Earth

  1. Earth

    Seismic waves resolve continental debate

    New analyses of seismic waves that have traveled deep within Earth may answer a decades-old question about the thickness of the planet's continents.

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  2. Earth

    Feel the Heat: Rain forests may slow their growth in warmer world

    During a long-term research project in a Central American rain forest, mature trees grew more slowly in warm years than they did in cooler ones.

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  3. Earth

    Prenatal nicotine: A role in SIDS?

    New data suggest why exposure to nicotine in the womb can put an infant at greater risk of sudden infant death syndrome.

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  4. Earth

    Traces of lead cause outsize harm

    Minute amounts of lead in blood are worse for children than had been realized.

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  5. Earth

    Eye of the Tiger

    Recent research has upended a 130-year-old, previously unchallenged theory about how the semiprecious stone called tiger's-eye is formed.

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  6. Earth

    Solving one mystery of polar wander

    Long-term fluctuations in pressure at the ocean's bottom may be the driving force for the Chandler wobble, which causes the North Pole to wander about 20 feet every 14 months or so.

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  7. Earth

    Early web-footed bird made impression

    Researchers have discovered the fossil tracks of an otherwise unknown bird in 110-million-year-old sediments, which pushes back evidence of web-footed birds by at least 25 million years.

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  8. Earth

    Where’s Waldo . . . and 6 billion others?

    Scientists have combined satellite imagery and detailed census data to develop a worldwide database that can provide estimates of the number of people located in areas on a grid that has boxes with areas of 1 square kilometer or less.

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  9. Earth

    Wildfires spread across a parched West

    Dozens of lightning-sparked wildfires seared the western United States last week, adding hundreds of thousands of acres of charred terrain to a tally that promises to make this fire season the worst in recent decades.

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  10. Earth

    Death for the killer seaweed

    Biologists have launched a campaign to eradicate the first infestation in open American waters of an invasive mutant algae.

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  11. Earth

    Estrogen effects linger in male fish

    Male fish can inappropriately make egg yolk protein, even when only intermittently exposed to water tainted with an estrogenic pollutant.

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  12. Earth

    Mapping watersheds invites comparisons

    Computerized maps of environmental features for 154 of the largest river watersheds will soon be available to the public, free of charge.

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