Bits of glass called Hiroshimaites may have formed by processes similar to those that formed the Sun and the planets.
isotopes
Posted inEditors' Highlights
What Happens to Nutrients After They Leave Agricultural Fields?
To better quantify the fate of nutrients after they are released from agricultural fields, scientists examine storage and nitrate export regimes in agricultural hydrology systems.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Metals Could Reveal Corals’ Past Lives
Examining the role of stable metal isotopes in biological activities such as photosynthesis provides a promising new avenue of research into how coral responds to environmental stressors.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
How Nutrients Get Back Up to the Surface Ocean
A new dual isotope tracer technique is used to assess the role of a number of poorly understood nutrient supply mechanisms fueling biological productivity in the ocean.
Posted inNews
Looking for Climate Clues in China’s Great Wall
Looking for Climate Clues in China’s Great Wall
In northwestern China, desert conditions have preserved the farthest reaches of the Great Wall. Scientists are now exploring 2,000-year-old building materials for signs of the region’s past climate.
Posted inNews
Ostrich Eggshells Trace Namaqualand’s Ancient Rain
The plant-based nitrogen eaten by ostriches and stored in their eggshells was measured by researchers 20,000 years later.
Posted inNews
Mammal Droppings Preserve Human and Climate History on the Tibetan Plateau
Geochemical signatures in sediment, which includes organic molecules from human and animal poop, help scientists track the rise and fall of the Tibetan Empire.
Posted inNews
Paleostorm Chasers Test a New Detection Tool
A method typically used to date sediments shows promise for documenting tropical storms through history—information needed for future projections of storm activity.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Barnacles Help Reconstruct Drift Path of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370
Careful calibration of isotopes in a barnacle shell growing on ocean debris – in this case an airplane part – informs a new forensic method to identify its most probable drift path.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Certaines plantes laissent une empreinte digitale chimique sur un gaz qui appauvrit la couche d’ozone
Une nouvelle étude, la première dans son genre, suggère qu’il serait possible de recourir à une analyse isotopique pour localiser les sources et les puits de chlorométhane dans l’atmosphère.