Heavens

High in the sky, 60 to 65 miles above Earth's surface, winds rush through a little understood region of Earth's atmosphere at speeds of 200 to 300 miles per hour. Lower than a typical satellite's orbit, higher than where most planes fly, this upper atmosphere jet stream makes a perfect target for a particular kind of scientific experiment: the sounding rocket. Some 35 to 40 feet long, sounding rockets shoot up into the sky for short journeys of eight to ten minutes, allowing scientists to probe difficult-to-reach layers of the atmosphere.

On the hottest day of the New York City summer in 2011, a white roof covering was measured at 42 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the traditional black roof it was being compared to, according to a study including NASA scientists that details the first scientific results from the city's unprecedented effort to brighten rooftops and reduce its "urban heat island" effect.

NASA's highly anticipated Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) began operations on the International Space Station with the Canadian Dextre robot and RRM tools March 7-9, 2012, marking important milestones in satellite-servicing technology and the use of the space station robotic capabilities.

Tropical Storm Irina continues to linger in the Mozambique Channel, and NASA satellite data revealed the strongest storms in the southern quadrant, and Irina is running into some dry air, which may help to weaken it as it moves back to the African mainland.

An Akron researcher is designing computer prediction models to test potential new docking seals that will better preserve breathable cabin air for astronauts living aboard the International Space Station and other NASA spacecraft.

Garafolo recently analyzed a two-piece elastic silicone – or elastomer – seal, using the IBM 1350 Glenn computer cluster at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC). His model simulated air leakage through the elastomer, taking into account the effects of gas compressibility and variable permeability.

The newest motion-based video games — which are more interactive than standard video game systems with gamepads — are more realistic, give a greater sense of "being there" and are more enjoyable, according to findings by communications studies researchers at Baylor University.

An article about their findings, based on two experiments, will appear in the upcoming issue of Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, an academic journal of MIT Press.

If there is life on other planets, a laser frequency comb developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) may help find it.

Such a comb—a tool for precisely measuring frequencies, or colors, of light—has for the first time been used to calibrate measurements of starlight from stars other than the Sun. The good results suggest combs will eventually fulfill their potential to boost the search for Earth-like planets to a new level.

"Mr Oxygen", as it is known by researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, is the "extra player" that is gained on the pitch thanks to their new system designed for elite footballers. The programme has been published in the Journal of Sports Medicine and has enjoyed the involvement of F.C. Barcelona's medical team. It claims to improve the players' sprint, jump and endurance.

Two Brazilian physicists have shown that wealth concentration invariably stems from a particular type of market exchange rules – where agents cannot receive more income than their own capital. The authors concluded that maximum inequalities ensue from free markets, which are governed by such seemingly fair rules. This study, published in EPJ B¹, was conducted by J. Roberto Iglesias and Rita de Almeida from the Brazilian National Institute of Science and Technology of Complex Systems, based in Porto Alegre.

Reading e-mails while on the move, downloading music, or watching videos is quite normal for smartphone users. European mobile communication markets, however, are far behind the top innovator: Japan. This is identified by a study of the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). According to the study, the key economic success factor is fiercer technical competition in Japan. This and further measures are recommended for Europe as well.

In this week's PLoS Medicine, Abdullah Baqui from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA and colleagues systematically review studies describing newborn care-seeking behaviours by caregivers in low- and middle-income countries. The study's findings highlight the lack of a standardized and consistent approach to neonate care-seeking behaviours described in the literature. Despite the large variations in results, care seeking for newborn illnesses in LMICs appears to be low in general and remains a key challenge to improving neonatal mortality.

The Hercules galaxy cluster (also known as Abell 2151) lies about 500 million light-years away in the constellation of Hercules. It is unlike other nearby galactic assemblies in many ways. As well as being rather irregular in shape, it contains a wide variety of galaxy types, particularly young, star-forming spiral galaxies, and there are no giant elliptical galaxies in sight.

In the first paper in a three-part series on health systems guidance, Xavier Bosch-Capblanch of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland and colleagues examine in this week's PLoS Medicine how guidance is currently formulated in low- and middle-income countries, and the challenges to developing such guidance, such as the translation of research.

NASA's Aqua satellite saw Tropical Cyclone Irina making a slow loop in the southern Mozambique Channel for the third day on March 6, 2012. Because of the different weather systems moving through the region, Irina's track has been hard to forecast.

The New York Times recently reported that in the darkest moments of the triple meltdown last year of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Japanese officials considered the evacuation of the nearly 36 million residents of the Tokyo metropolitan area. The consideration of so drastic an action reflects the harsh fact that in the aftermath of a major radiation exposure event, such as a nuclear reactor accident or a "dirty bomb" terrorist attack, treatments for mass contamination are antiquated and very limited.