SCICENTRAL NEWS ALERT brought to you by [1]SciQuest Generated for Marcia Hemming on Friday, 20-Jul-2001 10:47:50 AM EDT Friday, July 20, 2001 Edition _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ [1]EVOLUTION & PALEONTOLOGY * Ancient Crustacean Raises New Questions * Jurassic Chicken "50-100 Years Off" * Digital Organisms Used to Confirm Evolutionary Process References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-evolut [1]MARINE BIOLOGY * Scientists Identify Methane-Consuming Microbes From Ocean Depths * The Physics of ... Deep-Sea Animals: They Love the Pressure * Coral Reefs Ruined by Global Warming Will Take at Least a Century to Recover References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-marbio [1]WILDLIFE & FISHERIES * Ant Group Dynamics * Gorillas Make an Impressive Splash * A Wallaby School of Self-Defense * Mother Hens Dictate Diet * New Musk Ox and Reindeer Feed Now Available in Alaska * Birds Feel the Rub * Farmers Can Help Reverse Declining Quail Population * Fishing Changes Population * The Trouble With Turtles References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-wildfi [1]ASTRONOMY * Star Clusters Born in the Wreckage of Cosmic Collisions * A Propitious Alignment of Planets * Seventy-Day Jupiter Movie Pulls Patterns Out of Chaos * Watch Global Warming Happen in Real Time -- On Mars * Inside JPL: Technologists, Their Toys and Troubled Times (Special Report) * Planet Gobbling Dust Storms * Telescope Array to Unlock Secrets From Duplicitous Stars * Zooming In on Mars: The Road to Human Missions * Astronomers Find Link Between Earliest Illustration of Sunspots in Medieval Britain and an Observation of Aurora in Medieval Korea References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-astron [1]GEOPHYSICS, SEISMOLOGY, & VOLCANOLOGY * Volcano Research Erupts in Space * Ancient Cities Vanished Into Muddy Morass * Oracle's Secret Fault Found * Surfing and Diving in the Earth's Magnetosphere, Cluster Celebrates One Year of Science in Orbit * Geologists Explain New Happenings at Kilauea Volcano References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geophy [1]METEOROLOGY & CLIMATOLOGY * Earth Likely to Warm 4-7 Degrees by 2100 * Greater Solar Activity May Bring U.S. More Gray Days * Climate Change in Atlantic Larger Than Previously Thought References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-meteo [1]OCEANOGRAPHY * Marine Methane Consumed by Consortia of Bacteria * Climate Change in Atlantic Larger Than Previously Thought References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-oceano [1]SATELLITES & REMOTE SENSING * Volcano Research Erupts in Space * Project to Provide Quick Access to Satellite Data to the Public Through RAPID-AmericaView * HOPE on Trial in Bosnian Mine Fields * Artemis Satellite Safely Under Full Control * Rohini Satellite Completes Mission References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-satrem [1]ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING & BIOREMEDIATION * New System Developed for Removing Contaminants From Storm Run-Off * Power Station on Salt Water * Fresh Air for the Coliseum * Greenhouse Effect, R.I.P. * Researchers Create Fluorescent Molecules That Detect Metal Pollutants in Water, Waste * Researchers Unveil the First Comprehensive Wildfire Forecast for the Western United States * DDT Use in U.S. Linked to Premature Births in the 1960's * The Apparent Energy Shortage References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=E-enviro _________________________________________________________________ � Copyright 2001 SciQuest, Inc. To register, modify your selection of topics, or unsubscribe from this newsletter, please visit: [1]http://newsletter.scicentral.com/cgi-bin/register.cgi _________________________________________________________________ References 1. http://newsletter.scicentral.com/cgi-bin/register.cgi

NEW SCIENTIST WEEKLY NEWSLETTER No. 96, 4 August 2001 ------------------------------------------------------------ Change your newsletter subscription details at: http://www.newscientist.com/sub.jsp?id=361904&e=marci%40aloha.net ------------------------------------------------------------ Bringing you the top headlines from all sections of New Scientist.com each week The new powder that guarantees a sunny day http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991101 Is burning incense as bad as smoking? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991100 Intrusive breast biopsies could become a thing of the past http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991104 Why teachers are more at risk of autoimmune disease http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991106 Could this be the most powerful explosive ever discovered? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991103 US heads for total ban on human cloning http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991099 Lightning may spark evolution http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991102 AND FINALLY... What do a packet of cigarettes and a Taiwanese temple have in common? This week's New Scientist has evidence that burning incense may soothe your soul, but it could be playing havoc with your chest. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991100 ************************************************************************* Discover how five individuals have dedicated their lives to preserving and understanding the animal kingdom. Their unique projects, supported by the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, include elusive snow leopards, unique seahorses, colourful seabirds, majestic griffon vultures, and industrious ground beetles - some of the world's living wonders. http://www.rolexawards.com/special-feature/creatures/index.html *************************************************************************

**************************************** Chinese Checker? Where's Ralph Nader? **************************************** Pajero Victim for Compensation Turned Down by Japanese Car Company Lu Hui, was severely injured by a Pajero V31 automobile because the brakes on the car failed. She was rushed to the hospital but later had to leave on Thursday because her medical expenses were too high. Pajero V31, a model produced by the Japanese Mitsubishi Motor Vehicle Co., has defective brakes that will lead to a brake malfunction or even failure while driving. The design flaw was found last September since several accidents had occurred in Yunnan Province and other places due to the poor quality of Pajero brake system. Zhou Jianhong, Lu's husband, had informed the company's Beijing office time after time that they couldn't afford the medical costs, hoping Lu's treatment would not be delayed. Although Mitsubishi, Thursday, apologized to Chinese consumers for its defective cars, the company turned a deaf ear to Zhou's requirement for immediate compensation. Previously, Mitsubishi had been in trouble due to an outbreak of nationwide discontentment with their refusal to formally apologize and provide compensation. Zhou said in order to raise money for Lu's medical treatment, he has sold his laundry shop, on which the whole family relies on for income. Lu was knocked down by a Pajero when its brakes failed on December 25, 2000 in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan province. Later she was diagnosed as first-degree handicapped because she was paralyzed as a result of the accident. *from Liam, of course*

RUNWAYS REFUSE DEFENCE Hi-res radar scans for runway rubbish. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010816/010816-6.html LEFT IN MUSIC Musicians' brains may use language modules listening to music. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010816/010816-4.html FIRE'S SPREAD LOOKS FRACTAL Fight forest fire's fringes first, suggests new model. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010816/010816-5.html GREAT EXPECTATIONS Placebo mimics drug effects on Parkinson's brains. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010816/010816-1.html PLANTS' ROOTS PUSHED BACK Earth might have turned green earlier. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010816/010816-2.html SOLAR POWER SURGE Self-assembling organic solar cells could harness sunlight cheaply. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010816/010816-3.html VIBRATOR BOOSTS BONE Sheep shake a leg and strengthen thighs. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010809/010809-10.html NANO FIXERS BALANCE BOOKS Single-celled microbes fertilize the oceans. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010809/010809-11.html GRANDMASTERS MATE FROM MEMORY Chunky chess theory shows how best brains battle. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010809/010809-13.html PHYSICISTS PLAY THE NANOPIPE Electrons caught making waves in carbon nanotubes. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010809/010809-12.html STATS SAY AYE TO ID EYE Iris patterns prove their unique credentials. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010809/010809-8.html FUTURE GOES TO MARKET Focus group predictions improve when money is at stake. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010809/010809-9.html VACCINE FROM FLY SPIT Fly saliva could protect us from a dangerous disease. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010809/010809-7.html NIGHT IN BRIGHT LIGHT PLIGHT Light pollution threatens amour and astronomy. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010809/010809-6.html BATS EAT BIRDS ON THE WING Migrating birds should beware of high-flying bats. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010809/010809-5.html

From the indefatigible Liam - Unhappy birthday for the PC By Andy Goldberg in Silicon Valley THE 20-year anniversary of the personal computer, supposed to be a celebration of Silicon Valley's successes, has deteriorated into an unseemly row about who invented it first. The elite of the high-tech industry were set to appear in their black-tie finery last night for a party celebrating the 20th anniversary of the personal computer, but the birthday bash led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Intel boss Andy Grove is reviving the bitterest rivalry in computer history. The event marks the debut on August 12 1981 of the IBM personal computer, a clunky machine that sold at the time for $2,665, powered by the Intel 8088 chip and containing a measly 64 kilobytes of memory - one thousandth the power of today's typical model. more... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected?ac=005740803956591&rtmo=rQhbk2rX&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/8/9/ecnbday.html

NEW SCIENTIST WEEKLY NEWSLETTER - No. 99, 25 August 2001 We talk to "the Isaac Newton of the 21st century" http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp?id=ns230516 Los Angeles is on the move - but it's not a quake http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991184 A genetic mutation is to blame for panic attacks http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991185 Telescopes may soon be able to "see" dark matter http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991187 Primitive sea creatures put our finest optical systems to shame http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991183 How would you like to live over a nuclear power plant? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991186 AND FINALLY... In November 1995, Londoners contacted Scotland Yard claiming they had experienced an earthquake tremor. Investigations revealed that 20,000 rock fans had been jumping up and down at an Oasis concert in Earl's Court, and tremors were being reported up to one mile away. Be warned. At 11am on 7 September 2001 hundreds of thousands of British schoolchildren hope to make the Earth move with "the greatest simultaneous jump in history"... http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opfeedback.jsp?id=ns230599#43 ************************************************************************* Discover how five individuals have dedicated their lives to preserving and understanding the animal kingdom. Their unique projects, supported by the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, include elusive snow leopards, unique seahorses, colourful seabirds, majestic griffon vultures, and industrious ground beetles - some of the world's living wonders. http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;3152517;6044940;c?http://www.rolexawards.com ************************************************************************* Comments on this newsletter can be sent to newsletter@newscientist.com For people who love ideas, subscribe to New Scientist and have it delivered to your door every week, at: http://www.newscientist.com/subscribe/subs_home.jsp?source=newsletter Looking for a new job? Check out more than 1500 international science jobs each week at http://www.newscientistjobs.com Are you a US-based bioscientist or chemist looking for a new job? Check out http://www.sciencejobs.com, a US jobs website produced by New Scientist, Cell Press, BioMedNet, and ChemWeb.com.

