US throws support behind treaty to curb plastic

The United States on Thursday threw its support behind negotiations on a treaty to curb plastic pollution, ending a key holdup in international efforts to clean up the planet's oceans and save marine life.

How oxygen-producing cyanobacteria facilitated complex life

The "Great Oxygenation Event" (GOE), the process whereby the Earth's atmosphere was continuously enriched with oxygen, a waste product of photosynthesis, began ~2.43 billion years ago. The source, according to science, was ...

Healthy oceans need healthy soundscapes

Rain falls lightly on the ocean's surface. Marine mammals chirp and squeal as they swim along. The pounding of surf along a distant shoreline heaves and thumps with metronomic regularity. These are the sounds that most of ...

Ocean acidification locks algal communities in a simplified state

Out with the old, in with the new, as the New Year's saying goes, but not where the marine environment is concerned. Researchers from Japan have discovered that ocean acidification keeps algal communities locked in a simplified ...

Plastic is blowing in the wind

As the plastic in our oceans breaks up into smaller and smaller bits without breaking down chemically, the resulting microplastics are becoming a serious ecological problem. A new study at the Weizmann Institute of Science ...

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