INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 12, 2013 — Hints that a favorite ingredient in Mexican, Southeast Asian and other spicy cuisine may be an inexpensive new way of purifying drinking water are on the menu today at the 246th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.
The meeting, which began Sunday and ends today, included almost 7,000 reports on new discoveries in science and other topics.
One of the most important and massive parts of the galaxy is the galactic bulge. This huge central cloud of about 10 000 million stars spans thousands of light-years, but its structure and origin were not well understood.
Unfortunately, from our vantage point from within the galactic disc, the view of this central region — at about 27 000 light-years' distance — is heavily obscured by dense clouds of gas and dust. Astronomers can only obtain a good view of the bulge by observing longer wavelength light, such as infrared radiation, which can penetrate the dust clouds.
Three ancient river systems, now buried, may have created viable routes for human migration across the Sahara to the Mediterranean region about 100,000 years ago, according to research published September 11 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Tom Coulthard from the University of Hull, UK, and colleagues from other institutions.
More than one billion people worldwide rely on fish as an important source of animal protein, states the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. And while fish provide slightly over 7 per cent of animal protein in North America, in Asia they represent about 23 per cent of consumption.
At work on the International Space Station, researchers studying plant and cell growth in space encountered a challenge. Imaging revealed interesting spaceflight-associated root morphologies. They needed to fix the tissues for further study back on Earth, but conventional fixation methods require separate fixatives depending on whether the sample is intended for molecular or morphological study.
NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Hurricane Humberto and analyzed the storm in infrared light using the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder known as AIRS and visible light using the MODIS instrument. AIRS gathered data on Sept. 11 at 03:29 UTC/Sept. 10 at 11:29 p.m. EDT and revealed cloud cloud-top temperatures in excess of -63F/-52C in thunderstorms around the hurricane's center of circulation and in bands of thunderstorms west of the center. The MODIS or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument showed a thick band of thunderstorms wrapping into the center from the west.
A small beach ball-sized satellite designed and built by a team of University of Colorado Boulder students to better understand how atmospheric drag can affect satellite orbits is now slated for launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Sept. 15.
AMES, Iowa – It happens to all kinds of flat, disk galaxies – whether they're big, little, isolated or crowded in a cluster. They all grow out of their irregular, clumped appearance and their older stars take on the same smooth look, predictably fading from a bright center to a dim edge.
Or, as Curtis Struck, an Iowa State University astronomer, wrote in a research summary: "In galaxy disks, the scars of a rough childhood, and adolescent blemishes, all smooth away with time."
But how does that happen?
Data obtained from NASA's TRMM satellite was used to create a 3-D image of Tropical Storm Gabrielle's rainfall that clearly showed wind shear pushed all of the storm's the rainfall east of its center.
Firefighters faced extremely hot and dry conditions which contributed to more active fire activity with isolated flare-ups inside current containment lines. The fire is active in the Clavey River Reynolds Creek and Jawbone Creek drainages as well as to the west of Harden Lake, Harden Road and Tioga Road. Moderate fire spread to the northeast into Yosemite Wilderness areas north of Hetch Hetchy reservoir is expected. Unburned tinder within and adjacent to the fire perimeter continue to consume and create spotting near or across planned containment lines.
Wildfires have broken out in four provinces in Argentina including forest land in Cordoba. The high temperatures and gusty winds have wreaked havoc on the growth of these wildfires and the local meteorologists predict more of the same conditions in the coming days.
SYDNEY: A UNSW-led team of astronomers has begun to map the location of the most massive and mysterious objects in our galaxy – the giant gas clouds where new stars are born.
Using a telescope at Coonabarabran that narrowly escaped devastation in a recent bushfire, the team identifies the galactic clouds of molecular gas - which can be up to 100 light years across - from the carbon monoxide they contain.
NASA's TRMM satellite saw heavy rain falling south of Tropical Storm Humberto's center as it continues to strengthen in the Eastern Atlantic.
NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite called TRMM passed near Humberto on September 10, 2013 at 0147 UTC (9:47 p.m. Sept. 9) and collected data used in this rainfall analysis. TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) showed a large area of heavy rain south of Humberto's center of circulation. Rain was falling at a rate of 2 inches/50 mm per hour.
After NASA's Aqua satellite passed overhead, NASA sent out an unmanned aircraft from the Hurricane and Severe Storms Sentinel or HS3 mission. HS3 features NASA's two remotely piloted Global Hawks. During the mission, both aircraft are being flown remotely from the HS3 mission base at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va. At 9:58 a.m. EDT today, Sept. 10, NASA's Global Hawk 871 took off to begin HS3 Science Flight number 7 to fly into Tropical Storm Gabrielle.
Some things are not always what they seem—even in space. For 30 years, scientists believed a large near-Earth object was an asteroid. Now, an international team including Joshua Emery, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has discovered it is actually a comet.