Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Shuttle yields detailed, 3-D atlas
NASA scientists and Defense Department mapmakers are assembling billions of radar measurements made from the space shuttle Endeavour to produce what they say will be the world’s best topographic map.
- Earth
Hard rock jellies: Throng of rare fossils found in Midwest quarry
A Wisconsin sandstone quarry recently served up a rare scientific find nearly a half billion years in the making: fossils of an armada of jellyfish that stud the site’s stone slabs.
- Earth
Old pesticide still makes it to Arctic
Molecules of the pesticides known as chlordanes, which belong to a class of long-lasting organochlorine pollutants, circulate in Arctic air years after they were applied in temperate latitudes.
- Earth
New way of gauging reservoir evaporation
Scientists have developed a new way to estimate the evaporation of water from large reservoirs that, if adopted, would replace a labor-intensive procedure based on decades-old technology.
- Earth
Biotech-crop laws were big in 2001
Twenty-two state legislatures passed bills in 2001 addressing agricultural biotechnology, which concerns the development of genetically modified crops.
- Earth
It’s a Rough World
Scientists are using fractals, mathematical forms that can describe objects with fractional dimensions, to model phenomena such as wildfire propagation and the spread of toxic fluids through rocks and soil.
- Earth
Algae do battle with bioweaponry
Beneath the frozen surface of Sweden's lakes, algae wage wars over nutrients, and one combatant apparently prevails by releasing chemicals toxic to its adversaries.
- Earth
Toxic Pfiesteria inhabit foreign waters
The notorious Pfiesteria microbes, implicated in fish kills and human illness along the mid-Atlantic U.S. coast, have turned up in Norway.
- Earth
Earth’s inner core could include silicon
Laboratory experiments investigating the crystal structure of iron-silicon alloys at high temperatures and pressures may yield new insights into the mineral composition of Earth's core.
- Earth
Finding fault for an old earthquake
Scientists in Southern California believe they've found evidence that finally identifies the source of one of the region's largest quakes, a magnitude 7-plus temblor that struck the area on Dec. 21, 1812.
- Earth
Satellites could help track sea level
Experiments that used signals from Global Positioning System satellites to precisely measure altitude above a lake's surface may pave the way for fleets of spaceborne sensors that can quickly and inexpensively monitor local and global changes in sea level.
- Earth
Beefy Losses
Cattle ranchers are facing some puzzling–and, at times, economically devastating–problems with pregnant cows and calves. At some facilities, high numbers of fetuses are aborting for no apparent reason. Other farmers successfully raise what look to be normal young cattle, only to learn when the animals are butchered that their carcasses appear old and, therefore, less […]