Nature Science Update Highlights: 29 August 2001 MAGNET LIFTS LID ON HALF-LIFE Virtual injury catches the brain's halves competing for attention. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-5.html HUMAN GENE NUMBER CLIMBS New estimate ups our gene number by a third. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-4.html GENES REVEAL JUMBO SCHISM Elephants from Africa's plains and forest might be two different species. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-1.html HIMALAYAS ON ALERT The recent earthquake in India killed thousands, but far worse may be in store. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-2.html POTS PAN BUGS Copper kitchenware may lower food-poisoning risk. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-3.html http://www.nature.com/nsu/010823/010823-12.html EYES IN THEIR STARS Engineers envy brittlestar bones' built-in lenses. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010823/010823-11.html PEAT FEELS THE HEAT Global warming speeds wetlands carbon leaching. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010823/010823-13.html KYOTO BEGINS AT HOME Family values could help cut greenhouse gases. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010823/010823-9.html SWAYING COMES BEFORE A FALL Fall prediction gets off to a standing start. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010823/010823-8.html CHIPS KEEP THE CHANGE New circuits rewire themselves and don't go blank when switched off. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010823/010823-7.html ===================================================================== Nature Science Update is produced by the Nature News Service -- the popular science news syndication arm of the leading international science journal Nature. To find out about buying news and features like this for your website or news paper please e-mail: mailto:syndication@nature.com.

SciCentral News Alert for Friday, 31-Aug-2001 [1]EVOLUTION & PALEONTOLOGY * Dinosaur Expert Describes Unusual Feeding in Carnivorous Dinosaur * Permian Extraterrestrial Impact Caused Largest Mass Extinction on Earth * How Did an Infertile Fruit Get to Africa So Soon? * How Well Could Dinosaurs Corner? * Mystery Surrounds the Death of Australia's Megafauna References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-evolut [1]MARINE BIOLOGY * Dust From Africa Leads to Large Toxic Algae Blooms in Gulf of Mexico * Wanted: Reef Cleaners * Article Explores Rebirth of Aquatic Life After Deep-Sea Volcanic Eruption References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-marbio [1]WILDLIFE & FISHERIES * Right Whale Has the Wrong Stuff in Terms of Buoyancy * New Mimic Octopus Survives by Changing Its Identity * Genes Reveal Jumbo Schism * Fungal Enemy Could Explain Worldwide Amphibian Die-Off * Steller Sea Lions Beleaguered by Salmon Farmers and Commercial Fisheries * Technology Hope for Turtles References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-wildfi [1]ASTRONOMY * Europe to Identify Underground Water on Mars * SETI@home: Signal Crunching Yields Little So Far * Astronomers Discover Six-Image Gravitational Lens * Virtual Telescope Observes Record-Breaking Asteroid * The Strange Spires of Callisto * Burst of Star Formation Drives Bubble in Galaxy's Core * Scientists Identify Tagish Lake Meteorite's Origin in Space * A New Comet * Signs of Comets Spotted Around Another Star * Model Describes Birth of the Moon * New Light Pollution Atlas of World Shows Dark Skies Are Rare * The Dilemma of Mars Sample Return References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-astron [1]GEOLOGY * Clocking Ocean Circulation Over One Million Years * NASA Scientists Propose New Theory of Earth's Early Evolution References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geolog [1]GEOPHYSICS, SEISMOLOGY, & VOLCANOLOGY * Etna in Identity Crisis * Solar Max is Over, Earth's Future Looks Brighter * Is Earth's Magnetic Field Failing? * Researchers Fail to Find Alternatives to Huge India Earthquake * Seismologist Shows Deep Earthquakes Come in Pairs * Water Thrown on Earthquake Prediction References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geophy [1]METEOROLOGY & CLIMATOLOGY * "Weaker" El Ni�o Is Coming * Warmer Periods in Alaskan Area Not Confined to Modern Times * Tiny, Unmanned Planes in Florida Help Researchers Assess Storms, Hurricanes * Into the Storm * Peat Feels the Heat * New NASA Satellite Sensor and Field Experiment Shows Aerosols Cool the Surface but Warm the Atmosphere References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-meteo [1]OCEANOGRAPHY * New Scripps Monitoring Devices Set to Detect Clandestine Nuclear Weapons Testing * Clocking Ocean Circulation Over One Million Years * Scientists Explore Underwater Canyon Off New York-New Jersey Harbor * Peat Feels the Heat * Oceans of Power References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-oceano [1]SATELLITES & REMOTE SENSING * Fighting Wildfires Before They Start * New Scripps Monitoring Devices Set to Detect Clandestine Nuclear Weapons Testing * NASA Satellite, University of Maryland and U.S. Forest Service Provide Rapid Response to Wildfires * U.S., China, G7 Countries Flout Satellite Registry * Things That Matter: Eco-logic References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-satrem [1]ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING & BIOREMEDIATION * Why Burn Coal When Wind Power Is Cheap and Plentiful? * Novel Surface Analyzer Effective in Detecting Chemical Warfare Agents * New Light Pollution Atlas of World Shows Dark Skies Are Rare * Oceans of Power References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=E-enviro _________________________________________________________________ � Copyright 2001 SciQuest, Inc. To register, modify your selection of topics, or unsubscribe from this newsletter, please visit: [1]http://newsletter.scicentral.com/cgi-bin/register.cgi _________________________________________________________________

NEW SCIENTIST WEEKLY NEWSLETTER No. 100, 1 September 2001 ------------------------------------------------------------ Change your newsletter subscription details at: http://www.newscientist.com/sub.jsp?id=361904&e=marci%40aloha.net ------------------------------------------------------------ Bringing you the top headlines from all sections of New Scientist.com each week Bush's missile defence system could cause US-bound warheads to drop on Europe and Canada instead http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991210 Machines will be making a song and dance about their work http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991209 Meet the man who's fighting disease--with numbers http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp?id=ns23065 Dads who smoke cannabis are putting their babies at risk http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991213 Using an ulcer drug for abortions is leaving a terrible legacy http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991212 Human speech may be a side effect of our male ancestors trying to intimidate their rivals http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991211 AND FINALLY... NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter came to grief when the craft's designers mixed up metric with imperial units. We're glad to announce that there'll be no such problem at Butlin's Holiday camp at Minehead in Somerset. Swimmers there are told the depths of water in the various pools. In one case the water level is a whole '0 m' deep. Just in case any spacecraft designers decide to holiday in Minehead, this is tactfully converted to '0 ft 0 in'. http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opfeedback.jsp?id=ns230699#30

Nature Science Update Highlights: 3 September 2001 IS THAT STUDY REALLY NECESSARY? Economics helps decide if we should put our money where researchers' mouths are. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010906/010906-3.html APPELLATION MISSION CONTROLL�E Space agency helps wine growers blend a better bottle. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010906/010906-4.html VIRUSES SOUNDED OUT Researchers hope to hear HIV, hepatitis and 'flu. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010906/010906-1.html MERCURY FALLING INTO FOOD CHAIN Sun, sea and snow bring mercury down to Earth. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010906/010906-2.html PARASITE CORRALS COMPUTER POWER You can trick someone else's computer into solving your problems. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-8.html INFECTION KILLS CANCER Virus exploits cancer's common tag. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-9.html ETNA IN IDENTITY CRISIS Sicily's volcano could be getting more violent. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-10.html PRION PAIR PICTURED Domain swapping could be prion couples' downfall. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-6.html NERVE CHIP GOES LIVE First nerve cell-silicon microchip built. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-7.html

A swig of beer could one day protect you from HIV http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991286 The sweaty secrets behind midge bites http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991287 How a roadside robot could save lives http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991290 The inner strength that helps women live longer http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991288 Why molasses gets rid of rust http://staging.newscientist.com/lastword/ A. I. Artificial Intelligence: what Brian Aldiss has to say about the movie http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/ai/likehuman.jsp AND FINALLY... Nobody looks forward to seeing you. Small children sometimes burst into tears at the mere sight of you. No wonder dentists are often said to have a high suicide rate. This week, however, we have news which may improve the popularity of members of this profession - a vaccine which could make toothache and fillings a thing of the past... http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991289

