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By Jeff Tollefson

The state of California is about to become a giant playground for more than 200 atmospheric scientists. [More]

An experiment looking for the signal of dark matter deep in an underground lab in Italy turned up no candidate signals in 11 days of early operation, the experimental collaboration reported in a paper posted online Monday . The underground detector, called XENON100, only recently began taking data but is already challenging prior claims and hints of dark matter signals, according to the team, which published its findings on the physics preprint repository arXiv.org . [More]

By Matthew Bigg

VENICE, Louisiana (Reuters) - Workers toiled above and below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday to plug a gushing oil leak and protect the U.S. shoreline in one of the biggest spill containment efforts ever mounted.

Dear EarthTalk: Are there any health hazards associated with the use of the new silicone bake ware and cooking utensils?  I have found information associated with the hazards/benefits of Teflon and other cookware but nothing on the use of silicone. --Jean McCarthy, Sebastian, Fla.

For hobbyists like Colette Theriault, a photographer who lives in Ontario, orchids are an addiction. Theriault bought her first Phalaenopsis in 1999 and nurtured it for three years before it bloomed its first pink flowers. The success led to more, until she had 25 orchids crowding her windowsills. In March she discovered yellow spots on the leaves of her collection--a telltale sign of a virus, like those plaguing the orchid industry.   [More]

Climate change has made nights warmer in India over the past decade, an ominous sign for the nation's vital rice crop.

This development could have a far-reaching impact on the yield of rice, causing a shortfall in an important staple crop in a crowded country already grappling with food security and inflationary issues, said Krishna Kumar Kanikicharla, a scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune, India.

When accidents happen, doctors typically rely on sutures, staples or adhesives to fix the damage. These approaches work, of course, but they tend to cause inflammation in the surrounding tissue and leave scars long after a wound has healed. Researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital Wellman Center for Photomedicine have recently completed a study they hope will shine some light on this problem--laser light, that is. [More]