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U.S. minority infants are born carrying hundreds of chemicals in their bodies, according to a report released today by an environmental group. The Environmental Working Group’s study commissioned five laboratories to examine the umbilical cord blood of 10 babies of African-American, Hispanic and Asian heritage and found more than 200 chemicals in each newborn. “We know the developing fetus is one of the most vulnerable populations, if not the most vulnerable, to environmental exposure,” said Anila Jacobs, EWG senior scientist....

In case you haven’t heard, Washington, D.C., and other parts of the Mid-Atlantic region, are about to get walloped by a major storm that could bury the city in a record-breaking amount of snow. The storm is expected to bring snows that could top 2 feet in the D.C. area and has already resulted in thousands of cancelled flights. While snows may not be quite as impressive further north, the storm’s fierce winds could whip up significant coastal flooding....

By German Medrano SAN JOSE DEL CABO (Reuters) - Thousands of tourists were stranded in the storm-battered Mexican Pacific resort of Los Cabos on Thursday, with water in short supply and looted stores sitting empty as a new hurricane threatened to buffet the popular tourist hub. Odile churned into the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula on Sunday as a Category 3 hurricane, wreaking havoc on a scenic area popular with U....

In a world where wildlife is threatened like never before in human history, the conservationist’s mission seems clear: work to stop wildlife from going extinct, and to recover populations that have declined to the brink of extinction. In general, protecting wildlife means reducing a species’ mortality by mitigating or eliminating threats. This has often been as simple as shielding or restoring a key habitat, or removing a non-native species that competes for resources....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Coffin Texts (c. 2134-2040 BCE) are 1,185 spells, incantations, and other forms of religious writing inscribed on coffins to help the deceased navigate the afterlife. They include the text known as the Book of Two Ways which is the first example of cosmography in ancient Egypt, providing maps of the afterlife and the best way to avoid dangers on one’s way to paradise....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The railways were perhaps the most visible element of the Industrial Revolution for many. Trains powered by steam engines carried goods and people faster than ever before and reached new destinations, connecting businesses to new markets. There were also unfortunate consequences such as the decline in traditional transport like canal boats and stagecoaches, and the impact on unspoilt countryside....

Hydrologists and forest managers warned for over a year that severe burns in the Colorado Rockies have left the region vulnerable to flooding. A week ago, those warnings materialized with devastating effect. Monsoonal rains came hard and fast to the Pike National Forest last week, dumping water down the burn scar left by the Waldo Canyon fire a year ago. Churning up soil and debris along the denuded slope, the flow formed a flash flood that swept through the small town of Manitou Springs, about 6 and a half miles west of Colorado Springs at the foot of Pikes Peak....

Apple today debuted its new très trim MacBook Air that is not only thin enough to slip inside a manila envelope but was made without many of the environmentally harmful chemical compounds used in older PCs. Environmental activist organization Greenpeace just months ago criticized Apple for using bromine—whose vapors are toxic when inhaled—in its hugely popular iPhone. But the company now appears to be making good on its earlier promise that all new products would be free from brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a chlorinated plastic, by the end of this year....

Australian IT specialist Terry Lovejoy moonlights as an amateur astronomer with five comet discoveries under his belt. His latest find, Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy), is currently approaching the sun, making it visible for the next few days to naked-eye observers in the Northern Hemisphere with clear skies in the early evening. The comet has gained social media fame, with eager stargazers around the world seeking it out. The attention has surprised Lovejoy, whose earlier discoveries didn’t get near as much attention....

For a century workers flocked to Dubuque, Iowa, as they raised new generations of laborers, they built houses, shops and streets that eventually covered over the Bee Branch Creek. The water gurgled through underground pipes out of sight and largely out of memory. Until the rains came. On May 16, 1999, 5.6 inches of rain fell in 24 hours. The creek pipes and storm sewers overflowed, blowing out manhole covers and turning streets into chest-deep raging rivers....

