The contents of the deep Earth affect the planet as a whole, including life at its surface, but scientists must find unusual ways to "see" it. Only recently have researchers been able to produce the extreme temperatures and pressures found inside our planet to understand how it is forming and evolving. A special online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explores the exotic world of high pressures as a window to understand a broad range of problems in Earth and planetary science.
Culture
Between 2000 and 2004, worldwide CO2 emissions increased at a rate that is over three times the rate during the 1990s—the rate increased from 1.1 % per year during the 1990s to 3.1% per year in the early 2000s.
The world's oldest wooden anchor was discovered during excavations in the Turkish port city of Urla, the ancient site of Liman Tepe -- the Greek 1st Millennium BCE colony of Klazomenai, by researchers from the Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies of the University of Haifa. The anchor, from the end of the 7th century BC, was found near a submerged construction, imbedded approximately.1.5 meters underground.
Anchor found at the site. Credit: University of Haifa
Based on a Finnish study, smokers have higher risk of depression than non-smokers. In addition, smokers who quit have an elevated risk of depressive symptoms in the short term.
It is known that depression is associated with cigarette smoking, but the nature of this association has been unclear.
According to the self-medication hypothesis, those who suffer from depressive symptoms smoke cigarettes in order to alleviate their symptoms.
The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express has captured breathtaking images of the Deuteronilus Mensae region on Mars.
A new study finds that the heat setting you choose when doing laundry makes all the difference when it comes to killing dust mites. The researchers found that washing laundry in hot water--140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 ºC) or higher--kills all house dust mites, compared with just 6.5% of dust mites in laundry washed at 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 ºC), or warm water.
Hotter water temperatures are also more effective in removing dog dander and pollen, says lead researcher Jung-Won Park, M.D., Ph.D., of Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea.
Scientists supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) at the National Institutes of Health have created two mouse strains that will permit researchers to trace, in a live animal, the activity of an enzyme believed to play a crucial role both in the normal immune response as well as autoimmunity and B cell tumor development. 
In this picture of intestinal villi from one of the new mouse strains, plasma cells are tagged with yellow (green-appearing) fluorescent protein.
Combining statistics and chemistry, researchers are challenging the evidence for the lone-gunman theory in the 1963 assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy.
Illinois State University’s Board of Trustees today approved a new bachelor’s degree in renewable energy, which will include a technical sequence and an economics and public policy sequence.
The degree is a multi-disciplinary undergraduate major that provides a broad overview of renewable energy industries. Renewable energy is a fast-growing industry that will call for many new workers in the future.
Analyzing 30 years of data detailing a large rabies virus outbreak among North American raccoons, researchers at Emory University have revealed how initial demographic, ecological and genetic processes simultaneously shaped the virus's geographic spread over time. The study appears online in the Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences.
New evidence may help explain the brute strength of the tyrannosaurid, says a University of Alberta researcher whose finding demonstrates how a fused nasal bone helped turn the animal into a "zoological superweapon."
"Fused, arch-like nasal bones are a unique feature of tyrannosaurids," said Dr. Eric Snively, a post doctoral research fellow at the University of Alberta. "This adaptation, for instance, was keeping the T. rexes from breaking their own skull while breaking the bones of their prey."
Credit: University of Alberta
Many school children in the United States memorize President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, considered one of history's most brilliant speeches and a model of brevity and persuasive rhetoric.
People deal with percentages every day: the performance of a stock portfolio, a sale at the department store, or the performance of a new hybrid car, are all often expressed as percent changes. As an everyday occurrence, calculating percentages should be second nature to the average person. "Not so," says Akshay Rao, professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management.
It's a cooker, a fridge and a generator in one, it uses thermoacoustics to convert biofuels to energy — and it could have a huge impact on the lives of people in the world's poorest communities, where access to electricity is extremely limited.
What was it like to walk round the Colosseum when the Roman Empire was at its height? How would the experience have differed from that of a tourist today?
Our understanding of what life was like in bygone eras could be boosted, thanks to a new initiative aiming to depict more accurately and realistically how heritage sites may have looked in their heyday.