Environment

In the March 13 Issue:

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Losing life’s variety: 2010 is the deadline set for reversing declines in biodiversity, but little has been accomplished
Hogan’s noise: A cosmologist suggests a novel way to uncover the nature of spacetime on the smallest scales

::	Environment
	Agriculture Climate Change Ecology

Top Stories | March 11

Science & the Public: For a lucky few, ‘dioxins’ might be heart healthy
Dioxins and their kin are notorious poisons. They work by turning on what many biologists had long assumed was a vestigial receptor with no natural beneficial role. But it now appears that in a small proportion of people, this receptor may confer heart benefits.
Science & the Public: National academies to review IPCC procedures
Global science organizations asked to help evaluate processes that produced 2007 climate report.
Ancient Norse colonies hit bad climate times
Temperatures in Iceland plummeted soon after settlers arrived, a new chemical analysis suggests.
Science & the Public: Green-ish pesticides bee-devil honey makers
Pesticides are agents designed to rid targeted portions of the human environment of undesirable critters – such as boll weevils, roaches or carpenter ants. They’re not supposed to harm beneficials. Like bees. Yet a new study from China finds that two widely used pyrethroid pesticides – chemicals that are rather “green” as bug killers go – can significantly impair the pollinators’ reproduction.
Country ants make it big in the city
Odorous house ants act like invading aliens when they discover urban living.

:: More in Environment

Country ants make it big in the city

Odorous house ants act like invading aliens when they discover urban living.

Mature females key to beluga sturgeon survival

Hatchery fish are unlikely to restore caviar-producing fish populations, a new assessment finds.

Science & the Public: Fowl surprise! Methylmercury improves hatching rate

A pinch of methylmercury is just ducky for mallard reproduction, according to a new federal study. The findings are counterintuitive, since methylmercury is ordinarily a potent neurotoxic pollutant.

Arctic seafloor a big source of methane

Measurements show that Arctic undersea methane deposits, previously thought to be sealed by permafrost, are leaking into the atmosphere.

Plasticizers kept from leaching out

‘Chemicals of concern’ may be made safer in new materials.

:: Science News
2|27 Issue Links

Water vapor slowed recent global warming trend

A decline in stratospheric water vapor has slowed Earth’s surface warming slightly in recent years.

:: See all Environment

Blogs:

Science & the Public For a lucky few, ‘dioxins’ might be heart healthy
By Janet Raloff Mar 10th 2010

Deleted Scenes Spirit: 'The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated'
By Science News Staff Mar 3rd 2010

On the Scene The carbon footprint of industrial whaling
By Science News Staff Feb 26th 2010

Columns:

Math Trek The mutual inspiration of art and mathematics
By Julie Rehmeyer Mar 6th 2010

Comment New NOAA climate office would meet growing needs
By Jane Lubchenco Feb 26th 2010

Not to Miss:

AAAS 2010 meeting highlights

APS April 2010 meeting coverage

2009 Science News of the Year

Black holes powering starships

SN Bookshelf:

Book Review: The Encyclopedia of Weather and Climate Change: A Complete Visual Guide by J.L. Fry, H.-F. Graf, R. Grotjahn, M.N. Raphael, C. Saunders and R. Whitaker
Review by Sid Perkins
Buy now | More Books

Gold Medal Physics: The Science of Sports by John Eric Goff
How athletes, Olympian and otherwise, perform some of their most amazing physical feats.Johns Hopkin...
Buy now | More Books

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