******************************* HIGP Postdoctoral Fellowship ******************************* From: Andy Harris Postdoctoral Fellowship The Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) University of Hawaii at Manoa. HIGP has an immediate opening for one postdoctoral fellow (physical volcanology) to work on conduit processes at persistently active basaltic systems. The fellowship is for 1 year with a possible extension to 3 years, subject to availability of funds. Research will use multiple geophysical data sets to search for cycles in mass fluxes at erupting basaltic systems over a variety of time scales. Data from field work on one or a number of the following volcanoes will be considered: Kilauea (Hawaii), Villarrica (Chile), Strombol and Etna (Italy), and Masaya (Nicaragua). Follow up work will include the derivation and application of conduit convection models to explain any observed trends. A Ph.D. in geology, geophysics or related fields is required. An interest in areas such as conduit convection, degassing, magma/lava rheology, effusive volcanism, strombolian systems; and experience in the gathering and analysis of multiple geophysical data sets at active volcanoes are preferred. This position will include field work on active volcanoes, and so previous field experience would be desirable. A degree of computer literacy, and an interest in conduit convection and rheological modeling would also be useful. To apply, submit a resume including a list of publications and the names, addresses, e-mail, and fax numbers of at least 3 referees by October 15, 2001, to Dr Andrew Harris, HIGP/SOEST, University of Hawaii, 2525 Correa Road, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. The University of Hawaii at Manoa is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. For more details, please contact Andy Harris (harris@higp.hawaii.edu) ******************************* SWRI Volcanologist ******************************* From: Brittain Hill VOLCANOLOGIST, LIMITED-TERM We are looking for a highly motivated and self-directed Research Scientist to help the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission evaluate the probability and consequences of volcanic activity affecting the proposed high-level radioactive waste repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The successful applicant will have an important and visible role in a program of national impact. This position requires interest and experience in the quantitative modeling of volcanic processes, such as magma ascent, tephra dispersal, flow phenomena, or probabilistic risk assessments. Excellent mathematical and computer skills are required. Experience or training in geophysical applications to igneous processes is a plus. In addition to conducting technical investigations, the candidate will participate in document and program reviews, report preparation, and interactions at public meetings. The work environment will include both independent and team-based investigations, and may include field investigations in remote areas. This person also is expected to help develop and contribute to work for various commercial clients, especially in the area of natural hazard and risk assessment. This position complements existing strengths in physical volcanology, petrology, risk assessment, GIS/RS, structural geology, hydrology, geochemistry, and engineering. Requirements include a Ph.D. or M.S. with three years of experience in igneous processes. The successful applicant will be expected to present results of investigations in publications and presentations and therefore should possess outstanding oral and written communication skills. NOTE: All applicants must pass a conflict of interest evaluation and be qualified for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission clearance. This is a 2 year limited-term, full-time position with competitive salary and benefits. Southwest Research Institute is an independent, nonprofit, applied engineering and physical sciences research and development organization with nine technical divisions. The Institute occupies 1,200 acres and provides nearly two million square feet of laboratories, test facilities, workshops, and offices for more than 2,700 employees who perform contract work for industry and government clients. Please submit resumes to bhill@swri.edu or faxed to (210) 522-5155. Resumes also can be mailed to Dr. Brittain Hill, Southwest Research Institute, P.O. Drawer 28510, San Antonio, Texas 78228-0510, or submitted through the Southwest Research Institute job site at www.swri.org

Can bubbles explain the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991350 Beam me up: teleportation comes closer http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991346 How urine could cut diesel pollution http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991347 Laughing aloud - women giggle, men snort http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991348 The man who wants to bring back wolves http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp?id=ns23105 AND FINALLY... Rain bouncing off power lines causes a low humming noise, reports this week's Last Word. And it seems that the heavier the rain, the louder the noise. The wires are live with the sound of music? Perhaps not... http://www.newscientist.com/lastword/

USGS Scientists To Discuss Breaking Science News What: U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists from around the nation will gather next week in Boston to discuss current and breaking science news with colleagues from around the world. Where: Geological Society of America Annual Meeting will be held from November 5 through November 8 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. Media Availabilties: America's Coastal Crisis ? How to Protect Coastal Resources: discuss erosion of U.S. shorelines. Assuming no additional beach nourishment or other protective measures are taken, the nation will lose 1,500 homes each year to coastal erosion. Monday, November 5, 12:30 p.m., Room 109 Energy Resources on Federal Lands: 70 percent of clean coal resources and most onshore oil areas in Northern Alaska are on Federal lands. Discuss with the experts. Tuesday, November 6, 10 a.m., Room 109. Seismic Does Matter ? Even in Boston: USGS Associate Director for Geology, Dr. P. Patrick Leahy will be on hand to discuss current work being done by USGS and how new tools are being developed to give advance warnings on earthquakes. This year, the Advanced National Seismic System, which gives emergency responders real-time earthquake information is being installed in Boston and New York! Wednesday, November 7, 11 a.m., Room 108. Call Carolyn Bell in the GSA newsroom at 617-954-3214 for details. Highlights: America's Coastal Crisis ? a discussion about critical geoscience information needed to conserve and protect America's coastal resources will be help Monday, November 5 at 8 a.m. in Room 112. Changing Geology of Appalachia ? A new USGS video about the geology of the Southern Appalachian Mountains will be showcased on Monday, November 5 at 3 p.m. in Room 304. Using LIDAR to Map Coastal Change: Learn how USGS scientists and others are using new remote sensing-based capabilities for coastal studies and natural resources management. Tuesday, November 6, 2001 at 9:15 a.m., Room 210. Florida Bay Restoration ? Recent evidence collected by USGS scientists from the muddy bottom of Florida Bay shows that some changes in the ecosystem are natural, but some are not. Tuesday, November 6 at 11:45 a.m. in Room 210. Chesapeake Bay Crater ? What happens when a mile-wide rock slams into the earth at supersonic speed? USGS scientists discuss what they've learned so far about the monster rock which changed America thousands of years ago. Three different sessions: Tuesday, November 6 at 4:45 p.m. in Room 202; Thursday, November 8 at 2:45 p.m. in Room 200 and at 4:15 p.m. in Room 304. Energetic Discussion of Coal, Oil and Gas ? As America's need for energy increases, science plays a critical role in providing information necessary for resource managers to make good decisions. Hear top experts discuss how American can meet the energy challenge. Two discussions: Northern Alaska Oil ? Wednesday, November 7 at 2:15 p.m. in Room 313; Coal in Western States ? Wednesday, November 7 at 3:35 p.m. in Room 313. Florida Sand Reveals Ancient River ? A huge sand delta in Southern Florida, discovered in 1999 by USGS scientists and others, reveals that an ancient river, larger than any current Florida river, once flowed through the state. Thursday, November 8, at 1:30 p.m. in Convention Center Hall D. For more information on any of these events or other USGS science, visit our webpage at http://www.usgs.gov The USGS serves the nation by providing reliable scientific information to: describe and understand the Earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect our quality of life. *** USGS ***

The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (11/6/2001) ----------------------------------------------------------------- New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * New Light on Ice Motion (DAAC Study) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Antarctica/ MODIS' unprecedented high resolution reveals clues to antarctic topography and ice history. -------------------- In the News: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Hurricane Michelle http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=5209 Pi�on Canyon Region, Colorado http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=5208 Napoli and Volcanism - Vesuvius and Mt. Etna http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=5207 Where on Earth...? MISR Mystery Image Quiz #4 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=5206 Falkland Islands http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=5204 Lake Chad and the Sahel http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=5199 Dust Blankets the Mediterranean http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=5198 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Satellites Shed Light on a Warmer World * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Greenland Ice Sheet Melting - NASA Helps Map Flood Zones - British Butterflies in Decline - Nature Reveals Evidence of a Warming World - Storms Lower Ozone Levels - Global Warming Alert Issued for U.S. Gulf States * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/ -------------------- New Data: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/ * Updated Data: 4km TRMM Fires data for October 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/fires.trmm.html Precipitation data for July 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/rainfall.gpcp.html - Earth Observatory Announcements http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov To unsubscribe: send body "unsubscribe eo-announce " to majordomo@eodomo.gsfc.nasa.gov

Nature Science Update Highlights: 26 November 2001 SUN SUCKS UP GAS Solar swirls may predict space weather. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-5.html DNA REPAIR COULD REDUCE SUNBURN An immune system chemical may undo skin damage by sunlight. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-6.html FORTIFIED FLOUR FRACAS Compulsory folic acid supplementation may hold risks. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-4.html CLONED COWS IN THE PINK Healthy cows buck the trend for sickly clones. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-1.html BSE'S EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS While prion diseases seem to be waning in humans, they could be waxing in sheep. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-2.html MATERIAL BONES UP Programmed molecules build themselves into a bone-mimic. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-3.html WATER DROP HOLDS A TRILLION COMPUTERS Devices with DNA software may one day be fitted into cells. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011122/011122-11.html LOGGING FUELS FIRE Felling trees raises rainforests' risk of burning. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011122/011122-12.html THIEVES NOT THICK Criminal behaviour suggests birds' brains are more sophisticated than we thought. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011122/011122-13.html STIFF CHALLENGE TO INSTABILITY The secret of a steady hand is tightening the right muscles. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011122/011122-15.html DECEPTION FUELS DOMESTIC BLISS Evolution may make men ignorant and gullible. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011122/011122-9.html HIV SKIPS SHRINKING RAFTS Cholesterol capping limits HIV replication. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011122/011122-8.html FRIENDS ARE STRANGER THAN STRANGERS If your friends were normal people they would not know you. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011122/011122-7.html ===================================================================== SPECIAL FEATURES: THE REGENERATION GAP Newts grow new legs, Hydra new heads. These remarkable creatures may hold clues for researchers developing human cellular therapies. But the connections are only now starting to be made. Helen Pearson reports. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011122/011122-14.html

Are these National Inquirer Headlines?

NO !!! http://www.nature.com/nature/ NATURE is a very august and learned Journal from the UK. (That means it is difficult to read, has long colvoluted sentences, and the topics are abstruse.) But.... you can trust what it prints!

