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Researchers found that when water temperatures heat up for corals, fish ‘tempers’ cool down, providing the first clear evidence of coral bleaching serving as a trigger for rapid change in reef fish behaviour. 

Air pollution in the U.S. has decreased since about 1990, and a new study conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill now shows that this air quality improvement has brought substantial public health benefits. The study, published Oct 19 in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, found that deaths related to air pollution were nearly halved between 1990 and 2010.

Elevated concentrations of strontium, an element associated with oil and gas wastewaters, have accumulated in the shells of freshwater mussels downstream from fracking wastewater disposal sites, according to researchers from Penn State and Union College.

Asian elephants demonstrate numeric ability which is closer to that observed in humans rather than in other animals. This is according to lead author Naoko Irie of SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies) in Japan. In a study published in the Springer-branded Journal of Ethology, Irie and her colleagues found that an Asian elephants' sense of numbers is not affected by distance, magnitude or ratios of presented numerosities, and therefore provides initial experimental evidence that non-human animals have cognitive characteristics similar to human counting. 

Hurricane Willa is a major hurricane threatening western Mexico. Forecasters were able to see the rate of rainfall occurring within the powerful storm when the Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM’s core satellite passed overhead and provided that data.