Earth

  1. Chemistry

    Household products make surprisingly large contributions to air pollution

    A study of smog in the Los Angeles valley finds that paints, fragrances and other everyday items are a growing component of the problem.

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  2. Climate

    Look to penguins to track Antarctic changes

    Scientists say carbon and nitrogen isotopes found in penguin tissues can indicate shifts in the Antarctic environment.

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  3. Life

    Shipping noise can disturb porpoises and disrupt their mealtime

    Noise from ships may disturb harbor porpoises enough to keep them from getting the food they need.

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  4. Plants

    Ancient ozone holes may have sterilized forests 252 million years ago

    Swaths of barren forest may have led to Earth’s greatest mass extinction.

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  5. Ecosystems

    Humans are overloading the world’s freshwater bodies with phosphorus

    Human activities are driving phosphorus levels in the world’s lakes and other freshwater bodies to a critical point.

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  6. Animals

    A peek into polar bears’ lives reveals revved-up metabolisms

    Polar bears have higher metabolisms than scientists thought. In a world with declining Arctic sea ice, that could spell trouble.

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  7. Agriculture

    Grapevines are more drought-tolerant than thought

    Grapevines handle drought better than previously thought. This could inform irrigation management.

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  8. Earth

    Gassy farm soils are a shockingly large source of these air pollutants

    California’s farm soils produce a surprisingly large amount of smog-causing air pollutants.

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  9. Earth

    Life may have been possible in Earth’s earliest, most hellish eon

    Heat from asteroid bombardment during Earth’s earliest eon wasn’t too intense for life to exist on the planet, a new study suggests.

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  10. Environment

    Plastic pollution increases risk of devastating disease in corals

    Researchers estimate about 11 billion pieces of plastic are polluting Asia-Pacific corals, raising the risk of disease at scores of reefs.

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  11. Earth

    Overlooked air pollution may be fueling more powerful storms

    The tiniest particles in air pollution aren’t just a health threat. They also strengthen thunderstorms, new research suggests.

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  12. Earth

    Robots map largest underwater volcanic eruption in 100 years

    High-resolution mapping of a 2012 underwater volcanic eruption just goes to show there’s a lot we don’t know about deep-sea volcanism.

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