The action of warm air rising and cold air sinking plays a key role in the formation of severe thunderstorms. if the warm surface
air is forced to rise, it will continue to rise, because it is less dense than the surrounding air. in addition, it will transfer heat from
the land surface to upper levels of the atmosphere through the process of

Viruses are different from bacteria in that they can remain dormant on non-living surfaces they can be found just about anywhere they can infect just about every form of life

Recent research by marine biologists suggests that bottlenose dolphins have names for themselves. scientists played sounds they had identified as the names of particular dolphins, putting them through a synthesizer so that they did not sound like the voices of particular dolphins. the researchers found that dolphins would respond to the names of other dolphins that they were related to or associated with, but they ignored the names of strangers. this discovery suggests a much greater degree of self-awareness in aquatic mammals than was previously suspected. if this research holds up, what does it suggest about dolphins?

Bisphenol a (often called bpa) is a chemical found in products that people use every day, from water bottles to food containers to children's toys. unfortunately, bpa leaches out of its many products and makes its way into our bodies. what are the health effects of bpa exposure? ongoing research is finding that elevated exposure to bpa can affect a wide variety of developmental and physiological processes, but one of the first studies of bpa's health effects came about because of a simple mistake in the lab. at a laboratory at case western reserve university in 1998, geneticist patricia hunt was making a routine check of her female lab mice. as she extracted and examined developing eggs from the ovaries, she began to wonder what had gone wrong. she noticed that many of the eggs showed problems with their chromosomes, and some had irregular amounts of genetic material, which can lead to miscarriages and birth defects in mammals. she learned that a lab assistant had mistakenly washed the plastic mouse cages and water bottles with a harsh soap, releasing bpa from the plastic. knowing that bpa is an endocrine disruptor, a chemical that can enter organisms and mimic hormones, hunt set out to discover whether it had adversely affected her mice.