ENVIRO AONE

A new study finds that piles of sand grains, even when undisturbed, are in constant motion. These experimental results challenge existing theories in both geology and physics about how soils and other types of disordered materials behave. Most people only become aware of soil movement on hillsides when soil suddenly loses its rigidity, a phenomenon…

You can learn a lot about animals by simply watching them. But some secrets can only be revealed in the dark … with an ultraviolet flashlight. This happens to be the case for pocket gophers, small rodents that live underground in sandy soil. A new paper by University of Georgia researchers found that these feisty,…

Since the famous discovery of dinosaur eggs in the Gobi Desert in the early 1920s, the fossilized remains have captured the imaginations of paleontologists and the public, alike. Although dinosaur eggs have now been found on every continent, it’s not always clear to scientists which species laid them. Now, researchers have narrowed down the list…

Fossil animal droppings, charcoal from ancient fires and bone fragments litter the ground of one of the world’s most important human evolution sites, new research reveals. A team of scientists have used modern geoarchaeological techniques to unearth new details of day-to-day life in the famous Denisova Cave complex in Siberia’s Altai Mountains. The latest evidence…

A new study by geoscientists and climatologists provides evidence that summer monsoons from Asia and Africa may have reached into the Middle East for periods of time going back at least 125,000 years, providing suitable corridors for human migration. The finding suggested that modern humans, who originated in Africa, began migrating out of the continent…

Anthropogenic ammonia emissions and the water content matter more than dry particle composition for the acidity of atmospheric aerosols in populated regions. A large fraction of particulate matter consists of nitrate, sulfate, and ammonium ions. The formation of these major aerosol components is strongly influenced by aerosol acidity, which varies widely between different regions with…

New research has demonstrated a clear fluctuation in the trade of wildmeat in and around the High Niger National Park in Guinea, West Africa. Conservationists found a significant increase in the trading of species that forage on crops including the green monkey (Chlorocebus sabaeus) and warthog (Phacochoerus africanus), in comparison with earlier data, in spite…