Earth
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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
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EarthThe Case for DDT
What do you do when a dreaded environmental pollutant saves lives?
By Janet Raloff -
EarthNorthern Vents: Arctic shows surprising hydrothermal activity
A recent survey along a midocean ridge beneath the Arctic icepack unveiled an unexpected abundance of hydrothermal activity.
By Sid Perkins -
EarthPredicting geomagnetic storms
Recent observations with an Earth-orbiting spacecraft may provide new ways to predict when solar temper tantrums will cause the geomagnetic storms that disrupt communications systems on Earth and harm satellites.
By Ron Cowen -
EarthCandid cameras catch rare Asian cats
Remote cameras have confirmed that despite 30 years of armed conflict, jungle cats and many other large mammals continue to thrive in Cambodia.
By Janet Raloff -
EarthRivers run to it
Increasing freshwater discharges into Arctic waters could disrupt important patterns of deep-water ocean circulation that affect climate.
By Janet Raloff -
EarthHawaii’s Hated Frogs
Wildlife officials in Hawaii are investigating unconventional pesticides to eradicate invasive frogs—or at least to check their advance.
By Janet Raloff -
EarthSulfur Studies: Early Earth’s air was oxygen-poor
Analyses of ancient sulfide minerals and the modern organisms that create sulfides are giving scientists a better idea of what Earth's atmosphere and oceans may have been like billions of years ago.
By Sid Perkins -
EarthMapping with GRACE
Global gravity maps compiled from data painstakingly gathered during the last 30 years have now been rendered obsolete by a pair of satellites that were launched just last March.
By Sid Perkins -
EarthMercurial Effects of Fish-Rich Diets
In the spring of 2000, one of Jane M. Hightower’s patients had been concerned about hair loss, so the internist referred the woman to a specialist in her building. That dermatologist probed the woman’s medical history but could find no explanation. That is, until she suddenly recalled a radio broadcast about mercury poisoning in people […]
By Janet Raloff -
EarthLife at the Frigid Edge: Microbes turn up deep in Antarctic lake ice
A pocket of cold, concentrated saltwater at the bottom of an Antarctic lake could harbor life, say researchers who found microbes in the ice right above the briny layer.
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EarthLife at the Frigid Edge: Microbes turn up deep in Antarctic lake ice
A pocket of cold, concentrated saltwater at the bottom of an Antarctic lake could harbor life, say researchers who found microbes in the ice right above the briny layer.
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EarthToppling icebergs sped breakup of Larsen B ice shelf
Scientists now think they know what accelerated the rapid disintegration of most of Antarctica's Larsen B ice shelf early this year after a strong summer storm pummeled the region.
By Sid Perkins