Earth
- Earth
Dust, the Thermostat
Analyses suggest that dust has profound, complex, and far-reaching effects on the planet's climate.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Quantum physics explains core anomaly
Scientists have used the principles of quantum physics to answer the long-standing puzzle of why seismic waves travel at different speeds in different directions across Earth's inner core.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Himalayas may be due for big temblors
Scientists say that a narrow region that rims the southern edge of the Tibetan Plateau could be the spawning grounds for large earthquakes that could threaten millions in southern Asia in the decades to come.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Dusty workplace may cause change of heart
Occupational exposure to fine dust can trigger adverse changes in the hearts of even strong, healthy workers.
By Janet Raloff - Earth
Bt Corn Risk to Monarchs Is ‘Negligible’
A much-anticipated report states that the most commonly planted forms of genetically engineered Bt corn pose only a "negligible" risk to monarch butterfly populations.
By Susan Milius - Earth
Scientists spy sixth undersea-vent ecology
A new group of hydrothermal vents found in the Indian Ocean are populated by communities of organisms that differ significantly from other such groups of vent systems.
By Sid Perkins -
- Earth
Antarctic sediments muddy climate debate
Ocean-floor sediments drilled from Antarctic regions recently covered by ice shelves suggest that those shelves were much younger than scientists had previously thought.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Aircraft spies on health of coral reefs
Marine ecologists report the development of a new remote-sensing system that can assess the health of coral reefs from planes.
By Janet Raloff - Earth
L.A. moves, but not in the way expected
Researchers monitoring small ground motions along faults in Southern California ended up detecting an altogether different phenomenon: the rise and fall of the ground as local governments pump billions of gallons of water into and out of the region's aquifers.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Sahara to get hotter, drier, smaller
By the end of this century, the world's hottest desert will be even hotter, drier, and smaller than it is now, according to an international team of climate modelers.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Resetting a clock from Earth’s rocks
Better measurements of one of the rates of radioactive decay used to date extremely old rocks open up the possibility that Earth may have had a crust as many as 200 million years earlier than previously thought.
By Sid Perkins