NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite saw that Tropical Cyclone Winston maintained a pinhole eye as it tracked east of southern Vanuatu's islands in the Southern Pacific Ocean on Feb. 23, 2016. Infrared imagery showed bands of strong thunderstorms were wrapping into the low-level center of the storm.
Heavens
MELBOURNE, FLA. -- One of the biggest quests in astrophysics is to find Earth-like planets around other stars - places where life may exist. Regular telescopes are not good at directly imaging such small objects because a host star's light generally drowns out the relatively dimmer light of a potential planet.
But a new development in space imaging may solve that vexing problem.
From the Yellow River in China to the Mississippi River in Louisiana, researchers are racing to better understand and mitigate the degradation of some of the world's most important river deltas, according to a University of Colorado Boulder faculty member.
A new study supports the theory that the detrimental effects of low-level exposure to mercury may be outweighed by the beneficial effects of fish consumption.
The study finds little evidence of harm in infants whose mothers had low fish consumption and low mercury exposure. In fact, infants of mothers with higher mercury exposure during pregnancy and who consumed more fish had better attention and needed less special handling during a newborn exam. This likely was due to the beneficial nutritional effects of fish consumption, according to the researchers.
The research project, called Access to Justice for Children with Mental Disabilities, was designed to address a large gap in this area with the goal of improving public policies on the national and European levels.
Influenza is able to mask itself, so that the virus is not initially detected by our immune system. This is the result of new research from Aarhus University. The researchers behind the study hope that the discovery can be used to develop better treatment against influenza and chronic inflammation conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.
EVANSTON, Ill. --- The danger of acquiring a computer virus or spyware used to come with the risk of visiting the dark, sketchy corners of the Internet. But now trusted and harmless smartphone apps like MyFitnessPal and Candy Crush carry their own risks.
"Even reputable apps can lead users to websites hosting malicious content," said Yan Chen, professor of computer science at the Northwestern University McCormick School of Engineering. "No matter what app you use, you are not immune to malicious ads."
Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a chip that allows new radar cameras to be made a hundred times smaller than current ones.
With this NTU technology, radar cameras that usually weigh between 50 kg and 200 kg and are commonly used in large satellites can be made to become as small as palm-sized.
Despite being small, they can produce images that are of the same high quality if not better compared to conventional radar cameras. They are also 20 times cheaper to produce and consume at least 75 per cent less power.
A study led by Drexel University researchers suggests that survivors of sexual abuse who seek guidance and support in online forums may be doing so because they find comfort in the relative anonymity the forums provide, which allows them to speak candidly about their experience and be direct in asking for help.
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly paved the way for future missions when he embarked on a one-year mission in space along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko. Kelly will be the first American to complete such a long-duration mission, and one of the first humans in more than 15 years to embrace the challenge. Russian cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev was the last person to spend a year in microgravity in 1999. The 2015-2016 mission builds upon that past knowledge.
JACKSON, Tenn. - Some herbicides are more effective when applied at noon compared to early morning or late evening applications, according to data from the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture.
The study evaluated three protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPO) herbicides applied to glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth in soybean plots at sunrise, noon and sunset. After 14 days, the noon applications on average performed 15-20 percent better than the sunrise applications. The noon applications outperformed the sunset applications by an average of approximately 10 percent.
HOUSTON - (Feb. 22, 2016) - A new methodology developed by researchers at Rice and Rutgers universities could help scientists understand how and why a biochemical network doesn't always perform as expected. To test the approach, they analyzed the stress response of bacteria that cause tuberculosis and predicted novel interactions.
The results are described in a PLOS Computational Biology paper published today.
Rochester Institute of Technology researchers continue exploring gravitational waves in a series of upcoming papers. Their reports follow the first direct detection of these waves, predicted by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.
NASA satellites provided data on Tropical Cyclone Winston before and after it made an historic landfall in eastern Fiji. The GPM, Suomi NPP and Aqua satellites provided forecasters with data that showed rainfall, strength and extent of the storm.
Tropical Cyclone Winston made landfall on Feb. 20 in Vitu Levi, eastern Fiji as a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Winston was the first cyclone of that strength to make landfall in Fiji in recorded history.
COLLEGE STATION -- Dr. Nancy Turner, a Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist in College Station, was one of a team of researchers who recently studied different interventions to protect from radiation-induced bone loss.
Their paper, "Dried Plum Protects from Bone Loss Caused by Iodizing Radiation," was recently published in Scientific Reports and can be found at http://www.nature.com/articles/srep21343 .