Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Runaway Heat?
A variety of changes in the Arctic is making the region darker and accelerating its warming climate.
- Earth
Volcanic Suppression: Major eruptions can reduce sea level
Although scientists have known for years that major volcanic eruptions can temporarily cool Earth's climate, a team now suggests that such outbursts can temporarily cause sea level to drop for a while as well.
- Earth
Breaking Waves: Mangroves shielded parts of coast from tsunami
Along a strip of India's southeastern coastline, trees protected certain villages from last December's tsunami, while waves wiped out neighboring settlements that weren't sheltered by vegetation.
- Earth
Iceberg Thrills
The Ocean World Web site offers lessons devoted to icebergs, accompanied by dramatic images. Students can learn about the different colors of icebergs, their classification, and their life cycle. The Web site also presents the dangers that icebergs pose to people as well as their potential benefits to desert dwellers. It includes a glossary and […]
- Earth
Drought’s heat killed Southwest’s piñon forests
The heat accompanying a drought and a plague of bark beetles seem to explain the deaths of swathes of piñon pine trees across the Southwest in 2002 and 2003.
- Earth
The browning of Europe
The lengthy heat wave and drought that struck Europe in the summer of 2003 stifled the growth of vegetation and thereby reduced the amount of carbon dioxide that the continent's plants extracted from the atmosphere.
- Earth
Invisible Rivers
The fresh water that seeps from continents into coastal waters via submarine springs is a phenomenon that many scientists are just beginning to appreciate, model, and accurately measure.
- Earth
Fertility and Pollution: Dirty air, ozone linked to sperm troubles
Men develop lower sperm counts and produce more sperm with fragmented DNA when the air has higher levels of ozone and other pollutants.
- Earth
Save the frogs
Researchers have drafted a proposed $400 million research-and-rescue plan for the world's amphibians, at least half of which are in decline or even facing serious risk of extinction.
- Agriculture
Wheat Warning—New Rust Could Spread Like Wildfire
A new, yield-slashing wheat blight has emerged in East Africa and could spread far beyond that part of the world.
- Earth
Pack Rat Piles: Rodent rubbish provides ice age thermometer
Analyses of fossilized plant remnants collected by pack rats reveal that the Grand Canyon was much cooler than previously thought during the latter part of the last ice age.
- Earth
Organic Choice: Pesticides vanish from body after change in diet
Children can eliminate their bodies' loads of agricultural pesticides by eating organically grown products.