A camouflage make-up protects soldiers from the heat of battle http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/tech/ Whales show the way to a cleaner, greener boat http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991616 Use your cellphone to name any song in three seconds flat http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991619 Is carbon the key to superconductors that work at room temperature? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991618 Have mosquitoes finally met their match? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991615 Tiny black holes may be exploding in our cosmic backyard http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991617 AND FINALLY... At the ripe old age of eight, Cog is still one of the world's most famous humanoid robots. For science reporters who gain entry to MIT's Media Lab in Cambridge, an audience with this celebrity resident is akin to a music fan meeting Mick Jagger. Sadly, however, Cog is not himself at the moment. This week's Feedback column is alarmed to hear that he has been decapitated - and even more alarmed to learn this head head has been replaced with that of a mechanical ant... http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opfeedback.jsp?id=ns231999#31 ************************************************************************* Whether you want to brush up your French for a holiday, get fluent in Italian or start Arabic from scratch, there's a course for you at Linguaphone. Choose from over 500 courses in 30 languages and decide how fast you want to take it. Click here now and start to enjoy learning a new language - http://www.panpartnership.co.uk:80/do/session/new/vsid/871647

NEW SCIENTIST WEEKLY NEWSLETTER No. 114, 8 December 2001 Bringing you the top headlines from all sections of New Scientist.com each week Higgs boson: are physicists spending billions on a wild goose chase? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991649 Like it or not Britain's economy is already bound up with the Euro http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991651 Why do sheep glow in the dusk? http://www.newscientist.com/lastword/ Severed optical nerves can be made to grow again http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991646 Does Europa's rosy glow betray a flourishing colony of bugs? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991647 Ultrasound could target drug delivery in the brain http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991644

FIT RATS GET ROUND THE BENDS Physical exercise could stave off decompression sickness. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-4.html MARS TAKES ITS CAP OFF Mars' polar ice caps are slowly melting. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-1.html NEW NERVES WIPE MEMORY Nerve cells can break memories, as well as make them. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-2.html POT-BELLIED MICE MIMIC OBESITY Genetically engineered mice get fat like we do. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-3.html ANCESTORS SKIP ADOLESCENCE Dental diary of a teenage hominid aged 1.5 million years. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-10.html WATER POWER A new material helps to make clean fuel from water. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-11.html FLESH-EATERS MAKE SKIN CREEP Bacteria give skin cells their marching orders. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-12.html WHO WANTS TO BE A COSMONAUT? Russians start countdown to space game show. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-8.html LESSONS IN LANDSCAPE Keeping parks pretty means tailoring the trees to their source of water. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-9.html RADIATION ZAPS BYSTANDERS Radon may pose a greater cancer threat than has been thought. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-7.html QUANTUM COMPUTERS SPREAD THE RISK A balanced portfolio of programs could mean a faster quantum computer. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-6.html ===================================================================== SPECIAL FEATURE: THE BUDDING AMATEURS From the results of an annual Alaskan betting contest to sightings of migratory birds, ecologists are using a wealth of unusual data to predict the impact of climate change. John Whitfield rummages in the archives. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-13.html ===================================================================== Nature Science Update is produced by the Nature News Service -- the popular science news syndication arm of the leading international science journal Nature.

* Earth's Magnetic Field Really Did Reverse Itself * Melting Glaciers Diminished Gulf Stream, Cooled Western Europe, During Last Ice Age * Global Warming More Common Than Thought, Deep-Sea Drilling Off Japan Now Demonstrates References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geolog

GEOPHYSICS, SEISMOLOGY, & VOLCANOLOGY NEWS * Researchers Investigate Mysteries of the African Rift * Fractal Models of Blue Jets, Blue Starters Show Similarity, Differences to Red Sprites * Well-Studied Volcano May Be Clue to Better Modeling * Scientist Anticipates Major Eruption of Peru's El Misti Volcano * Lifting the Veil on Black Aurorae * U.S. Earthquake Monitoring, Reporting Severely Hampered by Shutdown of Department of Interior Internet Connections * Deepsea Cores Offer New Clues to Earthquake Cycles * Where Lightning Strikes * The Sun's Chilly Impact on Earth * TIMED Atmospheric Spacecraft Successfully Launched References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geophy

New Scientist Newsletter 15 December 2001 A tasteless additive could give an extra zing to drinks http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991677 How does bone manage to be so tough? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991682 Our best defence against a bioterrorist attack http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991683 Smallpox: if the virus ever gets out... http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991680 Why an IVF technique could be riskier than we thought http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991678 How did people draw straight lines before they had rulers? http://www.newscientist.com/lastword/ AND FINALLY... If you've ever found yourself wrestling with a pot of strawberry conserve at 4 am after one sambuca too many, we've got some good news for you. Scientists have finally found a way to make jars easier to open... http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991684

The littlest lizard World's smallest reptile is discovered in the Caribbean forest. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-3.html Good vibrations Honeycomb geometry helps dancing bees gather an audience. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-4.html Exercising your genes Researchers are homing in on the genetics of physical ability. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-5.html Reserves raise fish stocks Fishing thrives alongside protected areas. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-1.html Catch figures fishy Recalculation reveals falling global fish stocks. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-12.html Massive hole makes theories leaky Surprising black hole weigh-in has astronomers scratching their heads. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-13.html Mothers could save the whale Sparing a few right whale mums could keep the species from extinction. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-14.html Exorcising Einstein's spooks Is there another layer of reality beyond quantum physics? http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-15.html Human clone not miracle cure Rewiring the egg: mechanism remains murky. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-9.html Feel the music Deaf people use 'mind's ear' to process vibrations. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-10.html Distant starlight reveals alien atmosphere Hubble spots atmosphere on planet 150 light years away. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-11.html Global goal frenzy It's official: English football teams score fewer goals. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-8.html Neutrinos feel the force The orthodox worldview of fundamental physics is challenged by new experiments. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-7.html DNA repair could reduce sunburn An immune system chemical may undo skin damage by sunlight. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-6.html ===================================================================== Nature Science Update is produced by the Nature News Service -- the popular science news syndication arm of the leading international science journal Nature.

Nature Science Update Highlights: 17 December 2001 Another nanobrick in the wall Chemists make the world's smallest building blocks. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-6.html Space probe shows comet sense Deep Space 1 reveals Borrelly's dark secrets. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-5.html Cosmos to freeze-frame The Universe could be slipping away from us forever. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-4.html Abrupt climate change likely Report calls for research and policy to cope with volatile climate. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-3.html Blame it on the bugs Squid harbour live-in lighting to keep predators in the shade. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-2.html Holes barred by protein purse-string Suicidal cells are squeezed out of the way. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-1.html Vaccines breed viciousness Vaccinations may increase death toll. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-14.html Smallpox, big problem? Smallpox would spread rapidly through an unprotected world. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-15.html Turkeys gobble young Big Christmas birds start eating early. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-13.html Cells' generators star in action movie Microscope captures mitochondria bopping to a beat. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-12.html Broken seesaw warms North Pressure system secrets could help long range forecasts. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-11.html Space weather forecast step closer The Sun's violent outbursts have deep and twisted origins. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-7.html Bladder control works at a stretch Recycling cell membranes help the bladder go from walnut to basketball sized. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-8.html Muscle is plastic fantastic Stem cells' fates are a multiple choice. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-9.html Unveiling the aurora Satellites have detected the shifting forces that weave the Northern Lights. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-10.html Grubs up grains' protein Pest could give grains a nutritional boost. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-6.html ===================================================================== Nature Science Update is produced by the Nature News Service -- the popular science news syndication arm of the leading international science journal Nature.

Early Christians hid the origins of the Bethlehem star http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991713 Belize dam is all set to go ahead despite danger to wildlife http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991716 James Bond's Q would be proud of the toy US coastguards want for Christmas http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991715 Home phones get bitten by the texting bug http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991714 2001 set to be second warmest year on record http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991710 Anthrax vaccination offered to exposed US workers http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991712 Grossology. It's the science of really gross things... http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp?id=ns232216 AND FINALLY... Not everybody enjoys sniffing cocaine or "flying too high with some guy in the sky". But with the exception of Cole Porter, most people claim they get a "kick" from champagne. They say it goes "straight to their head", making them giggly and light-headed. And they're right. This week's New Scientist has the first evidence that the bubbles in this most celebratory of tipples really do get you drunk more quickly. Happy New Year... http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991717 ************************************************************************* HOW 8000 OF THE WORLD'S TOP SCIENTISTS ARE GETTING CLOSER TO BUSINESS After inventing the jet engine, radar and LCDs, QinetiQ is now creating competitive advantage for businesses large and small. QinetiQ is Europe's largest science and technology organisation formed from the major part of DERA, the British Government's defence research and development organisation. With experience spanning aviation, transport, healthcare, telecommunications, materials and more, it is also behind, QinetiQ 1, the next attempt on the world altitude record for a manned balloon. http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/clk;3623115;6659265;l?http://www.qinetiq.com

PREDICTION IS BETTER FOR CURE Gene screen could offer cancer patients tailor-made treatments. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011227/011227-7.html DON'T STEP ON IT THIS HOLIDAY Smooth driving is the key to fewer traffic jams. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011227/011227-6.html MUSCLES DAMP BAD VIBRATIONS Tiny fibres ensure racehorses don't bounce themselves to bits. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011227/011227-5.html MAN'S IMPACT ON PLANET ENIGMATIC Environmental even keel or global crisis - no one knows. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011227/011227-4.html NEW SQUID ON THE BLOCK Deep-sea submersibles meet a six-metre squid. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011227/011227-3.html FUNNIEST JOKE FOUND First results in from largest-ever look at humour. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011227/011227-1.html CONSERVATIONISTS PATCH IT UP Urban wildlife may not use green corridors. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-14.html CHANNEL TOUCHES A NERVE Pore removal makes mice touchy but not feely. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-15.html SHOOTING STARS SUGAR COATED Meteorites could have sweetened the earliest life. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-11.html MOLECULES BRING ABOUT FACE A small chemical change has a big effect on a developing face. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-12.html WINE FIGHTS HEART FOE Red wine may suppress one of the main chemical culprits in heart disease. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-13.html IT'S THE DRINK TALKING Tripping tongues betray tipsiness. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-10.html FLICKERING SUN SWITCHED CLIMATE A solar slump may have chilled the Northern Hemisphere. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-9.html RACEHORSE RELATIONS Modern thoroughbreds run on narrow genetic lines. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-8.html WAVES MAKE BUG BREAK POINT Sloshing proteins help bacteria find their waists. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-7.html ===================================================================== FOCUS: INDULGENCE INVESTIGATED Nature Science Update's round-up of stories for the forthcoming holiday season. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011227/011227-2.html =====================================================================

