Profiles of sulphate fluxes over the past 300,000 years from an Antarctic ice core show that, whereas the flux of sulphate-adhered dust has remained almost constant, that of sulphate salts correlates inversely with temperature, suggesting a coupling between particulate sulphur and temperature.

Volcanic records of the reversals of the geomagnetic field can be well matched under the assumption of a common reversal duration, and imply that the reversal process comprises three phases—a precursor, a fast polarity switch and a rebound—the properties of which have remained unchanged for about 180 million years.

As it develops from a single-celled zygote to a mature plant embryo, the thale cress Arabidopsis thaliana passes through a stage during which phylogenetically very ancient genes are preferentially expressed, showing that animals and plants have independently acquired the developmental hourglass as a similar way of managing gene expression as they pass through embryogenesis, even though their morphological development is very different.