Heavens

• Similar programmes reportedly used in schools in 89 countries, including the USA
• Authors of the randomised trial warn that the intervention is likely to be an ineffective use of public funds

NASA analyzed the rainfall and cloud heights in an area of low pressure designated as System 99L that bringing rains and gusty winds to Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, Turks and Caicos and other islands in the Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Caribbean Sea today, Aug. 25.

On Aug. 25 at 3:16 a.m. EDT (0716 UTC) the Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core observatory satellite had an excellent look at an area of low pressure associated with a tropical wave moving past the northern Dominican Republic.

Tropical Depression 14W was absorbed by another nearby tropical low pressure system in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean as NASA's Aqua satellite passed overhead.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) issued the final bulletin on Tropical Depression 14W on Aug. 24 at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) when it was about 349 nautical miles east of Iwo To Island, Japan. At that time it had maximum sustained winds only near 23 mph (20 knots/37 kph) and was moving to the north-northeast at 33.3 mph (29 knots/53.7 kph).

Typhoon Lionrock's rainfall rates and cloud heights were analyzed as it continued to intensify when the Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core satellite passed overhead.

When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the eastern Pacific Ocean it looked at a newly developed tropical depression that would later strengthen into Tropical Storm Lester. Aqua analyzed the depression with an infrared eye and saw indications it was strengthening.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument aboard Aqua provided temperature data on Tropical Depression 13E on Aug. 24 at 4:17 p.m. EDT (2017 UTC). AIRS infrared data showed that the depression had some powerful thunderstorms with high cold cloud tops (as cold as -63F/-53C).

Gaston was a hurricane when the Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core satellite passed overhead and found heavy rain occurring in the storm. GPM imagery also showed that wind shear was stretching the storm out and making it appear elongated from space.

Gaston became the 3rd hurricane of the season early this morning, Aug. 25 (just after midnight EDT) as the storm was moving northwestward into the Central Atlantic about midway between the Leeward Islands and the Cape Verde Islands before weakening back into a tropical storm less than 12 hours later.

How many millimeters has the sea level risen? How fast are the continents moving? How big is the impact of high and low pressure areas on the altitude of landmasses? In order to answer these questions, measurements are being made around the clock at more than 1700 globally distributed observing stations. These data are then evaluated by researchers from the German Geodetic Research Institute of the Technical University of Munich (DGFI-TUM). Their new realization of the global reference system that has now been published, is so exact that it even allows to detect seasonal variations.

The number of cases of tuberculosis (TB) in India may be up to two to three times higher than current estimates, suggests a new study.

The research team, comprising researchers from Imperial College London, the Government of India's Revised National TB Control Programme, the World Health Organisation, and other organisations, have published their findings in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Mosquitoes continue to build resistance to existing pesticides. Research has now shown that the chemical substances emitted by one of the mosquito's natural enemies - the backswimmer - makes the biological pesticide Bti more deadly. These so-called predator cues also impair the mosquito's immune system. Scientists at KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Belgium, argue that a cocktail of biological pesticides and synthetic predator cues very well be the future of mosquito control.

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) surveyed dozens of young stars -- some Sun-like and others approximately double that size -- and discovered that the larger variety have surprisingly rich reservoirs of carbon monoxide gas in their debris disks. In contrast, the lower-mass, Sun-like stars have debris disks that are virtually gas-free.

Astronomers using ESO telescopes and other facilities have found clear evidence of a planet orbiting the closest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri. The long-sought world, designated Proxima b, orbits its cool red parent star every 11 days and has a temperature suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface. This rocky world is a little more massive than the Earth and is the closest exoplanet to us -- and it may also be the closest possible abode for life outside the Solar System. A paper describing this milestone finding will be published in the journal Nature on 25 August 2016.

Washington, DC-- An international team of astronomers including Carnegie's Paul Butler has found clear evidence of a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Solar System. The new world, designated Proxima b, orbits its cool red parent star every 11 days and has a temperature suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface, if it were present. This rocky world is a little more massive than the Earth and is the closest exoplanet to us; it may even be the closest possible abode for life beyond our own Sun.

In a study published online this week in Science Translational Medicine, investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome report that resolvins and maresins, molecules produced in the body naturally from certain omega-3 fatty acids, regulate subsets of white blood cells that play a central role in inflammation and the immune system. The new findings suggest that resolvins and maresins are part of a new class of molecules that may be useful for treating chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

LOS ANGELES (Aug. 24, 2016) -- Biomedical investigators at Cedars-Sinai have identified an enzyme found in all human cells that alerts the body to invading bacteria and jump-starts the immune system.

In their study, published in the peer-reviewed medical journal Cell, the investigators provide clues to unraveling some of the mysteries surrounding the human immune system, which defends the body against harmful microbes such as bacteria.

New Haven, Conn. - A new method for analyzing the chemical composition of stars may help scientists winnow the search for Earth 2.0.

Yale University researchers Debra Fischer and John Michael Brewer, in a new study that will appear in the Astrophysical Journal, describe a computational modeling technique that gives a clearer sense of the chemistry of stars, revealing the conditions present when their planets formed. The system creates a new way to assess the habitability and biological evolution possibilities of planets outside our solar system.