GENOME EXPOSES BURIED BUGS Knowing the human genetic sequence helps unearth invaders. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-14.html RING OF TRUTH TO OLD WIVES' TALE? 'Feed a cold, starve a fever' may make sense, say immunologists. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-13.html ART HISTORY DOUBLES Engraved stones from South Africa could be the oldest works of art. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-11.html CAUSE OF SICK CLONES CONTESTED Tentative diagnosis of clones' complaints. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-10.html SEAWEED INSPIRES ANTIBACTERIAL Stopping bugs communicating can keep them apart. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-12.html SHEEP THREAT FENCED OUT Estimates of CJD risk from sheep remain woolly. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-7.html HUBBUB AT GALACTIC HUB X-rays show the centre of our Galaxy to be full of furious activity. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-9.html BALLAST PURGE SCUPPERS INVASIONS A new way to stop ships rusting could also benefit the environment. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-8.html PROSPERITY THROUGH PUNISHMENT Retribution can breed cooperation. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-6.html PROTEOME REVEALS PROMISCUITY Proteins' complex social habits exposed. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-5.html COWS COULD FOSTER FLU PANDEMICS Cattle join farmyard of potential influenza carriers. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-4.html ELECTRONIC TONGUE HAS GOOD TASTE Hand-held tasting device displays highly discriminating palate. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-3.html SOLID STOPS LIGHT A crystal that holds light could facilitate quantum computing. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-2.html OBSERVATORY COULD DETECT HIDDEN DIMENSIONS Cosmic rays could find holes in Standard Model of particle physics. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-1.html ===================================================================== Nature Science Update is produced by the Nature News Service

The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (01/29/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ *Latest Images: Volcanoes: R�union Island Volcano Erupts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_ id=1613 Volcanoes: Nyiragongo Volcano Erupts in the Congo http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_ id=1612 Severe Storms: Tropical Cyclone 10s (Dina) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_ id=1614 In the News: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Perspective View, Mount Shasta, California http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7273 McMurdo Dry Valleys http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7272 Shrimp Farms and Mangroves, Gulf of Fonseca http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7271 R�union Island Volcano Erupts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7270 Balance of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7268 Volga Delta and the Caspian Sea http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7267 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - New Satellite Maps Reveal Where in the World Lightning Strikes - U.S. Ecology Dramatically Altered by Fertilizers and Acid Rain * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Climate Change Following Collapse Of The Maya Empire - The K-T Impact Extinctions: Dust Didn't Do It - Counterintuitively, After Extreme Droughts, Wading Birds Flourish * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Antarctic Island Called a Unique Climate Change Lab - Dead Sea Keeps Falling - United Kingdom Faces Summers of Malaria - Massive Ice Cap Could Almost Disappear By 2100 - Study Links El Nino to Deadly South American Disease - Climate Change May Bring More Winter Floods in California * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/

The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (02/5/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * Hantavirus Risk Maps (DAAC Study) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Hanta/ Satellite and ground truth data help scientists predict the risk of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. * Tracking a Volcano: Satellite Observations of Piton de la Fournaise http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ReunionIsland/ NASA satellite data from Terra and Landsat provide a unique perspective on the current eruption of the Piton de la Fournaise volcano. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Dust and Smoke: Dust Storm Off Southern Coast of Iceland http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?i http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_ id=1616 Volcano: Nyiragongo Volcano Erupts in the Congo http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?i http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_ id=1615 -------------------- In the News: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Snow and Ice Storm in the Midwest http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7281 Nyiragongo lava flows http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7280 Plant Productivity in the West Indian Ocean http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7279 New Orleans, Louisiana http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7278 Northern Patagonian Ice Field, Chile http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7277 Watching the World Rev its Heat Engine http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7276 Coccoliths in the Celtic Sea http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7275 Sulfur Dioxide Emissions from Congo Volcanoes http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7274 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Satellites vs. Mosquitoes: Tracking West Nile Virus in the U.S - Satellites Tracking Climate Changes and Links to Disease Outbreaks in Africa - Fewer Clouds Found In Tropics: NASA scientists discover new evidence of climate change * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/ -------------------- New Data: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/ * Updated Data: TOMS Aerosol Index data for December 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/aerosol.toms.html 4km TRMM Fires data for November 2001 - January 2002 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/fires.trmm.html Ozone data for December 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/ozone.toms.html Sea Surface Temperature data for November 1999 - December 1999 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/sst.avhrr.html UV Radiation Exposure data for December 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/uv.toms.html - Earth Observatory Announcements http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (02/12/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Special Imagery: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/ This spectacular �blue marble� image is the most detailed true-color image of the entire Earth to date. Using a collection of satellite-based observations, scientists and visualizers stitched together months of observations of the land surface, oceans, sea ice, and clouds into a seamless, true-color mosaic of every square kilometer (.386 square mile) of our planet. Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Dust and Smoke: Plumes over Baja California http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=1620 Dust and Smoke: Smoke Over Southern Andes Mountains http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=1618 Volcano: Colima Volcano Erupts in Mexico http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=1619 Storm: Cyclone Chris Hits Australia http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=1617 -------------------- In the News: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Smoke from the Fallbrook Fire and Dust from Baja http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7287 The Blue Marble http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7286 Anti-Atlas Mountains, Morocco http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7285 Salt Lake City, Utah, Perspective View http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7284 Monitoring the Spread of West Nile Virus with Satellite Data http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7283 Winter and Summer Views of the Salt Lake Region http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7282 Snow and Ice Storm in the Midwest http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7281 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Thrusters Precisely Guide EO-1 Satellite In Space First - NASA Images Capture Golds, Silvers and Bronzes of Utah Olympic Site * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - High CO2 Levels Hamper Nitrate Incorporation by Plants * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - New Iceberg Breaks Free in Antarctica - Equatorial Water Belt Slackens - Satellites Help Track Disease Epidemics - El Ni�o Taking Baby Steps - Climate Threat to Australian Forests - Calibrating the Human Impact Within Earth's Climate Record - Ecology Dramatically Altered by Fertilizers, Acid Rain * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/

Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Fire: Wildfires in Chile http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=1623 Dust and Smoke: Massive Dust Plume Emanates from China http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=1622 -------------------- In the News: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Fires in Chile http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7757 Western United States Beyond the Four Corners http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7756 Mosaic of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7755 Perspective View: San Diego, California http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7291 A Better Global Thermometer http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7290 Where on Earth...? MISR Mystery Image Quiz #6 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7289 Saharan Dust over the Atlantic http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7288 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Snow Science, Not Sport, in the Rockies - Highlights From NASA Presentations at AAAS Symposium - Terra Measures Sea Surface Temperature with Unprecedented Detail * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Global Warming Lengthens Day

YUM, AMINO ACIDS Molecules with a taste for monosodium glutamate give protein flavour http://www.nature.com/nsu/020218/020218-21.html STOP AND SEARCH Glowing nanobots map microscopic surfaces. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020218/020218-19.html REALITY CHECK FOILS SPIDER-MAN Captain America wins superhero networking crown. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020218/020218-17.html BATH TOYS SHOW STRENGTH IN NUMBERS Miniature floating craft can be programmed to move and assemble in complex ways. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020218/020218-18.html LINK BETWEEN CLIMATE AND MALARIA BROKEN Africa's malaria resurgence isn't down to global warming. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020218/020218-12.html FISSION STATEMENT Alternative yeast joins genome party. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020218/020218-13.html ACID COULD WRECK WRECK Raised warship's quandary underlines need to let sunken ships lie. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020218/020218-15.html

The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (02/26/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- New Reference: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/ * Weather Forecasting Through the Ages http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/WxForecasting/ Only fifty years ago, weather forecasting was an art, derived from the inspired interpretation of data from a loose array of land-based observing stations, balloons, and aircraft. Since then it has evolved substantially, based on an array of satellite and other observations and sophisticated computer models simulating the atmosphere and sometimes additional elements of the Earth's climate system. The AIRS/AMSU/HSB combination on board the [soon to be launched] EOS Aqua satellite should further these advances, enabling more accurate predictions over longer periods. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Volcano: Smoke Plume from Mt. Oyama http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2109 Dust and Smoke: Dust Over Great Australian Bight http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2110 Storm: Cyclone Guillaume Off Reunion Island http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2107 Storm: Low-pressure System Off Australia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2108 -------------------- In the News: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: NASA's Quikscat Spacecraft Turns Operational http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7764 Akpatok Island http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7763 Santa Maria Volcano, Guatemala http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7762 Open-cell cloud formation over the Bahamas http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7761 Cyclone Guillaume http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7760 Dusty Skies over Southern California http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7759 Wintertime in the Western U.S. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7758 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - New NASA Global Change Master Directory Available - Santa Ana Winds Swirl Through the Southland - NASA's Quikscat Spacecraft Turns Operational * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Snow-Pit Project to Predict Flooding - Fish Bones Give Clues to the Beginning of El Nino - Polar Warming Continues With Ice Mass Losses - Global Warming Will be Around the Next 100 Years - Pollution Drying Up Rainfall - Sea Level Set To Rise Dramatically - Forecasters Get New Ally - Terra Takes Sea Surface Temperature With Precision - Links Between El Nino, Disease - A Satellite With an Icy Mission * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/ -------------------- Data and Images http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/ *New Data: Snow Cover and Ice Depth data for January 1978 - December 1996 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/snow_ice.smmr.html * Updated Data: TOMS Aerosol Index data for January 2002 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/aerosol.toms.html Ozone data for January 2002 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/ozone.toms.html UV Radiation Exposure data for January 2002 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/uv.toms.html

