In September 2015, the German automaker Volkswagen was found to have illegally cheated federal emissions tests in the United States, by intentionally programming emissions control devices to turn on only during laboratory testing. The devices enabled more than 11 million passenger vehicles to meet U.S. emissions standards in the laboratory despite producing emissions up to 40 times higher than the legal limit in real-world driving conditions.

On the cusp of our atmosphere live a thin group of seasonal electric blue clouds. Forming 50 miles above the poles in summer, these clouds are known as noctilucent clouds or polar mesospheric clouds — PMCs. A recent NASA long-duration balloon mission observed these clouds over the course of five days at their home in the mesosphere. The resulting photos, which scientists have just begun to analyze, will help us better understand turbulence in the atmosphere, as well as in oceans, lakes and other planetary atmospheres, and may even improve weather forecasting.

Researchers from the University of Oxford’s Department of Zoology have demonstrated pre-clinical success for a universal flu vaccine.

Sufficient sleep has been proven to help keep the body healthy and the mind sharp. But it’s not just an issue of logging at least seven hours of Z’s.

The natural world has had billions of years of evolution to perfect systems, creating elegant solutions to tricky problems.

At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. data was used to create a map of rainfall generated by Super Typhoon Mangkhut.

CIRES, partners receive NOAA funding to develop global map.

When Florence slogged ashore in North Carolina last week, coastal wetlands offered one of the best lines of defense against the hurricane’s waves and surge.

A growing world population means that more food is needed which in turn may require more land to grow food crops. More agriculture, however, results in increased irrigation, particularly for food crops such as maize and wheat – especially in dry regions. Combined with the use of fertilizer, this leads to salt accumulation in soils. To be able to use saline soils, naturally salt-tolerant plants, the so-called halophytes, are of great interest. The pseudo-cereal quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) is one of them. Quinoa originated in the Andean region and is adapted to harsh environmental conditions. In the South American mountain range, the cereal-like plant has been used as a food crop for 7000 years. Gluten-free and high in vitamins, the edible seeds have now found their way into European supermarkets.

Researchers led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have identified another way the process that causes oil to form droplets in water may contribute to solid tumors, such as prostate and breast cancer. The findings appear today in the journal Molecular Cell.