Earth
- Earth
Record seaweed belt spanned from Africa to Gulf of Mexico
Blooms of Sargassum seaweed used to form at the mouth of the Amazon River each year. In 2011, they mushroomed in size to where they now span from South America across to Africa.
- Agriculture
U.S. farmers still use many pesticides that are banned elsewhere
More than one in four of the pesticide used on U.S. farms in 2016 had been banned in other countries.
- Earth
Antibiotics pollute many of the world’s rivers
A survey of 165 rivers finds unsafe levels of antibiotics at one in six sites tested. Such pollution can leave germs resistant (unharmed) by the drugs.
- Climate
Scientists Say: Eyewall
The calm center of a hurricane or other tropical cyclone is called the eye. But the worst winds and rain are around it, in the eyewall.
- Environment
‘Biodegradable’ plastic bags often don’t break down
Biodegradable plastic bags are supposed to break down more quickly than ordinary plastics. But that may not happen, a study finds.
- Earth
Holiday fireworks can bring extreme pollution, India finds
Fireworks bring sparkle and zing to a celebration, but they also can have a dark side — unhealthy levels of air pollution.
- Materials Science
Trees may become the key to ‘greener’ foam products
Scientists have made an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic-based foams to help keep things cool.
- Climate
Space weather forecast: Big storms ahead
Scientists studying blobs of energetic particles shot from the sun may help us prepare for stormy consequences on Earth.
- Environment
City living makes trees grow fast but die young
Many cities plant trees to absorb carbon dioxide. But city trees grow fast and die young, which means they absorb less carbon dioxide than forest trees do.
- Earth
Reliving the last day of the dinosaurs
The Chicxulub crater is helping reveal what happened on the day a 12-kilometer-wide asteroid slammed into the Gulf of Mexico, 66 million years ago.
- Earth
Explainer: Understanding geologic time
Geologic time is unimaginably long. Geologists puzzle it out using a calendar called the Geologic Time Scale.
- Physics
Dry sand can bubble like the blobs in a lava lamp
Put two types of sand grains together in a chamber and they can flow like fluids. All it takes is a jiggle and some gas.
