Knowing that soils are a potential climate change time-bomb is nothing new -- but now, for the first time, a group of international scientists have found a way to distinguish just how much of these ancient carbon stores are being lost to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. This means that in the future they may be able to accurately forecast how loss of soil carbon will impact on climate change. Globally, soils contain over 300 times the amount of carbon released each year due to the burning of fossil fuels, and this carbon has until now, been safely locked up below ground.

A vast array of physical and biological systems across the earth are being affected by warming temperatures caused by humans, says a new analysis of information not previously assembled all in one spot. The effects on living things include earlier leafing of trees and plants over many regions; movements of species to higher latitudes and altitudes in the northern hemisphere; changes in bird migrations in Europe, North America and Australia; and shifting of the oceans' plankton and fish from cold- to warm-adapted communities.

Rising global temperatures could lead to an increase in kidney stones. Dehydration has been linked to stone disease, particularly in warmer climates, and global warming will exacerbate this effect. As a result, the prevalence of stone disease may increase, along with the costs of treating the condition.

Exactly how airborne particulates harm our lungs still puzzles epidemiologists, physicians, environmental scientists, and policy makers. Now California Institute of Technology researchers have found that they act by impairing the lungs' natural defenses against ozone.

Pointed wings, together with carrying less weight per wing area and avoidance of high winds and atmospheric turbulence, save a bird lots of energy during migration. This is shown for the first time in free-flying wild birds. Researchers state that climate change might have a critical impact on small migrants' energy budgets if it causes higher winds and atmospheric instability as predicted.

Researchers have developed geographic risk models, which indicate that as many as 3.2 million Burmese are estimated to be affected by the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis. Using Geographic Information Systems, the researchers calculated the likely distribution of the population of Burma (also known as Myanmar) and developed maps of the regions at greatest risk from the storm's effects.

The U.S. government has finally decided to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The listing is based on the fact that loss of sea ice will likely continue to threaten polar bear habitat.

One possible approach to carbon dioxide reduction would be to deliberately plant forests, bind the carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and then removed the trees from the global cycle by burial.

Exposure to coarse particulate matter air pollution such as from agricultural activities, windblown dust and mechanical grinding is not statistically significantly associated with emergency hospital admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases among Medicare patients This is the largest US nationwide study on the acute health effects of coarse particle pollution. Coarse particles are airborne pollutants that fall between 2.5 and 10 microns in diameter.

In every production zone worldwide, cocoa trees are faced with pests and diseases that can wipe out entire harvests. To protect their crops, farmers often use costly, polluting chemicals or labour-intensive manual techniques. However, there are now clean, ecological methods, for instance using sources of natural resistance. In this respect, a highly specific group of cocoa trees, the wild trees found in French Guiana, looks very promising.

The mouse is a stalwart stand-in for humans in medical research, thanks to genomes that are 85 percent identical. But identical genes may behave differently in mouse and man, a study by evolutionary biologists reveals.

Evolution is supposed to inch forward over eons, but sometimes, at least in the case of a little fish called the threespine stickleback, the process can go in relative warp-speed reverse, according to a new study. The adaptation coincides with the '60s cleanup of toxic pollution in Seattle's Lake Washington.

Researchers have sequenced the entire genetic code of 23 strains of Flavivirus, the virus that causes St. Louis encephalitis, to understand its evolutionary history. This study, published in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, found that a single mutation made the virus pathogenic to humans and that the North and South American strains divided about 116 years ago.

Satellite imagery obtained from NASA will help archaeologists peer into the ancient Mexican past. In a novel archaeological application, multi- and hyperspectral data will help build the most accurate and most detailed landscape map that exists of the southern state of Oaxaca, where the Zapotec people formed the first state-level and urban society in Mexico.

More than 600 million years of evolution has taken two unlikely distant cousins -- turkeys and scallops -- down very different physical paths from a common ancestor. But researchers have found that a motor protein, myosin 2, remains structurally identical in both creatures.

