Heavens

This isn't a good weekend for keeping tropical cyclones alive, as Tropical Storm Omais is becoming extra-tropical in the northwestern Pacific Ocean and Tropical Storm Imani appears doomed over the weekend in the Southern Indian Ocean.

Tampa, FL (March 24, 2010) -- A sun protection intervention program that encouraged fourth-graders to wear hats outdoors as a skin cancer prevention measure significantly increased hat use at school, a study by researchers at the University of South Florida College of Medicine found. The program, however, had no effect on self-reported hat use at home or on measures of skin pigmentation.

Tampa, FL (March 24, 2010) -- A sun protection intervention program that encouraged fourth-graders to wear hats outdoors as a skin cancer prevention measure significantly increased hat use at school, a study by researchers at the University of South Florida College of Medicine found. The program, however, had no effect on self-reported hat use at home or on measures of skin pigmentation.

New Haven, Conn.—Supermassive black holes found at the centers of distant galaxies undergo huge growth spurts as a result of galactic collisions, according to a new study by astronomers at Yale University and the University of Hawaii. Their findings appear in the March 25 edition of Science Express.

Tropical storm Omais has run into wind shear in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, but as it has weakened overnight it has also doubled in size. NASA's Aqua satellite has captured both infrared and visible images early this morning of the larger Omais.

Late yesterday, March 24, Omais strengthened to (63 mph) 55 knots and now that it has run into an environment with stronger wind shear, it has already weakened. The wind shear has increased because of the approach of a frontal system which is currently about 215 nautical miles northwest of the storm.

University of British Columbia astronomer Ludovic Van Waerbeke with an international team has confirmed that the expansion of the universe is accelerating after looking at data from the largest-ever survey conducted by the Hubble Space Telescope.

A group of astronomers [1], led by Tim Schrabback of the Leiden Observatory, conducted an intensive study of over 446 000 galaxies within the COSMOS field, the result of the largest survey ever conducted with Hubble. In making the COSMOS survey, Hubble photographed 575 slightly overlapping views of the same part of the Universe using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) onboard Hubble. It took nearly 1000 hours of observations.

A University of Alberta researcher is questioning the notion of "group think"— a common psychological phenomenon—that has been used to explain some of the extreme things people do once they are within the confines of a group. Rob Wilson, a professor in the Department of Philosophy, rejects the popular idea that groups tend to have a mind of their own and says the notion of a collective mind is problematic.

Tropical Cyclone 02W still has maximum sustained winds near 46 mph but one thing changed: it has been named "Omais."

Few Web sites provide high-quality patient information about treatment options for Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.

Astronomers have long known that in many surveys of the very distant Universe, a large fraction of the total intrinsic light was not being observed. Now, thanks to an extremely deep survey using two of the four giant 8.2-metre telescopes that make up ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) and a unique custom-built filter, astronomers have determined that a large fraction of galaxies whose light took 10 billion years to reach us have gone undiscovered. The survey also helped uncover some of the faintest galaxies ever found at this early stage of the Universe.

Ice loss from the Greenland ice sheet, which has been increasing during the past decade over its southern region, is now moving up its northwest coast, according to a new international study.

The National Weather Service in Guam has posted advisories for small craft advisories and high surf advisories for Guam and the surrounding region, including Micronesia. NASA's Aqua and TRMM satellites captured two views of limited areas of convection in the storm today.

The Southern Indian Ocean is still warm enough to enable tropical cyclones to form, and Tropical Cyclone 21S did just that today. NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared and visible images of 21S and the infrared showed some limited areas of strong convection, while the visible image showed a very small, compact storm.

At 900 UTC (5 a.m. EDT) today, March 23, Tropical Cyclone 21S was located about 505 miles west of Cocos Island near 12.9 degrees South latitude and 88.3 degrees East longitude.

A new approach to desalination being developed by researchers at MIT and in Korea could lead to small, portable desalination units that could be powered by solar cells or batteries and could deliver enough fresh water to supply the needs of a family or small village. As an added bonus, the system would also remove many contaminants, viruses and bacteria at the same time.