Earth

Earth

Vermiculite turns toxic

Federal agencies issued a warning that much of the vermiculite ceiling insulation installed a decade or more ago may be tainted with cancer-causing asbestos.

Earth

To contain gene-altered crops, nip them in the seed

Researchers have demonstrated that, in principle, they can add genes that block genetically modified crops from breeding with conventional varieties and thus from spreading their artificial traits.

Agriculture

Mad Cow Future: Tests explore next generation of defenses

As Canadian health officials investigate mad cow disease within the country's borders, researchers are already working on the next generation of defenses.

Earth

Count Down: Chemicals linked to inferior sperm

New data suggest that typical exposures to chemicals called phthalates are associated with reduced fertility in men, but the specific phthalates they finger aren't those that researchers most expected to cause problems.

Agriculture

Global Food Trends

Last year, for the third year in four, world per-capita grain production fell. Even more disturbing in a world where people still go hungry, at 294 kilograms, last year’s per capita grain yield was the lowest in more than 30 years. Indeed, the global grain harvest has not met demand for 4 years, causing governments […]

Agriculture

How Olives Might Enhance Potatoes—and Strawberries

Many people savor the flavor of olive oil. Few who have ever encountered the “cake” that remains after the oil is pressed, however, savor the experience. Thats because the pressed olive flesh ends up in unused, smelly heaps. In the European Union alone, olive processors produce some 8 million metric tons of these rank wastes […]

Earth

A Dam Shame? Project may slam China’s biodiversity

When the Three Gorges Dam begins to impound the waters of the Yangtze River in China later this year, dozens of mountains and other elevated areas upstream will become islands—an outcome that will probably devastate the rich diversity of species now living along the river.

Earth

When pollutants take the Arctic route

The highest North American concentrations of at least one air pollutant from Asia can be found in Newfoundland, the continent's easternmost region.

Earth

What’s happening to German eelpout?

Reproductive anomalies in eel-like fish may represent good markers of exposure to hormones or pollutants that mimic them.

Earth

Flame retardants morph into dioxins

Sunlight can break down common flame retardants, now nearly ubiquitous in the environment, into unusual chemicals in the dioxin family.

Earth

Reused paper can be polluted

Toxic chemicals can end up in recycled paper, making release of these reused materials into the environment potentially harmful.

Earth

Going Down? Probe could ride to Earth’s core in a mass of molten iron

A geophysicist suggests that scientists could explore Earth's inner structure by sending a grapefruit-size probe on a week-long mission to the Earth's core inside a crust-busting mass of molten iron.