DNA analysis of residents of Druze villages in Israel suggests these ancient religious communities offer a genetic snapshot of the Near East as it was several thousands of years ago. The Druze harbor a remarkable diversity of mitochondrial DNA types or lineages that appear to have separated from each other many thousands of years ago, according to a new study by multinational team.

Digital medical imaging and information technology is helping The Field Museum discover and analyze secrets hidden within its world-class collections. A computed radiography system enables the museum -- for the first time -- to capture, archive and share digital x-ray images from more than one million priceless artifacts in its Anthropology collection. The museum is also using a picture archiving and communications system (PACS) to manage, view and store the growing collection of digital images.

New evidence from the Monte Verde archaeological site in southern Chile confirms its status as the earliest known human settlement in the Americas and provides additional support for the theory that one early migration route followed the Pacific Coast more than 14,000 years ago.

An event as simple as the world's first bite may have sparked an ancient "explosion" of life 500 million years ago that led to the rise of the broad groups of animals that are still alive today. A Harvard professor suggests that it was an increase in interactions between species, such as predation, that drove an escalating evolutionary process that led to the development of teeth and claws and the wide variety of characteristics that we see among Earth's animals today.

The duck-billed platypus: part bird, part reptile, part mammal -- and the genome to prove it. Scientists have decoded the genome of the platypus, showing that the animal's peculiar mix of features is reflected in its DNA. An analysis of the genome can help scientists piece together a more complete picture of the evolution of all mammals, including humans.

European researchers say their study of self-sustaining solitary light wave packets could result in a new generation of computers and optical telecommunications networks. Using light rather than electronic or magnetic devices to store and move data is quicker, more energy efficient and cost-effective, and cavity solitons could be the key to unlocking this technology.

Physicists have provided a mechanism by which information can be recovered from black holes -- and the first plausible mechanism for how information might escape from black holes, those regions of space where gravity is so strong that, according to Einstein's theory of general relativity, not even light can escape. The team's findings pave the way toward ending a decades-long debate sparked by renowned physicist Steven Hawking.

As cars become entertainment centers and data-gathering devices, the amount of information they're collecting about you is rapidly growing. And guess who might be interested? Insurance companies, advertisers, government agencies, your boss and perhaps your spouse. On the other hand, say researchers, an intelligent car with a caring voice might persuade humans to drive more safely.

Could a business practice usually reserved for boosting profits be used to help turn companies green by reducing their energy use? Researchers in India provide an answer.

Nanotechnology researchers have shown that they can use a red blood cell to calibrate a sensitive instrument, an atomic force microscope. An atomic force microscope uses a tiny lever that runs over the surface of an object. Small deflections of the tip are read and translated to produce an image of the object's surface. However, accurate calibration of the springiness of the tip is difficult.

Carbon-coated nanomagnets may offer a new form of cancer treatment. New research suggests that nanoparticles consisting of metallic iron with a protective carbon coat could serve as a safe and effective hyperthermia agent.

Protein crystallographers have only scratched the surface of the human proteins important for drug interactions because of difficulties crystallizing the molecules for synchrotron x-ray diffraction. Scientists have devised a way to eliminate the need for crystallization by using lasers to align large groups of molecules.

Chemists have developed complex molecules for use in portable sensors that quickly and reliably detect the presence of plastic explosives, a pressing need for soldiers in Iraq. The molecules can also identify which type of explosive is present, allowing security personnel to quickly determine which material they are dealing with.

Light-emitting diodes save energy. In terms of their light output, however, they have so far been unable to compete with light bulbs. A new, low-priced optical component is set to change that situation: It concentrates the light and directs it precisely to where it is needed.

A dismantled Henry Moore sculpture could be re-erected in Kensington Gardens, London, thanks to the latest rock engineering techniques, says a team of experts.

The Nardo Ring is a striking visual feature from space, and astronauts have photographed it several times

A new NASA-led study shows human-caused climate change has made an impact on a wide range of Earth's natural systems, including permafrost thawing, plants blooming earlier across Europe and lakes declining in productivity in Africa.

