GM crops that resist herbicides are bringing ever higher levels of toxic chemical residues to our food, even mothers’ milk, writes Pat Thomas. As the ‘endocrine disrupting’ effects take place at minute concentrations, there is only one answer – to keep the herbicides off all food crops. If it is accumulating in breastmilk not only…

On the heels of the administration’s release of the Third National Climate Assessment report, President Barack Obama today announced an array of executive actions and public and private sector commitments to increase solar installations and energy efficiency improvements, strengthen energy efficiency standards, and bolster the solar industry workforce. The actions and pledges that Obama laid…

As the climate continues to change, the polar bear’s range moves south as the planet continues to warm. This means that we should expect more human encounters with the polar bear. This can be a problem for scientists working in these regions. Enter the Canadian bear expert, Andy McMullen, a Canadian 35 year veteran who…

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is added seven hazardous waste sites to the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites. They include two facilities in York, NE and single facilities in Norphlet, AK; Windham, ME; Fairfield, NJ; Ridgewood, NY and Collierville, TN. Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most…

Reducing air pollution in New York City would result in substantial gains in the lifetime earnings of the future generation by as much as $215 million as a result of increasing their IQs, according to new research.

Red tide poisoning is an aquatic phenomenon caused by a rapid increase/accumulation in the water column of reddish colored algal bloom (large concentrations of aquatic microorganisms) comprising a few species of toxic dinoflagellates. Forecasting the phenomenon has been critical for coastal communities. This year though, WHOI is introducing a new tool called Environmental Sample Processors…

Thousands of shipping containers are lost from cargo vessels each year. Many of these containers eventually sink to the deep seafloor. In 2004, scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) discovered a lost shipping container almost 1,300 meters (4,200 feet) below the surface of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. In the first-ever…

The climate change debate continues. Are anthropogenic causes of global warming responsible for melting ice and rising seas or are natural cycles and climate variations to blame? There’s no question that Greenland’s glaciers are in fact melting. And while the obvious culprit may be global warming caused by rising carbon dioxide emissions, University of Washington…

How did the evolution of the dinosaur claw evolve into the current bird form? A new University of Bristol study into the claws of a group of theropod dinosaurs, known as therizinosaurs, has revealed a great versatility in their usage. Theropod dinosaurs, a group that includes such famous species as Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptor, are…

The U.S. federal government is the nation’s largest consumer and disposer of electronics. Considering the number of federal employees—about 2.7 million at last count, not including the military or courts—U.S. government employees contribute a massive portion to the approximate 2.4 million tons of electronic waste, or e-waste, that is discarded annually. Not only are those…