Earth

From a very young age, we're warned against shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater. The possibility of inciting mass panic presents an obvious moral problem. But for researchers, the situation also presents an interesting mathematical problem: How do large crowds of people behave in emergency situations? While many have turned to classical physics and calculus for the answer, a recent study shows that a branch of mathematics called fractional calculus may offer a more realistic picture of crowd dynamics.

WASHINGTON -- Researchers have developed a new laser that makes it possible to measure electron transition energies in small atoms and molecules with unprecedented precision. The instrument will help scientists test one of the bedrock theories of modern physics to new limits, and may help resolve an unexplained discrepancy in measurements of the size of the proton.

The team will present their work during the Frontiers in Optics (FiO) / Laser Science (LS) conference in Rochester, New York, USA on 17-21 October 2016.

The sixteenth tropical depression of the Eastern Pacific Ocean Hurricane Season formed on Saturday, Sept. 10 at 11 p.m. EDT and became a hurricane named Orlene early on Sept. 12. NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite captured an image of the strengthening storm.

At 5:00 p.m. EDT (2100 UTC) on Sept. 11, 2016, NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite passed over Orlene when it was a strong tropical storm. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard the satellite captured a visible image of the storm.

Tropical Depression 18W formed west of Guam and strengthened into a tropical storm. NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite saw the storm heading into the Philippine Sea early on Sept. 12.

On Sept. 12 at 0346 UTC (Sept. 11 at 11:46 p.m. EDT) NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite passed over Tropical Depression 18W and measured cloud-top temperatures. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite captured an infrared image of the storm that revealed the location of coldest cloud top temperatures and strongest storms.

Rice, UT Southwestern, Brigham Young scientists develop one-step process for making precursors

HOUSTON - (Sept. 12, 2016) - A one-step solution to make nitrogen-laden molecular precursors for the preparation of drugs and other bioactive molecules has been discovered by researchers at Rice University, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSWMC) and Brigham Young University.

FROSTBURG, MD (Sept. 12, 2016)--A warming climate is causing earlier springs and later autumns in eastern forests of the United States, lengthening the growing season for trees and potentially changing how forests function. Scientists from the Appalachian Laboratory of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science used a combination of satellite images and field measurements to show that trees have greater demand for soil nitrogen in years with early springs.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued a reference material with certified amounts of nicotine and two carcinogens to help ensure accurate testing of commercial tobacco filler--the blended tobacco found in cigarettes.

Prepared in collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), NIST's new Standard Reference Material "SRM 3222 Cigarette Tobacco Filler" helps companies meet the federal requirement for reporting "harmful or potentially harmful constituents" in tobacco products and tobacco smoke.

Loss of megaherbivores such as elephants and hippos can allow woody plants and non-grassy herbs and flowering plants to encroach on grasslands in African national parks, according to a new University of Utah study, published Sept. 12 in Scientific Reports. The study used isotopes in hippopotamus teeth to find a shift in the diet of hippos over the course of a decade in Uganda's Queen Elizabeth National Park following widespread elephant poaching in the 1970s.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have successfully tested a new device that will lead to a better understanding of the interactions between ultrahot plasma contained within fusion facilities and the materials inside those facilities. The measurement tool, known as the Materials Analysis Particle Probe (MAPP), was built by a consortium that includes Princeton University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (U. of I.).

A wide international collaboration involving researchers from four countries - China, Australia, Germany and Finland - have managed to synthesize and characterize two previously unknown, record-large silver nanoclusters of 136 and 374 silver atoms. These diamond-shaped nanoclusters (see Figure), consisting of a silver core of 2 to 3 nanometers and a protecting layer of silver atoms and organic thiol molecules, are the largest ones whose structure is now known to atomic precision. The research (1) was published in Nature Communications on 9 September 2016.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Sept. 9, 2016--Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are the first to harness a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) to directly write tiny patterns in metallic "ink," forming features in liquid that are finer than half the width of a human hair.

The automated process is controlled by weaving a STEM instrument's electron beam through a liquid-filled cell to spur deposition of metal onto a silicon microchip. The patterns created are "nanoscale," or on the size scale of atoms or molecules.

LOGAN, UTAH, USA - Dams around the world provide critical water supplies and hydropower to growing communities and hundreds of new dams are proposed for developing economies. Though viewed as sources of potential green energy, their construction also poses a significant environmental cost.

Earth requires fuel to drive plate tectonics, volcanoes and its magnetic field. Like a hybrid car, Earth taps two sources of energy to run its engine: primordial energy from assembling the planet and nuclear energy from the heat produced during natural radioactive decay. Scientists have developed numerous models to predict how much fuel remains inside Earth to drive its engines -- and estimates vary widely -- but the true amount remains unknown.

According to a new study by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, a large earthquake on one fault can trigger large aftershocks on separate faults within just a few minutes. These findings have important implications for earthquake hazard prone regions like California where ruptures on complex fault systems may cascade and lead to mega-earthquakes.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - An international group of biologists is calling for data collection on a global scale to improve forecasts of how climate change affects animals and plants.

Accurate model predictions can greatly aid efforts to protect biodiversity from disturbances such as climate change and urban sprawl by helping scientists and decision-makers better understand, anticipate and respond to threats that imperil species and ecosystems.