The Deep Lake Drilling Project You've heard of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, the most fruitful scientific research program ever carried out. An inspired young man named Kerry Kelts re-created it on land, which involved not only building a collapsible drilling ship but inventing a whole new branch of science. Kelts died too young, but he lived to see it happen. http://geology.about.com/library/weekly/aa031002a.htm

The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (03/12/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Webcast of the GRACE Satellite Launch! The twin satellites named GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) are being launched to make detailed measurements of Earth's gravity field. *Make sure to watch the launch at 4:23AM EST, Saturday, March 16 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. The webcast will be broadcast on the following websites: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov http://www.nasa.gov/ntv http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/ New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * Testing the Waters http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/WaterQuality/ In the Upper Midwest, lakes are central to people's lives. Unfortunately, monitoring water quality for 30,000 plus lakes in the region has never been possible. Water quality measurements have always been taken by hand, and the states have traditionally had the resources to monitor only a small percentage. Now with the backing of NASA, scientists at the Michigan State University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin have begun using satellite data to measure lake quality. Within the next three years, they should be able to create a comprehensive water quality map for the entire Great Lakes region. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Unique Imagery: �Bull�s Eye� � The Richat Structure, Mauritania http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2124 Fire: Fires and Heavy Smoke in Sumatra http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2123 Storm: Cyclone Hary Approaches Madagascar http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2121 Unique Imagery: Red Tide Strands South African Rock Lobsters http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2120 Storm: Typhoon Mitag Northeast of the Philippines http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2122 -------------------- In the News: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Twin Cyclones Result From Shift in the Trade Winds http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7779 Typhoon Mitag Northeast of the Philippines http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7778 Araca River http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7777 Shiveluch�Kamchatkan volcanoes http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7776 Boston, Massachusetts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7774 Red Tide Strands South African Rock Lobsters http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7773 Early Spring Dust over the Mediterranean Sea http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7772 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Digital Photos from Solar Airplane to Improve Coffee Harvest - Grace Space Twins Set to Team Up to Track Earth's Water and Gravity - NASA Study Links El Nino and Southern Ocean Changes * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Hurricane floods pose risk to environment, health, new research on 1999 storm reveals * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Global Warming May Not Harm Marine Food - Why It's Dry - Signs of New El Ni�o Strengthen - 'Snowball Earth' Theory Melted - NASA Study Links El Ni�o and Antarctic Sea Ice - Global Warming to Raise Sea Level - Global Warming Threatening State Birds? - Global Warming Creates Grim Future for Forests - Global Warming Stalks Small Commonwealth States - Future Volcanic Eruptions May Cause Ozone Hole Arctic - Ozone Layer Will Thin Even as Holes Heal - Drought Grips Much of USA, Stirs Water Supply Fears * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/

I don't know where to put this - It worries me exceedingly: Huge lung cancer rise in Greece Smoking is the main cause of an increase in recorded incidences of lung cancer in Greece, where up to 6,000 sufferers die every year, according to research by the European Pneumonological Society. It was made public yesterday ahead of a conference on �Lungs and the Environment� starting in Athens on Friday. �There has been a 50 percent increase over the last 30 years, and this reflects the spread of the disease to the female population,� Professor Panayiotis Behrakis said. Another 20 percent is attributed to atmospheric pollution, Greeks are diagnosed with lung cancer at a higher rate than their European counterparts, with 3 percent more cases recorded every year. Greek women more vulnerable than European women and Greek men under 44 more likely targets than other European men of the same age. Greek men and women are younger � between 40 and 45 � when they contract lung cancer. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_4170118_13/03/2002_14347

The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory(03/19/2002) New Reference: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/ * GRACE Fact Sheet http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/GRACE/ The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment is the inaugural mission of the Earth System Science Pathfinder program. Launched in March 2002, it is a five-year mission intended to produce maps of the Earth's gravity field with unprecedented precision and resolution. Not only will GRACE benefit studies in the field of geodesy, but also, the Earth Science community eagerly anticipates the mission. More precise gravity measurements will improve the accuracy of inputs into models used by many disciplines that study Earth's climate - including hydrology, oceanography and studies of the solid earth. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Dust and Smoke: Dust Cloud over Sea of Japan http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2609 http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2609 Unique Imagery: Snow Cover Across Scandinavia http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2611 Fire: Fires and Smoke in Thailand http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2608 Fire: Fires and Heavy Smoke in Sumatra http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2127 Dust and Smoke: Smog Obscures Chinese Coast http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2126 Storm: Cyclone Hary Off Madagascar http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2125 -------------------- In the News: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Spring Dust Storm Smothers Beijing http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8256 Caman�, Peru, and Tsunami Vulnerability http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7785 Water Quality Monitoring http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7784 Atlas Mountains http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7783 Fires and Heavy Smoke in Sumatra http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7782 A Vortex Street in the Arctic http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7781 Meteor Crater, Arizona http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7780 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Red Tide Strands Lobsters - NASA Technology Transfer Project Offers Dramatic Agricultural Benefits - Scientists Say 'Grace' as Water-Sensing Satellites Lift Off - Recent Shifts in Pacific Winds May Support El Ni�o Formation * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Behind the Big Dry - Researchers Capture Unusual Sprite-like Blue Jet - U.S. Forests May Be Products of Pollution * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Climate Change Starves Southern Ocean of Oxygen - How's the Weather? - Drought Bringing Early Allergies - More Carbon Dioxide Effects Plants Ability to Use Nitrogen - Earth Observatory Announcements http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (03/26/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * Highways of a Global Traveler - Tracking Tropospheric Ozone http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/GlobalTraveler/ Ozone in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) is toxic to human beings and to many other living things that breathe it. After combining satellite observations with data-rich models that simulate the atmosphere's chemistry and dynamics, scientists are finding tropospheric ozone in some unexpected places. Tropospheric ozone turns out to be an intercontinental traveler, crossing geographic and political boundaries. Where ozone forms and where it travels have become key concerns for international health and economic policy-making. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Fire: Fires and Heavy Smoke in Sumatra http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2621 Dust and Smoke: Dust Cloud over Sea of Japan http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2622 Dust and Smoke: Dust Cloud over Sea of Japan http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2622 Unique Imagery: Black Water off the Gulf Coast of Florida http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2620 Dust and Smoke: Dust Over East Africa and Israel http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2618 Dust and Smoke: Dust Cloud over Sea of Japan http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2622 Unique Imagery: Black Water off the Gulf Coast of Florida http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2620 -------------------- In the News: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Model Forecasts of the Tropical Pacific http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8263 Kiritimati, Kiribati (Christmas Island) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8262 Dust Obscures Korea http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8261 Bolivia Deforestation http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8260 Mysterious Black Water off Florida's Gulf Coast http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8259 Smoke over Sumatra, Indonesia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8258 Breakup of the Larsen Ice Shelf, Antarctica http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8257 * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - For the First Time in 30 Years, Some New York Lakes Failed to Freeze This Past Winter - Report Supports Sustainable Food Production - Pollen Production-and Allergies-May Rise Significantly Over Next 50 Years - Riverways Create as Much Pollution as Highways - 'Mercury Sunrise' Phenomenon Found in Antarctica - Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses in Largest Event of Last 30 Years * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Tree-ring Study Raises Greenhouse-theory Questions - Pollen Levels and Allergies to Rise Significantly - Global Warming Blamed as Huge Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses - Recent Shifts in Pacific Winds May Support El Nino Formation - Russia Launches Satellites on US-German Climate Mission - Warming World 'Means Longer Days' - Satellites Blow the Surprises of World's Wild Weather - Reduced Carbon Dioxide Feedback to Atmosphere from Oceans - A Chilling Effect on the Global Melt - Growth of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Have Slowed - New Scheme Could Improve Weather Forecasting - SeaWinds Satellite Provides Faster Cyclone Warnings - Warming Trend Seen for the Northeast * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/ -------------------- New Data: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/ * Updated Data: TOMS Aerosol Index data for February 2002 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/aerosol.toms.html 4km TRMM Fires data for February 2002 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/fires.trmm.html Precipitation data for September - October 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/rainfall.gpcp.html UV Radiation Exposure data for February 2002 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/uv.toms.html - Earth Observatory Announcements http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

* Global Warming Fact Sheet http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/GlobalWarming/ With the possible exception of another world war, a giant asteroid, or an incurable plague, global warming may be the single largest threat to our planet. For decades human factories and cars have spewed billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and the climate has begun to show some signs of warming. Many see this as a harbinger of what is to come. If we don't curb our greenhouse gas emissions, then low-lying nations could be awash in seawater, rain and drought patterns across the world could change, hurricanes could become more frequent, and El Ni�os could become more intense. On the other hand, there are those, some of whom are scientists, who believe that global warming will result in little more than warmer winters and increased plant growth. In truth, the future probably fits somewhere between these two scenarios. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Unique Imagery: Black Water off the Gulf Coast of Florida http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2640 Dust and Smoke: Dust Cloud over Sea of Japan http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2639 Unique Imagery: NASA Images Confirm New York Drought http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2637 -------------------- In the News: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Terra Data Confirm Warm, Dry U.S. Winter http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8278 Ash and Steam, Soufriere Hills Volcano, Monserrat http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8276 Airborne Sea of Dust over China http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8275 Guinea-Bissau http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8274 Terra Images Confirm New York Drought http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8273 Where on Earth...? MISR Mystery Image Quiz #7 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8272 Fires in Central America http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8271 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Terra Satellite Data Confirm Unusually Warm, Dry U.S. Winter - NASA Images Confirm What New Yorkers Already Know: It's Dry

Hydrogen metal on the horizon (Apr 10) http://physicsweb.org/article/news/6/4/6 Scientists have long expected solid hydrogen to become a metal when it is compressed, but so far electrical conductivity has only been detected in liquid hydrogen. Now an experimental study of solid hydrogen at pressures up to 320 GPa predicts that it will become metallic at a pressure of 450 GPa - over four million times atmospheric pressure. Ren� LeToullec and co-workers at the CEA in France also found that solid hydrogen becomes opaque - or `black' - under compression (P Loubeyre et al 2002 Nature 416 613).

