health sciences Hooked, genetically Researchers of the University of Michigan, usa, have cracked the genetic secrets of nicotine addiction. Whether or not one gets hooked to smoking is dependent on a particular variant of a gene

Richard Morgan
Toolik Field Station (Alaska):

As Anne Giblin was lugging fourfoot tubes of Arctic lakebed mud from her inflatable raft to her nearby lab this summer, she said,

Paris: Climate change could release unexpectedly huge stores of carbon dioxide from Arctic soils, which would in turn fuel a vicious circle of global warming, a new study warned on Sunday.

And according to one commentary, current models of climate change have not taken this extra source of greenhouse gas into account. Scientists have long known that organic carbon trapped inside a blanket of frozen permafrost covering one fifth of the world's land mass would, if thawed, release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Andrew C. Revkin

Scientists studying variations in tropical heat and rainfall since the mid-1980s have found a strong link between warm periods and more extreme downpours.

The observed rise in the heaviest rains is about twice that produced by computer simulations used to assess human-caused global warming, said the researchers.

Other studies have already measured a rise in heavy rains in areas as varied as North America and India, and climatologists have long forecast more heavy rains in a world warmed by accumulating greenhouse gases.

PATHSALA, June 30