Earth

Patients with possible appendicitis are typically evaluated using a standard-dose contrast enhanced CT, but a low-dose unenhanced CT that delivers approximately 50% less radiation is just as effective, according to a study performed at the Seoul National University College of Medicine in Seoul, Korea. The standard-dose enhanced CT scan delivers approximately 8.0 mSv of radiation; the low-dose unenhanced CT scan delivers approximately 4.2 mSv of radiation.

Bremerhaven, July 20th 2009. Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute have researched the geology of the seabed in the Labrador Sea on board of the research vessel Maria S. Merian. They have studied the so-called Eirik Drift at the southern tip of Greenland, a structure of several hundred kilometres length formed like a ridge. They discovered a submarine mountain (seamount) at the south-western fringe of their area of investigation that indicates volcanic eruptions during the past few million years.

New research led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego suggests that by improving overall ocean health, corals are better able to recover from bleaching events. These events occur when rising sea temperatures force corals to expel their symbiotic algae, known as zooxanthellae. It is a phenomenon that is expected to rise in frequency as global climate change increases ocean temperatures.

Genetic research indicates that Australian Aborigines initially arrived via south Asia. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology have found telltale mutations in modern-day Indian populations that are exclusively shared by Aborigines.

In a study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and the U.S. Geological Survey consider genetic, anatomical, and ecological criteria to show that when the Coast Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma coronatum) moved north from Baja California and spread throughout the state, it diverged into at least two new species.

By substituting a single atom into a molecule widely used to purify water, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have created a far more effective decontaminate with an improved shelf life.

The material removes bacterial, viral, organic, and inorganic contaminants from river water destined for human consumption, as well as wastewater from treatment plants prior to its return to the environment.

Nanosized diamonds found just a few meters below the surface of Santa Rosa Island off the coast of Santa Barbara provide strong evidence of a cosmic impact event in North America approximately 12,900 years ago, according to a new study. Their hypothesis holds that fragments from a comet struck across North America at that time.

Geoengineering - deliberately manipulating physical, chemical, or biological aspects of the Earth system to confront climate change – could contribute to a comprehensive risk management strategy to slow climate change but could also create considerable new risks, according to a policy statement released by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) today.

MADISON, WI, July 20, 2009 -- Understanding temporal variability in crop yields has implications for sustainable crop production, particularly since greater fluxes in crop yields are projected with global climate change.

Many long-term cropping system studies have compared average crop yields; this study looked at stability of yields and whether cropping systems and manure applications affected crop yields differently in poor- and high- yielding years.

Irvine, Calif. – Burning of fossil fuels pumps chemicals into the air that react on surfaces such as buildings and roads to create photochemical smog-forming chlorine atoms, UC Irvine scientists report in a new study.

Under extreme circumstances, this previously unknown chemistry could account for up to 40 parts per billion of ozone – nearly half of California's legal limit on outdoor air pollution. This reaction is not included in computer models used to predict air pollution levels and the effectiveness of ozone control strategies that can cost billions of dollars.

As the West warms, a drier Colorado River system could see as much as a one-in-two chance of fully depleting all of its reservoir storage by mid-century assuming current management practices continue on course, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study.

Physicists at New York University have developed a technique to record three-dimensional movies of microscopic systems, such as biological molecules, through holographic video. The work, which is reported in Optics Express, has potential to improve medical diagnostics and drug discovery.

The technique, developed in the laboratory of NYU Physics Professor David Grier, is comprised of two components: making and recording the images of microscopic systems and then analyzing these images.

LIVERPOOL, UK – 20 July 2009: Research at the University of Liverpool has shown it is possible to develop an 'invisibility cloak' to protect buildings from earthquakes.

The seismic waves produced by earthquakes include body waves which travel through the earth and surface waves which travel across it. The new technology controls the path of surface waves which are the most damaging and responsible for much of the destruction which follows earthquakes.

Four expert speakers attended an event organised by the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Academy of Engineering on 15 July, at the House of Commons, to address an audience curious about geo-engineering the planet to combat the effects of global warming; the solutions it offers and the concerns it raises.

The potential for a huge Pacific Ocean tsunami on the West Coast of America may be greater than previously thought, according to a new study of geological evidence along the Gulf of Alaska coast.