Rapa Nui and Hawai‘i offer a tale of two island settlements: Hawai‘i was close enough to Asia for continental dust to help replenish soil nutrients depleted by agriculture. Rapa Nui wasn’t.
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WAMPUM: An Indigenous-Designed Path to Sea Level Rise Adaptation
Northeastern and mid-Atlantic tribal nations lived sustainably on the coastline for centuries before colonization. How can their experiences inform strategies for sea level rise adaptation?
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Tracking Pollution in the Breeze, with Trees
New research outlines how pine needles offer a simple, low-cost means of assessing particulate matter pollution.
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Crowdsourced Science Helps Map Vancouver’s “Smellscape”
Exposure to stinky odors can affect human health, but quantifying smells can be difficult.
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Bright Lights, Big Cities Attract Migratory Birds
The first stopover site map for U.S. migratory birds reveals the attraction of urban light pollution.
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Earthquakes Ripple Through 3D Printed Models of Los Angeles
Using stainless steel models, researchers find that high-frequency seismic waves—the most damaging to buildings—are attenuated in the Los Angeles sedimentary basin.
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The “Green Sahara” Left Behind Fossil Rivers
Reconstruction reveals how people living along the banks of the Nile may have relocated as climate changed and flooding increased during the African Humid Period.
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Asteroid May Be a Chip off the Old Moon
Spectral data suggest that Kamo‘oalewa, a near-Earth asteroid, has a composition similar to lunar rocks.
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Scientists Plan a Home Away from Home for Mars Samples
The core tubes being collected by the Perseverance rover won’t arrive for years, but NASA and the European Space Agency are outlining needs for a facility to assess their safety and store and distribute them.
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A New Technique Could Identify Algae from Space
Some types of algal blooms produce dangerous toxins, while others are relatively harmless to humans.