Earth

Seismologists working along California's San Andreas Fault near Cholame and Parkfield now have a better idea of how and where friction changes along the fault to produce both shallow earthquakes and the deeper earth tremors called low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs).

(BOSTON) - A team of scientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has evolved their microscale 3D printing technology to the fourth dimension, time. Inspired by natural structures like plants, which respond and change their form over time according to environmental stimuli, the team has unveiled 4D-printed hydrogel composite structures that change shape upon immersion in water.

NASA and NOAA gathered night-time and daytime views of the Blizzard of 2016 from the Suomi NPP and the GOES-East satellites. NASA's GPM satellite provided a look at the moisture wrapping into the storm from the Atlantic Ocean. The 2016 blizzard occurred just 4 days before 2015's major northeast blizzard.

GPM's 3-D View of Storm's Moisture From the Atlantic Ocean

In cooperation with researchers from Osaka City University and the University of Tokyo, researchers at Osaka University, through their precise measurement of current fluctuations in quantum liquids in an artificial atom created by nanotechnology, succeeded in elucidating theoretically-predicted behavior of quantum liquid in a non-equilibrium regime.

A collaboration of scientists from the RIKEN SPring-8 Center, Osaka University, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, and the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute have published research clarifying the role of magnetism in a new type of high-temperature superconductor. The research, just published as a Rapid Communication in Physical Review B, gives us a better understanding of the atomic-scale behavior of these materials.

Recent record warm years are with extremely high likelihood caused by human-made climate change. Without greenhouse-gas emissions from burning coal and oil, the odds are vanishingly small that 13 out of the 15 warmest years ever measured would all have happened in the current, still young century. These odds are between 1 in 5000 and 1 in 170.000, a new study by an international team of scientists now shows. Including the data for 2015, which came in after the study was completed, makes the odds even slimmer.

In what is believed to be the biggest study of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) -- also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) -- in children to date, researchers at the University of Bristol (UK), have found that almost 2 per cent of 16-year-olds have CFS lasting more than six months and nearly 3 per cent have CFS lasting more than three months (the UK definition). Those with CFS missed, on average, more than half a day of school every week.

A computer simulation confirms that partial replacement of lead pipes with copper has caused serious problems in Flint, MI and Washington, DC, and more than doubles the lead released into the water supply. A partial lead and copper pipe approach to service line replacement may increase the risk of lead exposure to harmful levels, as described in the study published in Environmental Engineering Science.

The winter storm that caused damage during the night along the Gulf Coast has deepened and has started to spread heavy rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow northward into the Mid-Atlantic region. NASA's GPM and NOAA's GOES satellites are providing data on rainfall, cloud heights, extent and movement of the storm.

HOUSTON - (Jan. 22, 2016) - Amid all the fancy equipment found in a typical nanomaterials lab, one of the most useful may turn out to be the humble microwave oven.

A standard kitchen microwave proved effective as part of a two-step process invented at Rice and Swansea universities to clean carbon nanotubes.

Basic nanotubes are good for many things, like forming into microelectronic components or electrically conductive fibers and composites; for more sensitive uses like drug delivery and solar panels, they need to be as pristine as possible.

More than 50 scientists from research institutions in eight countries, among others Germany, UK, USA and Russia have been actively collaborating since 2003 to make this gravity data compilation possible, coordinated by Mirko Scheinert of Technische Universität Dresden, Germany.

Some storms transport ozone molecules to the canopy of the rainforest, influencing chemical processes that ultimately affect cloud formation, according to an international research team led by Penn State. The team conducted a nine-month study in the central Amazon rainforest of Brazil and their findings could be used to improve climate prediction models to more accurately gauge the Amazon's impact on future global weather patterns.

Snowshoe hares that camouflage themselves by changing their coats from brown in summer to white in winter face serious threats from climate change, and it's uncertain whether hare populations will be able to adapt in time, according to a North Carolina State University study.

Based on field research with radio-collared snowshoe hares in Montana, mismatched snowshoe hares suffer a 7 percent drop in their weekly survival rate when snow comes late or leaves early and white hares stand out to predators like "light bulbs" against their snowless backgrounds.

Earth has some special features that set it apart from its close cousins in the solar system, including large oceans of liquid water and a rich atmosphere with just the right ingredients to support life as we know it. Earth is also the only planet that has an active outer layer made of large tectonic plates that grind together and dip beneath each other, giving rise to mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes and large continents of land.

Tsukuba, Japan - A persistent controversy in catalysts for fuel cells has just been solved by a team of researchers from the Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences at the University of Tsukuba.