NASA will hold two media briefings on Tuesday, May 20, beginning at 11 a.m. EDT, on the international Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2, which is dedicated to monitoring sea-level rise and improving weather and climate forecasts.

Administrator Michael Griffin announced Wednesday that Ed Weiler will remain as NASA's associate administrator for the agency's Science Mission Directorate. Weiler was named interim chief of the directorate March 26.

International news media should apply now for accreditation to cover the launch of the Jason-2 satellite on the Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

NASA has selected General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, Inc., to build the Landsat Data Continuity Mission spacecraft.

Scientists to use robots to explore the depths of the Atlantic Ocean to study the growth of underwater volcanoes that build the Earth's crust.

With locked crust, Earth could become another Venus

Chile's Chaiten Volcano is shown spewing ash and smoke into the air for hundreds of km over Argentina's Patagonia Plateau

Researchers are making it possible to more accurately predict the impact of using the world's second highest tidal range as a source of energy.

Oxygen-poor waters are expanding in tropical regions of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans

Computer analyses of global climate have consistently overstated warming in Antarctica, concludes new research by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Ohio State University.

Prepare for more floods - in ways we are not used to

Scientists who compared recorded Antarctic temperatures and snowfall accumulation to predictions by major computer models of global climate change offer both good and bad news.

Knowing the structure and detailed composition of soil carbon could provide a better understanding of the chemical processes that cycle organic matter in soil.

The Chaiten volcano now erupting in southern Chile is one of 200 to 300 volcanoes in the "Andean Arc" region of Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Columbia considered active by volcanologists, some of which lie in much more densely populated areas

“Over millions of years, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have been moderated by a finely-tuned natural feedback system – a system that human emissions have recently overwhelmed.” Quoted from the NASA release.

This article describes two programs. One monitors the acceleration sensor in a Mac computer and uses it to detect shaking. Another detects vibrations and sends a signal to other nearby computers. These signals travel faster than seismic waves and can warn that vibrations are on their way.

“An international team of scientists has detected that some of the glow of Earth’s aurora is polarized, an unexpected state for such emissions.” Images of Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis

View a photo slideshow of some of the world’s most destructive storms since 1970. Included are: Cyclone Nargis, Cyclone Sidr, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Mitch, Tropical Storm Thelma, Super Typhoon Nina, and the Bhola Cyclone, among others.

Some geologists say that the Texas Sinkhole might be related to salt water disposal. However, Texas regulatory agencies say that the cause of the sinkhole remains undetermined. The sinkhole is now about 900 feet across and 260 feet deep.

Links to recent news items related to a partial ash cloud collapse and regional context. New videos from under the ash plume with street, farm, landscape and aerial scenes.

Dangerous cracks have been discovered in he Zipingku Dam, located about five kilometers upstream from the earthquake damaged community of Dujiangyan.

Information on the Eastern Sichuan, China magnitude 7.9 earthquake from USGS, newspapers and online news sources.

New Zealand’s Mount Ruapehu is exhibiting increasing signs of unrest, and scientists believe it could possibly erupt, without warning, at any time. The volcano last erupted in September of 2007.

Microsoft has created a tool which allows users to view objects in space from a “virtual telescope”. It is free to the general public.

(Cell Press) When it comes to winning mates, larger horns are an asset for male Soay sheep. But those that grow them may be putting their young lives on the line.

(Massachusetts Institute of Technology) MIT engineers have improved the power output of one type of fuel cell by more than 50 percent through technology that could help these environmentally friendly energy storage devices find a much broader market, particularly in portable electronics.

(Cornell College) Evidence of physically similar species hidden within plant tissues suggest that diversity of neotropical herbivorous insects may not simply be a function of plant architecture, but may also reflect the great age and area of the neotropics.

(Texas A&M University) A large quantity of nitrogen compounds emitted into the atmosphere by humans through the burning of fossil fuels and the use of nitrogen fertilizers enters the oceans and may lead to the removal of some carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, concluded a team of international scientists led by Texas A&M University Distinguished Professor of Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences Robert Duce.

(European Space Agency) Venus Express has detected the molecule hydroxyl on another planet for the first time. This detection gives scientists an important new tool to unlock the workings of Venus's dense atmosphere.

