Earth

Earth

Air pollution trims fetal growth

Pregnant women who breathe polluted air deliver babies that are typically slightly smaller than those born to other mothers.

Earth

Living in a Fog: Secondhand smoke may dull kids’ wits

Millions of U.S. children may have reading deficits because of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke.

Earth

Really hot water

Hot-water tanks can accumulate radioactive deposits from naturally occurring radioactive material.

Earth

Landscaping stones may pose risks to the environment

Chemical analyses suggest that planting ornamental rock gardens in some cases may not be doing the environment any favors.

Earth

Big quakes can free grounded icebergs

Data gathered by equipment installed on an immense iceberg off Antarctica suggest that the ground motions spawned by large, distant earthquakes can free such bergs to float again.

Earth

Seismic vibes gauge Earth’s crust

New seismic observations are adding to scientists' knowledge of the thickness of Earth's crust, especially in the Southern Hemisphere.

Earth

Reflections on Insecticides: Mirror forms of agrochemicals set risk

The toxicity of an insecticide or how long it persists in the environment depends on which mirror-image form of the chemical is present.

Earth

Tsunami Disaster: Scientists model the big quake and its consequences

Scientists are modeling the immediate and long-term effects of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck west of Indonesia the morning of Dec. 26, 2004, and triggered tsunamis that killed tens of thousands of people.

Earth

Ocean-sensor project reaches milestone

Oceanographers seeking to deploy an armada of 3,000 robotic probes to take the pulse of Earth's oceans have passed the halfway mark and hope to have the full array of sensors in place by 2007.

Earth

Climate Storm: Kyoto pact is confirmed, but conflict continues

Controversy flared over the link between climate change and increasing storm activity at the first international climate change meeting since the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol was assured.

Earth

Joining the Resistance: Drug-immune microbes waft over hogs

Many bacteria found floating within a farm building are invulnerable to multiple antibiotics, confirming that airborne dispersal could spread drug-resistant microbes from animals to people.

Earth

Shake Down: Deep tremors observed at San Andreas fault

Patterns of activity for a type of tremor that occurs deep beneath California's San Andreas fault may offer scientists a way to foretell earthquake activity there.