Influenza viruses mutate rapidly, which is why flu vaccines have to be redesigned every year. A new study from MIT sheds light on just how these viruses evolve so quickly, and offers a potential way to slow them down.

Tropical Depression Pilar weakened to a remnant low pressure area as it continued to crawl north along the west coast of Mexico. Satellite data revealed no circulation center.

NASA's Aqua satellite peered into Hurricane Lee with infrared light to determine if the storm was intensifying. Infrared data showed cloud top temperatures were getting colder, indicating stronger storms.

NASA's Aqua satellite provided an infrared look at Hurricane Maria's cloud top temperatures and found the coldest cloud tops and strongest storms were facing east of the center and away from the U.S. However, Maria is a large hurricane. On Sept. 26, the National Hurricane Center reported that hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 105 miles (165 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 240 miles (390 km).

Other Potential Benefits Include Reliability and Water Savings 

Onita Basu still vividly remembers the exact moment she decided to devote her career to sustainable water solutions and practices.

“I was in a second-year Chemical Engineering lab working with a solution of water that looked relatively clean,” she recalls. “When I passed the water through a treatment process I was shocked to see an incredible amount of dissolved copper emerge from the solution and begin coating onto various surfaces. It was an eye-opening experience to realize that we cannot always tell what is in our water.”

Mayo Clinic researchers have found that a 50 percent reduction in the intensity and dose of radiation therapy for patients with HPV-related throat cancer reduced side effects with no loss in survival and no decrease in cure rates. Results of a phase II study were presented today at the 59th Annual Meetingof the American Society for Radiation Oncology in San Diego by Daniel Ma, M.D. a radiation oncologist at Mayo Clinic.

Cars and trucks might one day run on biofuel made from seaweed with the help of two technologies being developed at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

NASA's Terra satellite captured the landfall of Tropical Depression 22W in northern Vietnam. The Depression only existed for two days before it made landfall and began dissipating.

Hurricane Maria was analyzed in visible and infrared light as NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP passed overhead over two days. NASA's GPM satellite also provided a look at Maria's rainfall rates.