At 35.6 trillion calculations a second, the computer has the Earth at its feet Robin McKie, Science Editor Sunday April 21, 2002 The Observer It is the ultimate virtual reality ride, a machine so powerful it recreates the entire planet in 'an Earth simulator.' And now, to the chagrin of US scientists, Japan's newest supercomputer has been rated the world's fastest. The machine, built by the NEC corporation, matches the combined raw processing power of the previous 20 fastest computers and far outstrips the previous leader, an IBM device. For the first time in a decade, Japan has scored a major technological victory over the United States. 'These guys are blowing us out of the water, and we need to sit up and take notice,' said supercomputer designer, Thomas Sterling, of the California Institute of Technology. This triumph has been achieved in a way that contrasts starkly with America's computer priorities. While US engineers have focused their skills on developing computers that can simulate weapons and their effects, Japanese scientists have concentrated on making machines that can analyse a far more complex problem: the weather. These separate approaches can be traced to the different fears that obsess US and Japanese society. While America is consumed by worries about terrorist raids and attacks by renegade states, Japan faces more immediate dangers from typhoons that sweep across its densely populated countryside, and from rising sea levels triggered by global warming. For this reason, it has concentrated its computer efforts on constructing advanced machines that will help scientists understand the behaviour of the climate, and learn what the world will look like under various climatic conditions. The end result is the new supercomputer, put together at the Earth Simulator Research and Development Centre in Yokohama, which uses 5,104 processors that are stored in cabinets covering the space of four tennis courts. When working at full tilt, the Earth simulator can carry out 35,600,000,000,000 (35.6 trillion) mathematical operations a second. By contrast, America's fastest machine the ASCI White Pacific computer, built by IBM at the Lawrence Livermore defence laboratory in California, can carry out only 7 trillion operations a second. Not surprisingly, this level of performance has stunned, and dismayed, US researchers, who had considered their computer development programmes the best in the world. To them, the Earth simulator has raised the same level of alarm as the Soviet Union's Sputnik satellite did in 1957. As Tennessee University's Jack Dongarra, who tracks the performance of the world's fastest computers, puts it: 'We have a Computenik on our hands.' http://observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,688091,00.html

The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (04/23/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- New Reference: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/ * The Ozone We Breathe http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/OzoneWeBreathe Ozone in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) is toxic to human beings and many species of plants, causing harm without visible symptoms. The Ozone We Breathe focuses chiefly on the ozone's effects on human respiratory health and and the productivity of agricultural crops. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Dust and Smoke: Dust Storm over the Mediterranean Sea http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/index.php3?img_id=2654 Fire: Biomass Burning in Southeast Asia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/index.php3?img_id=2655 Fire: Biomass Burning in Southeast Asia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/index.php3?img_id=2655 Volcano: Smoke Plume from Mount Etna http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/index.php3?img_id=2652 Volcano: Chiliques Volcano, Chile http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/index.php3?img_id=2653 -------------------- In the News: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Fog Plumes over the Great Lakes http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8291 Coastal Fog, South Peruvian Coast at Pisco http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8290 Long Dormant Volcano Shows Signs of Life http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8289 Smoke and Sediments in Sicily http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8288 Chilean Volcanoes http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8287 Southern Florida's River of Grass http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8286 Fires Throughout Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8285 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Massive Icebergs May Affect Antarctic Sea Life and Food Chain * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Complex Weather Study to Target Summer Storm Forecasting - Extensive Research Survey Confirms Life on Earth Now Being Affected by Global Warming * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Oceans Swell Towards New El Nino - Amazon River Exhaling Excessive CO2 - Climate Change Will Unbalance Ecosystems - Global Warming Brings Half World's Population Under Disease Threat - Forecaster Trims Hurricane Prediction, Expects Active Season * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/

