The remaining clouds and showers that were once tropical storm Dolores are fading at sea, more than 940 miles west of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Dolores has now weakened into a remnant low pressure area but continues to kick up 11 foot high waves at sea.
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The high rate of extinction in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands is set to get worse unless urgent action is taken to protect biodiversity in the area, warn scientists.
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SPACE.com - Astronauts may have some tough jobs in orbit - like building a $100 billion International Space Station - but apparently getting a goodnight's sleep isn't one of them.
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AP - Hanqi Miao said she wanted to donate her eggs to help infertile couples reproduce, but she acknowledged the money is good, too: She said she'll be paid about $5,000.
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SPACE.com - Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour successfully deployed two sets of tiny satellites Thursday as they received word they were cleared to come home.
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In his discussion of accelerated motion on page 60 of The Meaning of Relativity, Albert Einstein made an approximation that allowed him to develop the theory of relativity further. Einstein apparently never had the opportunity to check his original approximation. Now, a University of Missouri physicist has uncovered some clues about the basis of Einstein's theories and presented a more general approximation, which may better link quantum physics with classical physics.
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We live in a hierarchical Universe where small structures join into larger ones. Earth is a planet in our Solar System, the Solar System resides in the Milky Way Galaxy, and galaxies combine into groups and clusters. Clusters are the largest structures in the Universe, but sadly our knowledge of them is not proportional to their size. Researchers have long known that the gas in the centers of some galaxy clusters is rapidly cooling and condensing, but were puzzled why this condensed gas did not form into stars. Until recently, no model existed that successfully explained how this was possible.
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How can rescue units be better protected during disaster operations or avalanche victims be found quicker? A new localization system connects satellite-based positioning systems with terrestrial locating aids and situation-dependent sensory systems.
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How can rescue units be better protected during disaster operations or avalanche victims be found quicker? A new localization system connects satellite-based positioning systems with terrestrial locating aids and situation-dependent sensory systems.
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A rapid but superior method for computerized face recognition could revolutionize security systems especially if it can see through disguises, according to research published in this month's issue of the International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications.
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When scientists take Earth's temperature, they usually use thermometers. But when scientists want to figure out Earth's temperature in the past, they have to rely on other tools. One of these is deep-sea sediment cores (see Figure). Deep-sea sediments contain fossil remains of tiny marine creatures and other materials that sink to the ocean floor. Over millions of years, these materials pile up and build climate archives that tell stories about Earth's history. Today, scientists recover those archives during ocean drilling expeditions aboard research vessels such as the JOIDES Resolution (see Figure).
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INTA Astrobiology Centre in Madrid has confirmed that the type of mineralogical composition on the surface of Mars influences the measuring of its temperature. The study is published this week in the Journal of Environmental Monitoring and will be used to interpret the data from the soil temperature sensor of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) vehicle, whose launch is envisaged for 2011.
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NASA's newly launched Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has snapped images of hardware left on the moon by the Apollo astronauts, striking a blow against conspiracy theories that the landings were a hoax
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Non-silicon-based transistors will make power adaptors small enough to fit inside your laptop – and save energy too
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What connects human intelligence to the unsung cunning of slime moulds? An electric component that no one thought existed, explains Justin Mullins
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Rocks brought home by Apollo astronauts revolutionised our thinking about Earth and its peers, says Dana Mackenzie
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A prize for improving automated recommendations for a DVD rental firm may have been won, but putting the results into practice will be a challenge of its own
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Thread-like fungi that grow in soils at high elevations may play an important role in restoring whitebark and limber pine forests in Canada. Montana State University professor Cathy Cripps is looking for ways to use fungi to help pine seedlings get a strong start.
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Consumers may be able to eat longer-lasting, potentially healthier fish fillets if research at Oregon State University makes its way to the supermarket.
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The imaging system on board NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently had its first of many opportunities to photograph the Apollo landing sites. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) imaged five of the six Apollo sites with the narrow angle cameras (NACs) between July 11 and 15, within days of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission.
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A scientific instrument package developed in part by the University of Colorado at Boulder for the $2.2 billion orbiting Herschel Space Observatory that was launched in May by the European Space Agency has made its first successful observations, targeting two star-forming galaxies near the Milky Way.
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It is one of the largest among the giants: With two to three billion times the mass of our sun, the galaxy Messier 87 dominates the Virgo cluster. A supermassive black hole exists in the centre of this galaxy. So called jets (gigantic plasma flows) shoot out from the vicinity of the black hole at close to light speed. Scientists - among others from the Max Planck Institutes for Nuclear Physics and Physics - have observed, simultaneously in gamma and radio frequencies, this active galactic core region. Thereby they discovered that the elementary particles are accelerated to extremely high energy levels in closest proximity to the black hole (Science Express, July 2, 2009).
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AP - Edward White, who made America's first spacewalk and later died in a spacecraft fire, is among the latest aviation and space pioneers scheduled to be inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.
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SPACE.com - After a three-year search for a set of data tapes that promised to offer an improved view of the first moonwalk by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin 40 years ago this month, NASA revealed on Thursday that the tapes were more than likely erased years ago and reused. But the agency then unveiled the next best thing: restored footage based on their best broadcast quality tapes.
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The newest and heaviest addition to the periodic table – element 112 – is to be called Copernicium in honour of Nicolaus Copernicus
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Claims in The Boston Globe that Thomas Jefferson would have espoused intelligent design are lazy and wrongheaded, says Ewen Callaway
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A European probe at Venus returns infrared maps that hint at the idea of an ocean on its surface in the distant past.
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The Weather Channel captures amazing footage of a fast-moving twister in Wyoming. One of the videos lets you look up into the funnel of a tornado - this part is around 14 seconds into the clip.
A NASA-funded study suggests that conditions for the tornado that whipped through downtown Atlanta a year ago were created by heat and energy generated from the urban landscape. The Wall Street Journal reports that NASA's study suggests that tornadoes are likely to become more common. NASA also has a specific report about the Atlanta tornado here.
Earthquakes are common in Yellowstone, which averages 1,000 to 2,000 tremors a year, and its 10,000 geysers and hot springs are the result of geologic activity, the Salt Lake City-based university said in a statement on its Web site. The park covers sections of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.The Yellowstone caldera will explode someday but it could be tens of thousands of years from now. More on the earthquake swarm here, here and here. The website for the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory can be found here.
"This is not any indicator" of an imminent threat, Robert Smith, a professor of geology and geophysics, said in a telephone interview from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. "It's part of the ongoing activity of Yellowstone being an active and alive volcanic system."
The university's network of 28 seismographs in the area started picking up the tremors on Dec. 26, and more than 250 quakes have been recorded since then -- including nine greater than magnitude 3.0 and about 24 between magnitude 2.0 and 3.0. Some visitors have reported feeling the quakes.
