Carbon monoxide detectors could warn of extraterrestrial life

Carbon monoxide detectors in our homes warn of a dangerous buildup of that colorless, odorless gas we normally associate with death. Astronomers, too, have generally assumed that a build-up of carbon monoxide in a planet's ...

Tropical forests are fertilized by air pollution

Scientists braved ticks and a tiger to discover how human activities have perturbed the nitrogen cycle in tropical forests. Studies at two remote Smithsonian Institution Global Earth Observatory sites in Panama and Thailand ...

Prototype generators emit much less carbon monoxide

Portable electric generators retrofitted with off-the-shelf hardware by the University of Alabama (UA) emitted significantly lower levels of carbon monoxide (CO) exhaust, according to the results* of tests conducted by the ...

The good side of carbon monoxide

Most people think of carbon monoxide as harmful, and with good reason—the colorless, odorless gas sends 50,000 people in the U.S. to hospitals each year when their furnaces malfunction or car engines run in poorly ventilated ...