Blogging has been a little light recently (apologies!), but here are a few pieces that have caught our eye this week. First up, the Columbia Journalism Review has a two-parter on journalistic coverage of climate change inspired by comments from Jeff Huggins on the Andy Revkin's Dot Earth blog. The key issues CJR addresses [...]

Eroded gullies on the flanks of Martian craters may have been formed by snowmelt as recently as a few hundred thousand years ago and in sites once occupied by glaciers. Similar conditions can be found in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys. Rather than being a dead planet, the new data are consistent with dynamic climate changes on Mars.

The greatest challenge in paper recycling is removal of polymeric ink and coating; and the most difficult paper is mixed office wastepaper. Traditional de-inking processes involve large quantities of chemicals which are expensive and unfriendly to the environment. A better alternative would be a technology that involves biological intervention.

From June 17-19, 2007, Kilauea experienced a new dike intrusion, where magma rapidly moved from a storage reservoir beneath the summit into the east rift zone and extended the rift zone by as much as 1 meter.

A new NOAA report on the health of Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary indicates that the overall condition of the sanctuary's marine life and habitats is fair. The report also identifies several emerging threats to sanctuary resources, including non-indigenous marine species, overfishing, waterborne chemicals from human coastal activities, and increased recreational use of the site.

Grain storage bins are routinely monitored for temperature to control insect and mold problems. Now an scientists have preliminary research findings showing that monitoring carbon dioxide -- along with humidity and temperature -- also may help detect problems more effectively.

At about this time next year, nearly all of the 2,800 wild, rare and domesticated grapes in a unique northern California genebank will have had their "genetic profile" or "fingerprint" taken.

Nine Baltic sea states all scored failing grades in an annual WWF evaluation of their performance in protecting and restoring the world's most damaged sea.

Scientists are set to explore the world's deepest undersea volcanoes and find out what lives in a 'lost world' five kilometres beneath the Caribbean.