Greening of the Earth pushed way back in time
Conventional scientific wisdom has it that plants and other creatures have only lived on land for about 500 million years, and that landscapes of the early Earth were as barren as Mars.
View ArticleSea level rise: New iceberg theory points to areas at risk of rapid...
In events that could exacerbate sea level rise over the coming decades, stretches of ice on the coasts of Antarctica and Greenland are at risk of rapidly cracking apart and falling into the ocean,...
View ArticleChemical reaction could streamline manufacture of pharmaceuticals and other...
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered a new chemical reaction that has the potential to lower the cost and streamline the manufacture of compounds ranging from agricultural...
View ArticleBees 'betray' their flowers when pollinator species decline
Remove even one bumblebee species from an ecosystem and the impact is swift and clear: Their floral "sweethearts" produce significantly fewer seeds, a new study finds.
View ArticleMost flammable boreal forests in North America become more so
A 2,000-square-kilometer zone in the Yukon Flats of interior Alaska – one of the most flammable high-latitude regions of the world, according to scientists – has seen a dramatic increase in both the...
View ArticleIn nature, dolphins 'whistle' by name
Wild bottlenose dolphins design unique signature whistles to identify themselves, and they answer when a close cohort calls them by name, researchers said Monday.
View ArticleClimate forecasts shown to warn of crop failures
Climate data can help predict some crop failures several months before harvest, according to a new study from an international team, including a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center...
View ArticleThin, flexible glass for energy storage
A new use for glass is being developed by researchers in Penn State's Materials Research Institute that could make future hybrid-electric and plug-in electric vehicles more affordable and reliable.
View ArticleLG, Samsung start selling curved TVs in US
Flat screens have been a selling point for TVs for more than a decade. Now, LG and Samsung are making a selling point of screens that are not flat.
View ArticleEnvironmental toxins enter the brain tissue of polar bears
PerFluoroAlkyl Substances (PFASs) and precursor compounds have been used in a wide variety of commercial and industrial products over the past six decades. Applications include water and oil repellent...
View ArticleFull dinosaur tail excavated in northern Mexico
(AP)—Mexican paleontologists say they have uncovered 50 vertebrae believed to be a full dinosaur tail in the northern desert of Coahuila state.
View ArticleEuropean grassland butterflies in decline
More than half of Europe's main species of grassland butterflies are in sharp decline as a result of habitat loss, the European Environment Agency (EAA) warned on Tuesday.
View ArticleApple developing iPhones and tablets with bigger screens: report
Apple could roll out smartphones and tablets with bigger screens in a move analysts say is an attempt to catch up with a trend set by its major rival Samsung.
View ArticleLargest bony fish ever lived during the age of dinosaurs
Giant fish that could grow up to 16m long roamed the seas 165 million years ago, new research from the University of Bristol suggests.
View ArticleIt's the fineness of the grind
The properties of nanomaterials could be easier to predict in future. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have ground metal into continuously finer powders in...
View ArticleControlling genes with light
Although human cells have an estimated 20,000 genes, only a fraction of those are turned on at any given time, depending on the cell's needs—which can change by the minute or hour. To find out what...
View ArticleOldest European fort in the inland US discovered in Appalachians
The remains of the earliest European fort in the interior of what is now the United States have been discovered by a team of archaeologists, providing new insight into the start of the U.S. colonial...
View ArticlePutting more wind power on the grid
Wind turbines tend to be overshadowed by solar power projects, which get most of the attention from the public and policymakers. That's the case again in a new government plan for renewable energy...
View ArticleNew technology lets scientists identify wild wolves by their howls
Wild wolves play an essential ecological role, so researchers must be able to track them accurately. Unfortunately, because wolves travel over wide ranges, tracking them visually is very difficult. The...
View ArticleHarvesting electricity from the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide
A new method for producing electricity from carbon dioxide could be the start of a classic trash-to-treasure story for the troublesome greenhouse gas, scientists are reporting. Described in an article...
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