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Earth & the Environment
Robotics
Health & Medicine
Extreme Machines
Research
Worst-Case Scenarios
Science
Featured Story
Ocean Drilling: How the Past Can Provide Clues to our Planet's Future Climate
On a remote patch of ocean, the crew of the research ship JOIDES Resolution have lowered a massive drill bit through 3 miles of pipe to the seafloor below. Scientists hope to learn how the Earth responded to climate change 50 million years ago.
Previous Earth & the Environment Stories
| Redoubt Volcano's Eruption Could Threaten Alaskan Air Cargo Hub Redoubt Volcano has erupted five times in the last couple days. 20 years ago, KLM flight 867 made an emergency landing after encountering Redoubt's ash—this time volcanologists were working before the eruptions to prevent flight interference.
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| Can Fish Teach us to Make Hydropower in Calm Waters? Most hydropower turbines require water to be flowing at a 5-knot minimum. But now, scientists are borrowing from fish to create energy in slow-moving water. (Published in the April 2009 issue)
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| Predicting Earthquakes: Scientists Use Satellites and Drills to Follow a Force of Nature Earthquakes—seismic waves that can snap steel like a twig—are something geologists still struggle to understand. To better predict these disasters, scientists are drilling miles into Earth’s surface and training GPS satellites at rock.
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| Plumbing the Planet: The 5 Biggest Projects Taking on the World's Water Supply As nations and regions all over the globe face polluted water and too little fresh water, they are turning to some of the largest, most complex projects the world has ever seen. Here, we have compiled five of the biggest and most ambitious.
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| Scientists Use Massive Crane to Study Troubled Forests From Above Forests in the Western U.S. are dying at an increasing rate, thanks to warmer temperatures that put added stresses on trees. One lab is trying to save them with a high-tech research station that swings through the treetops.
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| What's the Future of Recycling After the Market's Precipitous Plunge? For much of this decade, the value of recycled goods climbed steadily, reaching record highs in mid 2008. But when the American economy collapsed, demand for recyclables withered. When will recycling bounce back?
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| Trees to Power Their own Wildfire Sensors MIT researchers have discovered that trees carry a (small) charge. Now, green energy takes on new meaning with wildfire sensors powered by the woody plants themselves. Here's how it works.
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| U.N. Puts Greenhouse-Free Clean Coal on the Back Burner Negotiators met this week for the United Nations Climate Change Conference to discuss what to do to reduce climate change after the Kyoto Protocol expires.
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| Can Offshore Grids Solve Our Wind Power Woes? The race is on for offshore wind power. The U.S. Department of Energy says that wind power, including offshore wind farms, could account for up to 20 percent of America's electricity generation by 2030.
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| How to Save and Purify the World's Water Supply: Experts Weigh In Four water experts came to the Hearst Tower in New York City to discuss how the country can deal with the water crisis, why global warming will exacerbate the problem and what will happen if we do nothing.
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| View Full Science: Earth & the Environment Archive | ||
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