effects of the magnitude 9.3 earthquake that occurred west of Sumatra on Dec. 26, 2004.

Earth

Gunning for the Gut: Tiny particles might fight invasive zebra mussels

By modifying a technique used to flavor foods, researchers have made a substance that poisons the zebra mussel.

Earth

Estimating a temblor’s strength on the fly

New analyses of ground motions caused by large earthquakes suggest that it may be possible to estimate the full magnitude of such quakes immediately after they start rumbling.

Earth

Beyond the ABC’s: North Atlantic posts record hurricane season

The 2005 hurricane season in the North Atlantic shattered a number of records, including several that were decades old.