Earth

  1. Environment

    Car tires and brake pads produce harmful microplastics

    Scientists surveyed tiny airborne plastics near German highways and found that bits of tires, brake pads and asphalt make up most of the particles.

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  2. Earth

    These tiny, crackly bubbles are a new type of volcanic ash

    Scientists have identified a new type of volcanic ash made up of millimeter-long spheres with a crackled surface.

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  3. Physics

    Bizarre metals may help unlock mysteries of how Earth’s magnetic field forms

    Weyl metals could simulate the dynamo effect that generates the planet’s magnetism, a new study suggests.

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  4. Paleontology

    ‘End of the Megafauna’ examines why so many giant Ice Age animals went extinct

    ‘End of the Megafauna’ ponders the mystery of what killed off so many of Earth’s big animals over the last 50,000 years.

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  5. Particle Physics

    Physicists measured Earth’s mass using neutrinos for the first time

    Counting tiny particles that can zip straight through the Earth reveals what the planet is like on the inside.

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  6. Chemistry

    New devices could help turn atmospheric CO2 into useful supplies

    New electrochemical cells transform carbon monoxide into useful chemical compounds like ethylene and acetate much more efficiently than their predecessors.

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  7. Climate

    ‘18 Miles’ is full of interesting tales about Earth’s atmosphere

    The new book ‘18 Miles’ takes readers on a journey through the atmosphere and the history of understanding climate and weather.

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  8. Climate

    Hurricane Willa breaks an eastern and central Pacific storm season record

    The combined might of eastern and central Pacific hurricanes produced a record-breaking year of storm energy.

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  9. Agriculture

    Plants engineered to always be on alert don’t grow well

    Scientists bred a type of weed to lack proteins that help stem the production of bitter chemicals used to ward off insect attacks.

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  10. Climate

    More tornadoes are popping up east of the Mississippi

    Tornadoes are becoming slightly less frequent in Tornado Alley, while more are touching down farther east in the United States, a study suggests.

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  11. Archaeology

    The water system that helped Angkor rise may have also brought its fall

    A complex water system magnified flooding’s disruption of the medieval Cambodian city of Angkor.

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  12. Earth

    These ancient mounds may not be the earliest fossils on Earth after all

    A new analysis suggests that tectonics, not microbes, formed cone-shaped structures in 3.7-billion-year-old rock.

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