NASA measures rainfall as Cyclone Zane approaches Queensland, Australia

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Researchers find that some 'green' hot water systems fail to deliver on promises

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Two researchers affiliated with the Virginia Tech College of Engineering have published a paper which reports that hot water recirculating systems touted as "green," actually use both more energy and water than their standard counterparts.

Fires in Southern Australia

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Today's image of southern Australia shows a combination of both planned fires and some bushfires.

Fires are often deliberately set by fire officials and controlled in order to clean out dry underbrush and accumulations of debris. The fire burns away the detritus which could otherwise be the ignition for a devastating bushfire that may easily get out of control.

In this image, most of the fires have been planned and are under control, however, there are some that are bushfires which, although started spontaneously, are currently under control by fire officials.

Summit fire in Southern California

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According to the CBS affiliate in Los Angeles, "A fast-moving, wind-driven brush fire in Riverside County was 40 percent contained as of early Thursday morning, CAL Fire officials said. The Summit Fire broke out around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday near North San Gorgonio Road and Summit Drive in Banning. Crews fought the nearly 3,000-acre fire overnight and were aided by diminished winds that allowed them to lay containment lines around the blaze."

Fires in West Africa

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The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite detected hundreds of fires burning in the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola on May 01, 2013. The fires are outlined in red. Most of the fires burn in grass or cropland.

An anarchic region of star formation

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Want to slow mental decay? Play a video game

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There may be a way for older people to prevent natural aging of their minds, and it could be as simple as playing a video game.

That's according to a study from the University of Iowa, which found that elderly people who played just ten hours of a game priming their mental processing speed and skills delayed declines by as many as seven years in a range of cognitive skills.

Studying meteorites may reveal Mars' secrets of life

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In an effort to determine if conditions were ever right on Mars to sustain life, a team of scientists, including a Michigan State University professor, has examined a meteorite that formed on the red planet more than a billion years ago.

And although this team's work is not specifically solving the mystery, it is laying the groundwork for future researchers to answer this age-old question.

Understanding student weaknesses

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If you had to explain what causes the change in seasons, could you? Surprisingly, studies have shown that as many as 95 percent of people — including most college graduates — hold the incorrect belief that the seasons are the result of the Earth moving closer to or further from the sun.

Bonding with your virtual self may alter your actual perceptions

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When people create and modify their virtual reality avatars, the hardships faced by their alter egos can influence how they perceive virtual environments, according to researchers.

A group of students who saw that a backpack was attached to an avatar that they had created overestimated the heights of virtual hills, just as people in real life tend to overestimate heights and distances while carrying extra weight, according to Sangseok You, a doctoral student in the school of information, University of Michigan.