ShakeAlert System Continues Progress toward Public Use

A decade after beginning work on an earthquake early warning system, scientists and engineers are fine-tuning a U.S. West Coast prototype that could be in limited public use in 2018.

Traffic pollution putting unborn babies' health at risk, warn experts

Traffic pollution, but not traffic noise, linked to low birth weight

Air pollution from road traffic is having a detrimental impact upon babies’ health in London, before they are born, finds a study.

Freezing trees, finding answers

Researchers study impact of ice storms, climate change

New species discovered in Malaysian rainforest during unprecedented, top-to-bottom survey

California Academy of Sciences team joins Malaysian colleagues to survey region’s rich biodiversity; data to support UNESCO nomination.

Stress Test: New Study Finds Seals are Stressed-Out by Sharks

Researchers test the effects predators have on their prey’s cortisol levels in the wild

More-severe climate model predictions could be the most accurate: study

The climate models that project greater amounts of warming this century are the ones that best align with observations of the current climate, according to a new paper from Carnegie’s Patrick Brown and Ken Caldeira published by Nature.  Their findings suggest that the models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, on average, may be underestimating future warming.

Climate model simulations are used to predict how much warming should be expected for any given increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

London air pollution cancels positive health effects of exercise in over-60s

Exposure to air pollution on city streets is enough to counter the beneficial health effects of exercise in older adults, according to new research.

Go with the flow (or against it)

Queen’s University researchers are using magnetic fields to influence a specific type of bacteria to swim against strong currents, opening up the potential of using the microscopic organisms for drug delivery in environments with complex microflows – like the human bloodstream.

“MTB have tiny (nanoscopic) organelles called magnetosomes, which act like a compass needle that helps them navigate to nutrient-rich locations in aquatic environments – their natural habitats – by using the Earth’s magnetic field,” says Dr. Escobedo. “In nature, MTB play a key role in Earth’s cycles by influencing marine biogeochemistry via transporting minerals and organic matters as nutrients.”

Avian Flu From Abroad Can Spread in North American Poultry, Wild Birds

Some avian influenza, or bird flu, viruses that are able to enter North America from other continents through migrating birds can be deadly to poultry and can infect waterfowl populations, according to a recently published U.S. Geological Survey study.

NASA Gets a Final Look at Tropical Cyclone Ockhi's Rainfall

Tropical Cyclone Ockhi is quickly weakening in the Arabian Sea and is expected to dissipate on Dec. 6 when it makes landfall in northwestern India. The Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core satellite passed over Ockhi and looked at its rainfall as wind shear was affecting the storm.