More than half a dozen oceanographic buoys are missing in action in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has dispatched a ship to fix the malfunctioning buoys, which are part of the 55-strong Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) array that monitors the ocean and
atmosphere.
Antarctic ice cores can be used to reconstruct atmospheric CO2 concentrations, revealing significant changes during the Holocene epoch which started 11,000 years ago. Here, a highly resolved delta13C record is presented for the past 11,000 years from measurements on atmospheric CO2 trapped in an Antarctic ice core.
Papers suggesting that biotech crops might harm the environment attract a hail of abuse from other scientists. Emily Waltz asks if the critics fight fair.
Temperature reconstructions for the surface of the Northern Hemisphere are based largely on terrestrial records from extra-tropical or high-elevation sites, despite the fact that global average surface temperature changes closely follow those of the global tropics, which are 75 per cent ocean.
Nanoparticles have been blamed for two deaths at a Chinese factory, in a report that claims to be the first to document human disease caused by the particles.
When subject to flooding, deepwater rice survives by shooting up in height. Knowledge of the genetic context of this and other responses to inundation will be a boon in enhancing rice productivity.