Malaria parasites are masters of disguise; they evade the immune system by constantly switching a protein used to avoid destruction in the spleen. Each parasite possesses a family of some 60 genes that encode this protein, only one of which is active at any time. Understanding how the parasites switch between these genes could lead to drugs that simulta-neously activate all of them at once and thereby help the body seek and destroy malaria....

In the celebrated Claymation series Wallace and Gromit, loyal dog Gromit is silent yet highly expressive, often making his thoughts known with pronounced eyebrow movements. Although they are exaggerated on the clay pup for comedic effect, any real dog’s owner will confirm these animals do seem to have highly communicative faces. A pooch’s raised eyebrows and tilted head suggest meaning to humans, and widened “puppy dog eyes” endear our pets to us....

By Janice Neumann (Reuters Health) - Kids in New York City public schools drank water nearly three times more often after dispensers of cool, fresh tap water were conveniently placed near their lunch lines, researchers found. “The water jets definitely made it easier to get water,” said Brian Elbel, lead author of the study, in an e-mail to Reuters Health. “It was in a convenient place and could be ‘fun’ for younger kids, given that you generally got to fill your cup yourself,” Elbel said....

A stiff wind blows year-round in North Dakota. In Arizona the sun beats down virtually every day. The U.S. has vast quantities of renewable electricity sources waiting to be tapped in these regions, but what it does not have there are power lines—big power lines that can carry the bountiful energy to distant cities and industries where it is needed. The same is true beyond the windswept high plains and the sun-baked Mojave Desert: renewable supply and electricity demand are seldom in the same place, and too often the transmission lines needed to connect them are missing....

Who is more likely to lie, cheat, and steal—the poor person or the rich one? It’s temping to think that the wealthier you are, the more likely you are to act fairly. After all, if you already have enough for yourself, it’s easier to think about what others may need. But research suggests the opposite is true: as people climb the social ladder, their compassionate feelings towards other people decline....

Dear EarthTalk: I recently got my car detailed at a local place and then gasped at the chemical fumes when I got inside. Are there green detailers out there, or products that I could use myself to keep my vehicle clean and my family out of harm’s way? —David Berkowitz, Newton, Mass. Traditionally, auto detailing has employed a range of not-so-green-friendly products such as ammonia, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nonphenolethoxolates (NPEs), abrasive detergents, and chemical-based leather, vinyl, fabric and carpet treatments....

A haunting melody can change your mood in just a few notes. New evidence suggests it is the distance between notes that determines how they make us feel—and that characteristic may have evolved from the way we use our voice. Daniel Bowling, a cognitive neuroscientist at Duke University, analyzed the intervals, or distances between notes, in melodies from Western classical music and Indian ragas in a study published in March in PLoS ONE....

Optical illusions that fool most people don’t seem to trick those who suffer from schizophrenia, concludes a study published in the latest issue of Current Biology. The success may actually be linked to a weakness in a brain mechanism called contextual processing, which is responsible for picking out relevant sensory information from the barrage of stimuli a person constantly experiences. If that’s the case, it may explain why some schizophrenics misunderstand other people’s actions in the context of a situation or feel paranoia or persecution....

Two of the most sacred numbers in the electric-vehicle industry are 300 miles and $100. The first is generally considered to be the distance electric cars need to travel on a single charge for Americans to take them seriously. The second is the cost, per kilowatt-hour, to which batteries need to drop before EVs can compete with gas-powered cars on sticker price. Sakti3, a Michigan startup that auto-industry insiders have been whispering about for years, says it might soon hit those two sacred targets....

Climate change is “unequivocal” and it is 90 percent certain that the “net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming,” the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) —a panel of more than 2,500 scientists and other experts—wrote in its first report on the physical science of global warming earlier this year. In its second assessment, the IPCC stated that human-induced warming is having a discernible influence on the planet, from species migration to thawing permafrost....