• Star Formation Influenced by Local Environmental Conditions

    Star Formation: Three scientists at Niels Bohr Institute (NBI), University of Copenhagen, have carried out extensive computer simulations related to star formation. They conclude that the present idealized models are lacking when it comes to describing details in the star formation process. “Hopefully our results can also help shed more light on planet formation”, says Michael Küffmeier, astrophysicist and head of the research team.

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  • NASA Sees Hurricane Max Make Landfall and Weaken

    NASA’s Aqua satellite captured in infrared-light image of Hurricane Max that showed the storm weakened quickly as it made landfall in southwestern Mexico. Max quickly degenerated into a large area of low pressure.

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  • New Orleans Greenery Post-Katrina Reflects Social Demographics More Than Storm Impact

    Popular portrayals of “nature reclaiming civilization” in flood-damaged New Orleans, Louisianna, neighborhoods romanticize an urban ecology shaped by policy-driven socioecological disparities in redevelopment investment, ecologists argue in a new paper in the Ecological Society of America’s open access journal Ecosphere.

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  • Wolves Understand Cause and Effect Better Than Dogs

    A rattle will only make noise if you shake it. Children learn this principle of cause and effect early on in their lives. However, animals like the wolf also understand such connections and are better at this than their domesticated descendants. Researchers at the Wolf Science Center of the Vetmeduni Vienna say that wolves have a better causal understanding than dogs and that they follow human-given communicative cues equally well. The study in Scientific Reports provides the insight that the process of domestication can also affect an animal’s causal understanding.

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  • Arctic Sea Ice Once Again Shows Considerable Melting

    This September, the extent of Arctic sea ice shrank to roughly 4.7 million square kilometres, as was determined by researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute, the University of Bremen and Universität Hamburg. Though slightly larger than last year, the minimum sea ice extent 2017 is average for the past ten years and far below the numbers from 1979 to 2006. The Northeast Passage was traversable for ships without the need for icebreakers.

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  • One vaccine injection could carry many doses

    MIT engineers have invented a new 3-D fabrication method that can generate a novel type of drug-carrying particle that could allow multiple doses of a drug or vaccine to be delivered over an extended time period with just one injection.

    The new microparticles resemble tiny coffee cups that can be filled with a drug or vaccine and then sealed with a lid. The particles are made of a biocompatible, FDA-approved polymer that can be designed to degrade at specific times, spilling out the contents of the “cup.”

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  • NASA Sees Eastern Pacific Stir Up Tropical Storm Norma

    Tropical Storm Norma is the newest addition to the tropical cyclones in the Eastern Pacific and NASA's Terra satellite caught it after it developed.

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  • NASA Sees Typhoon Doksuri in the South China Sea

    Typhoon Doksuri appeared well-rounded and organized on satellite imagery as it moved through the north central South China Sea toward Vietnam.

    The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite captured a visible light image of Typhoon Doksuri on Sept. 14, 2017 at 1:48 a.m. EDT (0548 UTC).Although Doksuri's eye was obscured by high clouds, the center was evident by the powerful thunderstorms that surrounded it. Doksuri's western quadrant had already spread over the east coast of Vietnam as it moved toward that country.

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  • Biologist reaches into electric eel tank, comes out with equation to measure shocks

    The shock from a young electric eel feels like accidentally touching a horse fence. A big one is more like getting tasered — by nine of those devices at once.

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  • NASA-NOAA Satellite Spots 2 Tails of Hurricane Max

    NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite captured an image of the latest tropical cyclone in the Eastern Pacific on Sept. 13 along the southwestern coast of Mexico. After Max formed as a tropical storm, it appeared to have two "tails." Max strengthened into a hurricane on Sept. 14.

    Max formed as a depression on Sept. 13 around 11 a.m. EDT. It was the sixteenth tropical depression of the Eastern Pacific Ocean hurricane season. By 5 p.m. EDT it had strengthened into a tropical storm.   

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