Summaries | Headlines
Earth Mantle 'Ocean': 3-D Seismic Model Of Vast Water Reservoir Revealed (February 11, 2007) -- A seismologist at Washington University in St. Louis has made the first 3-D model of seismic wave damping -- diminishing -- deep in the Earth's mantle and has revealed the existence of an underground ... > full story
Mesothelioma: Chemo Combination Improves Survival In Asbestos-related Cancer (February 11, 2007) -- People with mesothelioma -- a form of cancer associated with asbestos exposure -- have a higher survival rate when treated with a combination of two cancer drugs, a large multicenter study ... > full story
Break-up Of Antarctic Ice May Expose Marine Life To More Sunlight And Alter Food Chain (February 10, 2007) -- The predicted break-up of Antarctica's ice shelves due to global warming may trigger a major change in the marine food chain, by exposing its coastal seas to sunlight, according to new research by ... > full story
Agricultural Noah's Ark: Doomsday Seed Vault In Arctic To Outlast Major Sea Level Rise And Permafrost Warming (February 9, 2007) -- The Norwegian government has revealed the architectural design for the Svalbard International Seed Vault, to be carved deep into frozen rock on an island not far from the North Pole. The entrance to ... > full story
Scientists Use Seismic Waves To Locate Missing Rock Under Tibet (February 9, 2007) -- Geologists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have located a huge chunk of Earth's lithosphere that went missing 15 million years ago. By finding the massive block of errant rock ... > full story
Plant-grazing Fish Boost Resilience Of Coral Reefs Facing Stress (February 9, 2007) -- By using cages to experimentally control the access of fish to coral reefs, researchers have assessed the role of fish "grazing" in the ability of reefs to successfully recover from potentially ... > full story
New Data Shakes Accepted Models Of Collisions Of Earth's Crust (February 8, 2007) -- New research findings may help refine the accepted models used by earth scientists over the past 30 years to describe the ways in which continents clash to form the Earth's landscape. This work ... > full story
Storing Carbon Dioxide Below Ground May Prevent Polluting Above (February 8, 2007) -- A new analysis led by an MIT scientist describes a mechanism for capturing carbon dioxide emissions from a power plant and injecting the gas into the ground, where it would be trapped naturally as ... > full story
Largest North America Climate Change In 65 Million Years, Study Shows (February 8, 2007) -- The largest climate change in central North America since the age of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, a temperature drop of nearly 15 degrees Fahrenheit, is documented within the fossilized teeth ... > full story
Adaptation To Global Climate Change Is An Essential Response To A Warming Planet (February 8, 2007) -- Temperatures are rising on Earth, which is heating up the debate over global warming and the future of our planet, but what may be needed most to combat global warming is a greater focus on adapting ... > full story
Floods Cause Feeding And Breeding Frenzy In Australia (February 8, 2007) -- Vast flocks of water birds from across Australia will soon start gathering for a long-awaited feeding and breeding frenzy sparked by flooding in western Queensland. The floods will produce a bird ... > full story
Major Population Centers May Be At Risk From Earthquakes; Building Codes Must Reflect New Seismic Data (February 8, 2007) -- Earthquakes in stable continental regions lack sufficient understanding to prepare local populations for future seismic activity, according to a paper published in the February issue of the Bulletin ... > full story
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Solstice -- The summer solstice is an astronomical term regarding the position of the sun in relation to the celestial equator. The summer solstice is the day of the year with the longest daylight period and ... > full article
Mid-Atlantic United States flood of 2006 -- The Eastern United States flooding of June 2006 is a significant flooding event in much of Mid-Atlantic region of the eastern United States. The flooding was very widespread, affecting numerous ... > full article
Japanese beetle -- The Japanese Beetle (Popillia japonica) is a beetle about 1.5 cm (0.6 inches) long and 1 cm (0.4 inches) wide (smaller in Canada), with shiny copper-colored elytra and a shiny green top of the thorax ... > full article
Gypsy moth -- The gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, is a moth of European origin. Gypsy moth larvae prefer hardwoods, but may feed on several hundred different species of trees and shrubs. In the East the gypsy moth ... > full article
Tree -- A tree can be defined as a large, perennial, woody plant. Though there is no set definition regarding minimum size, the term generally applies to plants at least 6 m (20 ft) high at maturity and, ... > full article
Agriculture -- Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock). The practice of ... > full article
Plant -- Plants are a major group of living things including familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, ferns, and mosses. About 350,000 species of plants, defined as seed plants, bryophytes, ferns and ... > full article
Fungus -- A fungus (plural fungi) is a eukaryotic organism that digests its food externally and absorbs the nutrient molecules into its cells. Fungi are very important economically: yeasts are responsible for ... > full article
Photosynthesis -- Photosynthesis, generally, is the synthesis of sugar from light, carbon dioxide and water, with oxygen as a waste product. It is arguably the most important biochemical pathway known; nearly all life ... > full article
Carbon dioxide -- Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of one carbon and two oxygen atoms. It is often referred to by its formula CO2. It is present in the Earth's atmosphere at a low concentration and acts ... > full article
Earth's atmosphere -- Earth's atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth and retained by the Earth's gravity. It contains roughly 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen 0.97% argon and carbon dioxide 0.04% trace ... > full article
Solar radiation -- Solar radiation is radiant energy emitted by the sun, particularly electromagnetic energy. About half of the radiation is in the visible short-wave part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The other ... > full article
Ultraviolet -- Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength shorter than that of the visible region, but longer than that of soft X-rays. The Sun emits ultraviolet radiation in the UVA, ... > full article
Solar wind -- A solar wind is a stream of charged particles (i.e., a plasma) which are ejected from the upper atmosphere of a star. When originating from stars other than the Earth's Sun, it is sometimes called a ... > full article
Greenhouse gas -- Greenhouse gases (GHG) are gaseous components of the atmosphere that contribute to the greenhouse effect. The major natural greenhouse gases are water vapor, which causes about 36-70% of the ... > full article
Greenhouse effect -- The term greenhouse effect may be used to refer to two different things in common parlance: the natural greenhouse effect, which refers to the greenhouse effect which occurs naturally on Earth, and ... > full article
Methane -- Methane is a significant and plentiful fuel which is the principal component of natural gas. Burning one molecule of methane in the presence of oxygen releases one molecule of CO2 (carbon ... > full article
Nitrous oxide -- Nitrous oxide, also known as dinitrogen oxide or dinitrogen monoxide, is a chemical compound with chemical formula N2O. It is commonly known as laughing gas due to the exhilarating effects of ... > full article
Sulfur hexafluoride -- Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is a gas whose molecules consist of one sulfur atom and six fluorine atoms. It is colorless, odorless, non-toxic, and non-flammable, and is soluble in water and some other ... > full article
Haloalkane -- The haloalkanes (also known as Halogenoalkanes) are a group of chemical compounds, consisting of alkanes, such as methane or ethane, with one or more halogens linked, such as chlorine or fluorine, ... > full article
