Scientists have known for a long time that aerosols cool climate by reflecting sunlight and making clouds brighter, but the new study is the first to use a global model to estimate the net effects on plant carbon intake resulting from this type of atmospheric pollution.

CNN: Study: Pollution helps plants absorb C02

But it has inspired other schemes, including a Stanford University study of how protein chains fold in on themselves and a global weather-forecasting model at the Rutherford Appleton Lab in Britain.

FORBES: Sharing Power