(DOE/Argonne National Laboratory) Argonne National Laboratory has signed a memorandum of understanding with Savannah River National Laboratory to collaborate on nuclear energy and environmental management research projects in support of critical US Energy Department needs and other important national priorities.

(University of East Anglia) As much as a third of the nitrogen entering the world's oceans from the atmosphere is man-made, according to new findings by an international team of scientists.

(Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) Catching a football. Maneuvering through a room full of people. Jumping out of the way when a golfer yells "fore." Most would agree these seemingly simple actions require us to perceive and quickly respond to a situation. Assistant professor of cognitive science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Mark Changizi argues they require something more -- our ability to foresee the future.

(Inderscience Publishers) Could a business practice usually reserved for boosting profits be used to help turn companies green by reducing their energy use? Writing in the International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage, researchers in India provide an answer.

(University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science) The University of Miami's Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing announced that it will house a library of data collected via spaceborne C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar. The initiative, led by the Canadian Space Agency, in cooperation with UM/CSTARS, NOAA and NASA will provide qualified scientists with free access to more than 150 images that will help them to better understand the dynamics of hurricane and typhoon genesis, morphology and movement.

Okmok volcano is situated on oceanic crust in the central Aleutian arc and experienced large (~15 km³) caldera-forming eruptions at ~12 000 years bp and 2050 years bp. Each caldera-forming eruption began with a small Plinian rhyodacite event followed by the emplacement of a dominantly andesitic ash-flow unit, whereas effusive inter- and post-caldera lavas have been more basaltic. Phenocryst assemblages are composed of olivine + pyroxene + plagioclase ± Fe–Ti oxides and indicate crystallization at 1000–1100°C at 0·1–0·2 GPa in the presence of 0–4% H₂O. The erupted products follow a tholeiitic evolutionary trend and calculated liquid compositions range from 52 to 68 wt % SiO₂ with 0·8–3·3 wt % K₂O. Major and trace element models suggest that the more evolved magmas were produced by 50–60% in situ fractional crystallization around the margins of the shallow magma chamber. Oxygen and strontium isotope data (¹⁸O 4·4–4·9, ⁸⁷Sr/ ⁸⁶Sr 0·7032–0·7034) indicate interaction with a hydrothermally altered crustal component, which led to elevated thorium isotope ratios in some caldera-forming magmas. This compromises the use of uranium–thorium disequilibria [(²³⁰Th/ ²³⁸U) = 0·849–0·964] to constrain the time scales of magma differentiation but instead suggests that the age of the hydrothermal system is ~100 ka. Modelling of the diffusion of strontium in plagioclase indicates that many evolved crystal rims formed less than 200 years prior to eruption. This addition of rim material probably reflects the remobilization of crystals from the chamber margins following replenishment. Basaltic recharge led to the expansion of the magma chamber, which was responsible for the most recent caldera-forming event.

Widespread bodies of garnet–spinel metaperidotites with pyroxenitic layers occur in the ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic Kimi Complex. In this study we address the origin of such peridotite–pyroxenite associations in the context of polybaric melting regimes. We conduct a detailed geochemical investigation of major and trace element relations and compare them with a range of major element modelling scenarios. With increasing bulk-rock MgO content, the garnet–spinel metaperidotites exhibit decreasing CaO, Al₂O₃, TiO₂, and Na₂O along with increasing Ni and a gradually increasing Zr/Zr* anomaly, consistent with an origin as residues after variable degrees of melt extraction. The major element modelling further suggests a polybaric adiabatic decompression melting regime beginning at high to ultrahigh pressure, with an intermediate character between pure batch and fractional melting and a mean extent of melting of 9–11%. The pyroxenites exhibit major element compositions that cannot be reproduced by experimental or calculated melts of peridotite. Moreover, the Kimi pyroxenites have highly variable Ni and Sc contents and a wide range of Mg-number (0· 76–0· 89), inconsistent with an origin as frozen melts or the products of melt–peridotite interaction. However, both the major element systematics and the observed rare earth element patterns, with both convex and concave shapes, can be explained by an origin as clinopyroxene-rich, high-pressure cumulates involving garnet and/or Cr-spinel.

