Earth

Two new studies led by UC Irvine using data from NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites show that civilization is rapidly draining some of its largest groundwater basins, yet there is little to no accurate data about how much water remains in them.

The result is that significant segments of Earth's population are consuming groundwater quickly without knowing when it might run out, the researchers conclude. The findings appear today in Water Resources Research.

Cancer and type 2 diabetes are two of the most significant public health burdens facing the world today, and currently available data suggests their prevalence is expected to continue to increase. Nut consumption has long been hypothesized to have a role in preventing both of these diseases, but until now evidence has been inconsistent. A new systematic review and meta-analysis published in Nutrition Reviews on June 16 shows that nut consumption is, indeed, associated with a decreased risk of certain types of cancer, but not type 2 diabetes.

New research from Aarhus University in Denmark shows that political partisanship is rooted in affective, physiological processes that cause partisans to toe the party line on policies and issues, regardless of policy content.

Previous research has shown that party identifiers are more inclined to agree with policy proposals that are proposed by their own party, independent of the content of the proposal. If the same proposal is issued by a competing party, they will be inclined to respond negatively to it.

In 1915 Albert Einstein formulated the theory of general relativity which fundamentally changed our understanding of gravity. He explained gravity as the manifestation of the curvature of space and time. Einstein's theory predicts that the flow of time is altered by mass. This effect, known as "gravitational time dilation", causes time to be slowed down near a massive object. It affects everything and everybody; in fact, people working on the ground floor will age slower than their colleagues a floor above, by about 10 nanoseconds in one year.

Tropical Storm Bill was making landfall at 11 a.m. CDT on Matagorda Island, Texas on June 16 as NASA and NOAA satellites gathered data on the storm. At NASA a movie of Bill's landfall was created using data from NOAA's GOES-East satellite. The center of Bill is expected to move inland over south-central Texas during the afternoon and night of June 16.

New guidelines providing information, guidance and recommendations for people working with those with hoarding difficulties are launched today, Tuesday 16 June 2015, in London by the British Psychological Society's (BPS) Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP).

The free guidelines, 'A psychological perspective on hoarding: DCP good practice guidelines' have been compiled by clinical psychologists, using expertise and evidence from this area of research. It also includes contributions from those living with hoarding issues as well as their carers.

With infectious diseases increasing worldwide, the need to understand how and why disease outbreaks occur is becoming increasingly important. Looking for answers, a team of University of South Florida (USF) biologists and colleagues found broad evidence that supports the controversial 'dilution effect hypothesis,' which suggests that biodiversity limits outbreaks of disease among humans and wildlife.

The paper describing their research appears in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

New research by NOAA, University of Alaska, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the journal Oceanography shows that surface waters of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas could reach levels of acidity that threaten the ability of animals to build and maintain their shells by 2030, with the Bering Sea reaching this level of acidity by 2044.

A couple of unexplained large scale changes in the waters off the northeast coast of the U.S. have oceanographers perplexed: an accelerated rate of sea level rise compared to most other parts of the world; and the disturbing signs of collapsing fisheries in the region.

After this year's legalization of powdered alcohol, some states have already banned it -- a move that the majority of the public supports, according to a new University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health.

Adults across the country share the same top concern about the new alcohol-on-the-go product: potential misuse among underage youth.

Thousands of stone tools from the early Upper Paleolithic, unearthed from a cave in Jordan, reveal clues about how humans may have started organizing into more complex social groups by planning tasks and specializing in different technical skills.

The Journal of Human Evolution published a study of the artifacts from Mughr el-Hamamah, or Cave of the Doves, led by Emory University anthropologists Liv Nilsson Stutz and Aaron Jonas Stutz.

New research published in this month's edition of United European Gastroenterology journal suggests that supplementation with vitamin D may impact on the intestinal barrier dysfunction associated with Crohn's disease, and could have a role in the treatment of the condition. The study is by Professor Maria O'Sullivan and Tara Raftery. Department of Clinical Medicine, Trinity Centre for Health Sciences, St. James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.

Like many moviegoers this summer, I plan to watch Jurassic World. And because I’m a paleontologist, I’ll cheer for the movie’s protagonists (the dinosaurs) and jeer at the villains (the humans).

But no matter how thrilling this movie may be, one question will plague me throughout: where are the dung beetles?

Dung beetles – which are beetles that eat and breed in dung – would be only one of many ecological necessities for an actual Jurassic World-style theme park.

Regions all over the globe are suffering from severe drought, which threatens crop production worldwide. This is especially worrisome given the need to increase, not just maintain, crop yields to feed the increasing global population.

In this summer's much anticipated blockbuster Jurassic World, actor Chris Pratt joins forces with a pack of swift and lethal velociraptors. 'Velociraptor belongs to a group of predatory dinosaurs called the deinonychosaurs, or simply the 'raptors',' says University of Alberta paleontologist Scott Persons. 'Raptors are characterized by particularly nasty feet. Their big toes each bore an enlarged and wickedly hooked talon, which makes raptors well suited for Hollywood fight scenes.'