Word: layered
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Spills are usually almost two-dimensional in their initial stage: the oil remains in a layer on the surface in one location. It spreads out slowly and sinks only gradually. But in the churning sea off the Shetlands, the spill quickly became three-dimensional and spread rapidly over a wide area -- at which point, some scientists argue, the concentration of oil is no longer dangerously high. The sea contains bacteria and other microbes that will naturally break down the oil droplets until they are eventually reduced to little more than carbon dioxide and water...
Trichloroethane is widely used as a cleanser in microchip manufacturing. Unfortunately, it also attacks the planet's ozone layer, so chipmakers are looking for a substitute. Now AT&T may have one in N-butyl butyrate, a chemical found in, of all things, cantaloupes, peaches and plums. In fruit, it contributes to overall flavor; in the atmosphere, it should help reduce mankind's siege of the ozone layer, in turn relieving the onslaught of cancer- and cataract-causing ultraviolet light...
...earth's protective ozone layer is vanishing even faster than predicted. That warning from scientists has led 93 nations to agree to speed up phasing out use of chemicals that destroy the atmospheric shield. Updating the timetable known as the Montreal Protocol, delegates at a United Nations conference in Copenhagen moved up elimination of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and carbon tetrachloride to 1996, four years ahead of schedule. Halons and methyl chloroform will be banned earlier too, in 1994 and 1996, respectively. Researchers forecast more skin cancer as the ozone layer disappears...
...Princeton, there's just layer after layer of administration," said Mary Q. Wieland, a former president of the union that represents Princeton library workers. "You don't really have any contact with the higher levels...
...real question today is whether progress has built-in limits. Environmentalists argue that the earth will not support indefinite economic expansion along the old lines. Reports of global warming, damage to the ozone layer and long-term atmospheric shifts caused by deforestation raise further doubts about unlimited growth. Even though much of this evidence remains controversial, it has already transformed the debate about progress. For the first time we find ourselves asking not whether endless progress is desirable but whether it is even possible, as we have known it in the past...