Earth
- Earth
Lightning creates radiation-safe zone
A relatively safe region within the seas of radiation that surround Earth owes its existence to lightning storms.
- Earth
Breeding Parasites Along with Fish: Do sea lice from salmon farms spread far?
Marine parasites known as sea lice spread readily from farmed salmon to passing wild fish, according to a controversial study conducted in British Columbia.
- Earth
Hit Again: December temblor probably caused new Sumatran quakes
Seismic activity that rattled the Indonesian region early this week, including a quake that measured a whopping magnitude 8.7, was triggered by December's massive tsunami-spawning earthquake, scientists suggest.
- Earth
Volume of glaciers and ice caps is estimated
New topographic data have enabled scientists to estimate the volume of water trapped in the ice caps and glaciers outside of Antarctica and Greenland and to predict how high the sea level would rise if this ice melted.
- Earth
An Ounce of Pollution: Particles’ harm varies by person, region, season
A gram of small, air-polluting particles has deadlier effects in certain seasons and regions of the country than in others, and particulate pollutants may disrupt heart function most in people who already have cardiovascular problems.
- Earth
Paint additive hammers coral
A pesticidal additive in the paint applied to ship hulls may be contributing to the worldwide decline of corals.
- Earth
A Whiff of Danger
Synthetic fragrance chemicals can inhibit the activity of molecules that cells depend on to eject harmful substances.
- Earth
Nano Hazards: Exposure to minute particles harms lungs, circulatory system
Inhaling microscopic nanospheres and nanotubes, as might occur during their manufacture or commercial use, could trigger damage well beyond the lungs.
- Earth
What’s in the Dirt?
Curious about the abundance of various chemical elements in the area where you live? The U.S. Geological Survey offers a database of more than 60,000 chemical analyses of stream sediment and soil in different parts of the United States. Color-coded maps provide county-by-county data on the concentrations of such elements as mercury, arsenic, selenium, and […]
- Earth
Warm Spell: Arctic algae record shift in climate
Analyses of sediment samples taken from remote arctic lakes indicate that the climate across large swaths of the Northern Hemisphere has been warming for many decades.
- Earth
Baking dirt to predict erosion after a fire
Lab tests suggest that a wide variety of soils exposed to the heat of intense wildfires end up with a similar resistance to erosion, a finding that may help scientists model that process more accurately.
- Earth
Winged solution to biopollution?
Government officials have released alien moths in hopes that they will rein in the spread of an aggressive climbing fern now invading some 100,000 acres in south Florida.
