Scientists used the chemistry of stone artifacts to trace human migration in the Pacific, revealing evidence of long voyages and cultural exchange.
geochemistry
Posted inNews
Fingerprinting Wood to Curb Illegal Deforestation
Researchers developed a new forensic tool for tracing the origins of timber that could enable enforcement of antideforestation legislation in the European Union.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Machine Learning Helps Constrain the Thickness of Ancient Crust
A machine learning model trained using data on the chemical composition of magmatic rocks yields comparable, if not better, results to previously developed geochemical proxies.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
A New Origin Story for Mars’s Burns Formation
The Red Planet’s Grasberg and Burns formations have different compositions today, but they may have started out the same way.
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Wildfire Smoke Destroys Ozone
Smoke aerosols from large wildfires are the perfect reaction surface for chlorine chemicals, speeding their transformation from ozone-friendly forms to reactive ones.
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Hydrogen May Push Some Exoplanets off a Cliff
High-pressure reactions of hydrogen and iron could explain gaps in the distribution of exoplanets.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
A New Approach to Spinning-Up Passive Tracers in Ocean Models
A new computational method enables finding steady-state distributions of tracers in ocean circulation models, opening opportunities for physical and biogeochemical insight.
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Silicate Weathering Throttles the Global Thermostat
The natural breakdown of some rocks sucks carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Knowing how quickly it happens could help scientists engineer solutions to the climate crisis.
Posted inNews
A Tiny New Device Could Help Find Extraterrestrial Life
Researchers developed a mini analyzer that could be a giant step forward in the search for life and habitable environments beyond Earth.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
What Electrons Can Tell Us About the Speed of Sand
A new sediment tracer uses the interactions between radiation, charge, and the Sun to uncover the hidden transport histories of sand grains.