Feature Article

Pollen data suggest that the Greenland ice sheet was much smaller during previous warm periods.

The nonpartisan Heinz Center this week issued a comprehensive update on the health of U.S. ecosystems--along with a plea for the U.S. government to coordinate and fund future assessments.

Wildlife and environmental groups are opposing the construction of the world's largest tidal power scheme on grounds that it will damage a unique ecosystem and that it will cost too much.

Here the authors present results of the first multi-decadal experiment to examine the impacts of chronic, experimental nitrogen addition above ambient atmospheric nitrogen deposition. This total input rate is comparable to terrestrial nitrogen deposition in many industrialized nations. The researchers found that this chronic low-level nitrogen addition rate reduced plant species numbers by 17% relative to controls receiving ambient N deposition.

Here the authors report improved estimates of near-global ocean heat content and thermal expansion for the upper 300m and 700m of the ocean for 1950

On 5 June 2008, an authorized, small-scale field trial of transgenic potato plants for nematode control was destroyed by people seeking to coerce government and society. It was one of only two trials authorized in the United Kingdom this year. Our concern is that Directive 2001/18/EC, the European Union (EU) legislation that governs such trials, is confused. (Correspondence)

Two chemicals widely used in cleaning agents for homes, offices and hospitals cause birth defects and fertility problems in mice whose cages have been in contact with them, according to Patricia Hunt at Washington State University in Pullman. The quaternary ammonium compounds ADBAC (n-alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride) and DDAC (didecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride) were identified after an exhaustive search for what was causing a massive drop-off in mouse fertility after Hunt moved her research animals to Pullman from Case Western Reserve Medical School in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2005.

A renewed push for scientific research into weather-modification technologies is long overdue. (Editorial)

Twenty-five-year population trends of 42 bird species rare as breeders in the UK were
examined in relation to changes in climatic suitability simulated using climatic envelope models. The effects of a series of potential

Noble metals and Cu mainly are recycled in treating waste printed circuit boards (PCBs), and a large amount of nonmetallic materials in PCBs are disposed of by combustion or landfill, which may cause secondary pollution and resource-wasting. In this study, a kind of nonmetallic plate (NMP) has been produced by nonmetallic materials of pulverized waste PCBs. The NMP is produced by a self-made hot-press former through adding resin paste as a bonding agent.