The Ronda orogenic peridotite (southern Spain) contains a variety of pyroxene-rich rocks ranging from high-pressure garnet granulites and pyroxenites to low-pressure plagioclase–spinel websterites. The ‘asthenospherized’ part of the Ronda peridotite contains abundant layered websterites (‘group C’ pyroxenites), without significant deformation, that occur as swarms of layers showing gradual modal transitions towards their host peridotites. Previous studies have suggested that these layered pyroxenites formed by the replacement of refractory spinel peridotites. Here, we present a major- and trace-element, and numerical modelling study of a layered outcrop of group C pyroxenite near the locality of Tolox aimed at constraining the origin of these pyroxenites after host peridotites by pervasive pyroxene-producing, refertilization melt–rock reactions. Mg-number [= Mg/(Mg + Fe) cationic ratio] numerical modelling shows that decreasing Mg-number with increasing pyroxene proportion, characteristic of Ronda group C pyroxenites, can be accounted for by a melt-consuming reaction resulting in the formation of mildly evolved, relatively low Mg-number melts (~0·65) provided that the melt fraction during reaction and the time-integrated melt/rock ratio are high enough (>0·1 and > 1, respectively) to balance Mg–Fe buffering by peridotite minerals. This implies strong melt focusing caused by melt channelling in high-porosity domains resulting from compaction processes in a partial melted lithospheric domain below a solidus isotherm represented by the Ronda peridotite recrystallization front. The chondrite-normalized rare earth element (REE) patterns of group C whole-rocks and clinopyroxenes are convex-upward. Numerical modeling of REE variations in clinopyroxene produced by a pyroxene-forming, melt-consuming reaction results in curved trajectories in the (Ce/Nd)_N vs (Sm/Yb)_N diagram (where N indicates chondrite normalized). Based on (Ce/Nd)_N values, two transient, enriched domains between the light REE (LREE)-depleted composition of the initial peridotite and that of the infiltrated melt may be distinguished in the reaction column: (1) a lower domain characterized by convex-upward REE patterns similar to those observed in Ronda group C pyroxenite–peridotite; (2) an upper domain characterized by melts with strongly LREE-enriched compositions. The latter are probably volatile-rich, small-volume melt fractions residual after the refertilization reactions that generated group C pyroxenites, which migrated throughout the massif—including the unmelted lithospheric spinel-tectonite domain. The Ronda mantle domains affected by pyroxenite- and dunite- or harzburgite-forming reactions (the ‘layered granular’ subdomain and ‘plagioclase-tectonite’ domain) are on average more fertile than the residual, ‘coarse granular’ subdomain at the recrystallization front. This indicates that refertilization traces the moving boundaries of receding cooling of a thinned and partially melted subcontinental lithosphere. This refertilization process may be widespread during transient thinning and melting of depleted subcontinental lithospheric mantle above upwelling asthenospheric mantle.

Overlapping subduction of the Pacific and Philippines Sea plates leads to an enhanced fluid flux to the mantle source of arc volcanoes in central Japan. Spatial variability in the amount of fluid that each plate contributes is determined by the configuration of the subducting plates.

Stunning images of fjords are familiar to geologists, but their origins are less well known. A simple model suggests that topographic steering of ice and erosion proportional to ice discharge are sufficient to explain fjord formation during the Quaternary period.

Fjords line mountainous continental margins where icesheets and glaciers once stood. A two-dimensional model simulation suggests that fjords can be eroded within one million years, primarily in response to topographic ice steering and erosion from ice discharge. Subsequent glaciers that form on these landscapes are smaller and exhibit greater responses to climate change.

Reconstructions of palaeosecular variation suggest that the Earth’s magnetic field reversed less frequently 2.82 to 2.45 billion years ago, relative to the Cenozoic era. This suggests a long-term trend of decreasing geodynamo stability since the Archaean eon.