Glaciers and National Security, How Much Oil, Fighting Natural Hazards and Terrorism . . . USGS Presents a World of Science at AGU Note to Editors: Interviews with the scientists during the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference can be arranged by contacting Diane Noserale in the AGU newsroom, phone: 202-371-5016. Is the World Running Out of Oil?: Where will future oil and gas supplies come from? Of the oil and gas endowment of about 5.6 trillion barrels of oil, USGS estimates that the world has consumed about 18 percent, leaving about 82 percent to be used or found. USGS scientist Thomas Ahlbrandt will discuss frontiers in fossil fuel exploration, nonconventional oil and gas, alternatives to oil and gas, and time frames for potential shortfalls. "Future Oil and Gas Resources of the World: A Coming Supply Crisis?," in Session U32A, is scheduled for 1:50 pm on Wednesday, May 29, Washington Convention Center Room 30. Please note: A news conference on this session is scheduled for 9:00 am on Wednesday, May 29 in the Press Briefing Room, Washington Convention Center Room 1. Digital products from the World Energy Project may be downloaded at: http://energy.cr.usgs.gov/energy/WorldEnergy/WEnergy.html Vanishing Glaciers -- New Alliances or More Conflict in Central Asia?: Throughout the world, glaciers are shrinking. Some of the fastest retreat is in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) region, where scientists expect that more than 15,000 square miles of glaciers will disappear during the 21st century, particularly in major valleys and low mountain passes. Glaciers supply much of the fresh water and hydroelectric power in South and Central Asia. Will shared economic interests in water, hydroelectricity, and the mitigation of flood hazards improve relations among Central and South Asian nations? Will the disappearance of this natural barrier open new corridors for trade and cultural exchange and forge new economic, military and political alliances in the region, or will it simply open transit routes for militants and for military offensive action? Will terrorists find it harder to hide but easier to move? Glaciers are relevant to the conflict in Kashmir, to security in Afghanistan, and to the current insurgency in Nepal. USGS scientist Jeffrey Kargel will discuss a joint USGS/NASA Pathfinder project and its global consortium of glaciologists who are using satellite remote sensing to map and monitor the HKH glaciers and other glaciers throughout the world. "Glaciers in 21st Century Himalayan Geopolitics," in Session U22A, is scheduled for 3:25 pm on Tuesday, May 28, Washington Convention Center Room 30. Please note: A news conference on this session is scheduled for 9:00 am on Tuesday, May 28 in the Press Briefing Room, Washington Convention Center Room 1. For more on the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS), please see: http://wwwflag.wr.usgs.gov/GLIMS/ More on Vanishing Glaciers: As glaciers retreat, new land uses become possible: Transportation corridors may open; previously inaccessible energy and mineral resources may become available; new wildlife habitat and migration routes may develop, and for a time, more fresh water and hydropower will be available. In Alaska, more than 7,700 square miles of land are expected to emerge from beneath ice over the next century, producing a potential economic windfall estimated at $360 million per year. In western China, the economic development and well-being of the populace is partly dependent on melting glaciers. In India, melting glaciers and snowfields account for about $4 billion per year of hydroelectric power (at $0.03/kW-hr), more than $400 million of which results from the net loss of glacial mass that the region is currently experiencing. What about the future? The rapid retreat of Hindu Kush-Himalaya glaciers will eventually result in more water shortages in a region where clean water already is in short supply. And because many glaciers store large amounts of meltwater and release it suddenly, lives downstream will be lost. Rising sea level could displace many and destroy property in coastal areas throughout the world. The net loss or benefit of receding glaciers has not been calculated, but the effect is apt to be sharply negative. USGS scientist Jeffrey Kargel will discuss these issues. "A World of Changing Glaciers: Hazards, Opportunities, and Measures of Global Climate Change," in Session U31A, is scheduled for 9:45 am on Wednesday, May 29, Washington Convention Center Room 30. Please note: A news conference on this session is scheduled for 9:00 am on Tuesday, May 28 in the Press Briefing Room, Washington Convention Center Room 1. For more on the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS), please see: http://wwwflag.wr.usgs.gov/GLIMS/ Measuring Subtle Changes from Space to Understand Earthquakes: To resolve major questions about earthquakes and continental tectonics, researchers need increasingly accurate and detailed measurements of the ground surface, and of how it deforms on time scales of seconds to tens of thousands of years. EarthScope is a multi-agency initiative that scientists are proposing to better understand the Earth by gathering GPS and a variety of remote sensing imagery, including satellite and airborne radar and laser ranging that can measure ground movement on the order of fractions of an inch. USGS scientist Ken Hudnut will describe EarthScope's potential to use current technologies to open a new era in our understanding of how fault systems behave. "Merging Geodesy and Geomorphology for Seismotectonics," in Session G32A, is scheduled for 3:35 pm on Wednesday, May 29, Washington Convention Center Room 29. Please note: A news conference on this session is scheduled for 11:00 am on Wednesday, May 29 in the Press Briefing Room, Washington Convention Center Room 1. While You're At It, Point That Satellite Here: Studies of ancient movements of faults on the Caribbean islands of Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad indicate a significant earthquake hazard on each island. In Hispaniola, the major North American-Caribbean plate-boundary fault traverses a densely populated and rapidly developing area that apparently accommodates about half of the total plate-boundary motion of approximately 3/4 inch per year. Studies of the recurrence interval suggest that a significant earthquake could be due for this area. In Puerto Rico, repeated surface rupture occurred on a previously unrecognized fault in the Lajas Valley during the past 7,500 years. Trinidad is located along the South American-Caribbean plate boundary. Data from the GPS satellite system suggests that the Central Range Fault in central Trinidad accommodates a significant part of the total plate-boundary motion and geologic studies show that surface rupture has occurred within the past 4500 years on this previously unrecognized, active fault. USGS scientist Carol Prentice will present "Paleoseismology in the Caribbean: A Review of Studies in Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and Trinidad," in Session T31A, scheduled for 8:30 am on Wednesday, May 29, Washington Convention Center Room 29. Lidar's Many Uses: Over the past three years, USGS, NASA and local scientists have been using the Puget Sound area as a testing ground of the potential to apply a recently developed technology called Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) to address a variety of research questions. Lidar allows scientists to quickly and accurately map topography over a large area with an airborne laser beam. Scientists can then determine origins and relative ages to topographic features. USGS scientist Ralph Haugerud will describe applications that include identifying fault features in earthquake hazard studies, mapping deep-seated landslides, determining ice-flow direction during glacial melting, mapping habitats, and planning development. "Lidar Surveys for Earth Sciences Investigations in Western Washington," in Session G32A, is scheduled for 3:55 pm on Wednesday, May 29, Washington Convention Center Room 29. Please note: A news conference on this session is scheduled for 11:00 am on Wednesday, May 29 in the Press Briefing Room, Washington Convention Center Room 1. Using Satellites to Uncover Mt. Rainier's Past: Debris flows are perhaps the most troublesome hazard posed by Mt. Rainier. USGS scientist Bernard Hubbard will discuss two new space-borne instruments: ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) and SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) that could be useful for estimating inundation levels of past debris-flows preserved along river valleys draining Mount Rainier. "Paleohydrologic Analysis of Debris-Flow Inundation at Mount Rainier, Washington Using ASTER and SRTM Derived Topography," poster in Session V21B, is scheduled to begin at 8:30 am on Tuesday, May 28, Washington Convention Center Hall D. Presenters will be available for 1 hour between 9-11:00 am for morning poster sessions. Fighting Terrorists with Science: The terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on April 19, 1995, was recorded on two permanent seismographs, about 4 and 16 miles away. The more distant seismograph recorded two low-frequency wave trains, which militia groups speculated were caused by separate explosions and hinted at a government cover up. USGS scientist Thomas Holzer will describe how USGS monitoring of the demolition of the damaged building on May 23, 1995, provided a timely resolution of the ambiguity of the seismogram and publication of results discouraged a conspiracy defense by the terrorists. "Forensic Seismology and the 1995 Oklahoma City Terrorist Bombing," in Session U22A, is scheduled for 2:40 pm on Tuesday, May 28, Washington Convention Center Room 30. Please note: A news conference on this session is scheduled for 9:00 am on Tuesday, May 28 in the Press Briefing Room, Washington Convention Center Room 1. What Will a Restored Everglades Look Like?: Scientists have recovered 2,000 years of plant history in pollen-bearing sediment cores from the Florida Everglades. These records are helping scientists to determine how the Everglades might respond to restoration of the natural water flow that existed before the 1930s. USGS scientist Debra Willard will discuss human-induced changes to plant communities in the Everglades, with a look to the future. "Everglades Plant Community Response to 20th Century Hydrologic Changes," in Session H41B, is scheduled for 9:00 am on Thursday, May 30, Washington Convention Center Room 29. Runoff, Fallout, and Bad Fish in the Everglades: Some of the highest concentrations of methylmercury known have been found in freshwater fish from the Everglades. Methylmercury is a potent toxin in humans that attacks the nervous system, and is a particular threat to unborn children. It accumulates up the food chain, in people through consumption of fish. USGS scientist William Orem will discuss the role of sulfur in methylmercury production, and present evidence indicating that atmospheric fallout of mercury and contamination of the Everglades by sulfate from agricultural runoff produces the severe methylmercury problem in the Everglades. "Sulfur, a Key Water Quality Issue in the Everglades," in Session H41B, is scheduled for 8:00 am on Thursday, May 30, Washington Convention Center Room 29. Note: This is a change from the meeting program. Are Docks and Traffic Polluting Suburban Washington, D.C. Lake?: Sediment cores, collected from Lake Anne in Reston, Virginia show increasing concentrations of arsenic and copper since 1964, when the lake was formed. USGS scientist Karen Rice will present evidence that in-lake leaching of pressure-treated lumber accounts for more than half of the arsenic concentration and road runoff was the primary source of the copper. "Anthropogenic Sources of Arsenic and Copper to Sediments of a Suburban Lake, 1964-1998," in Session B52B, is scheduled for 3:15 pm on Friday, May 31, Washington Convention Center Room 25. Slow Progress in Reducing Contaminants to Chesapeake Bay: The majority of rivers entering the Chesapeake Bay show no significant decrease since the mid-1980s in nitrogen and phosphorus loads, in spite of efforts to reduce nutrient sources. The factors contributing to the slow water-quality improvement include stream flow variability, watershed characteristics, and the influence of ground water on nitrogen transport. USGS scientist Scott Phillips will discuss the implications of the slow water-quality response in regard to removing the Chesapeake Bay from the "impaired water" list under the Clean Water Act. "The Relation Between Nutrient Trends in Rivers and Management Actions in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed," in Session H51E, is scheduled for 11:05 am on Friday, May 31, Washington Convention Center Room 28. Earlier Spring Comes to Maine: Long-term hydrologic records of Maine's lakes and rivers show significantly earlier spring warming in recent decades. USGS scientist Thomas Huntington will report that lakes and rivers in Maine became ice-free at earlier dates during the 20th century. Spring river discharge measurements indicate that snowmelt has also advanced during the past 100 years. River ice thickness, water temperature, and snow/water equivalent data are also consistent with an earlier spring warming. "Long-term Hydrologic Time Series in Maine," poster in Session H51A, is scheduled to begin at 8:30 am on Friday, May 31, Washington Convention Center Hall D. Presenters will be available for 1 hour between 9-11:00 am for morning poster sessions. Climate Change Could Accelerate Calcium Depletion in Maine's Forests: Field studies suggest that calcium levels of Maine's forests are likely declining and will decrease faster in the future if forest growth rates increase. Climate warming, a longer growing season, more atmospheric carbon dioxide, and recovery from insect-induced mortality and excessive harvesting in recent years are among the current conditions that scientists expect will promote faster forest growth and calcium depletion. Trees require calcium, so its depletion can affect forest growth and vigor, resistance to disease and insect pressures, and could lead to changes in forest species composition. Calcium depletion can also cause acidification of surface waters and therefore adverse effects on sensitive aquatic biota. Maine's forests are probably at lower risk of calcium depletion than many forests in the central and southeast US because growth rates are relatively slow and acidic deposition is lower in Maine; however, climatic and other trends, including likely changes in species composition could accelerate calcium depletion. USGS scientist Thomas Huntington will present "Potential Effects of Climate Change on Calcium Status of Maine Forests," poster in Session B31A, scheduled to begin at 8:30 am on Wednesday, May 29, Washington Convention Center Hall D. Presenters will be available for 1 hour between 9-11:00 am for morning poster sessions. When Natural Cleanup is Best: Long-term observations of a crude-oil spill near Bemidji, Minnesota are helping scientists learn when the best way to clean up contamination is to let nature do it. Research under the USGS Toxic Substances Hydrology Program is showing that, even under "unfavorable" conditions, natural processes can mitigate significant amounts of hydrocarbon contamination. USGS scientist Isabelle Cozzarelli will discuss the dynamic conditions at the Bemidji site, how they affect contaminant migration and cleanup, and the importance of long-term monitoring where natural cleanup appears to be the best choice. "Developing Conceptual Models of Biodegradation: Lessons Learned From a Long-Term Study of a Crude-Oil Contaminant Plume," in Session H22D, is scheduled for 2:15 pm on Tuesday, May 28, Washington Convention Center Room 31. The USGS serves the nation by providing reliable scientific information to: describe and understand the Earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect our quality of life.

Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Fire: Fires Scorch Oregon http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4650 Unique Imagery: Smoke, Clouds and Ship Tracks Off California Coast http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4651 Unique Imagery: Bright Water Off Newfoundland http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4652 Dust and Smoke: Smoke from Canadian Fires Blankets Eastern U.S. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4653 Fire: McNalley Fire in Sequoia National Forest http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4648 Fire: Fires in Central and Southern Africa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4647 Volcano: Nyamuragira Volcano Erupts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4643 Storm: Super Typhoon Fengshen http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4638 Storm: Hurricane Elida off Central America http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4639 Storm: Severe Snowstorm in Lesotho http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4640 Storm: Hurricane Douglas South of Baja California http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4633 -------------------- In the News: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Aqua CERES First Light http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10273 Nyamuragira Volcano Erupts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10272 Konari, Iran http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10271 Summit Crater of Mauna Loa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10270 Three Gorges Dam, China http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10268 Distinguishing Clouds from Ice over the East Siberian Sea, Russia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10267 Hyacinths Choke the Rio Grande http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10265 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - At Five-Year Anniversary, Conference Considers Satellite's Contributions to Understanding Global Energy, Water Cycle * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Increased Strength in Asian Southwest Monsoon May Be Result Of Warming, Say Researchers - Global Warming May Push Bats to the Low Arctic * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Monsoon Intensity Increasing as Earth Warms - Record Sea Temperatures Threaten Great Barrier Reef - Slowest U.S. Tornado Year Since 1988 - Indian Government Says Lack of Rain Worst in Decade - Landsat Paints a Portrait of Our Changing Planet - Air Pollution Changes Rainfall, May Cause Drought - Unlocking the Storm Code - Ice Crystals Clues to Climate - West Nile Virus Spreads Westward into 26 States - Study Finds Alaska Glaciers Melting at Higher Rate - China?s Pollution Found in Hawaii - NASA Turns New Weather Bird Over to NOAA - Cause and Effect Across 70,000 Years of Atmospheric Chaos

Posted on Tue, Aug. 13, 2002 Fires Stoke Tensions Over Policy MATTHEW DALY Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The spate of wildfires this summer is inflaming more than just the Western landscape. Longtime allies are turning into adversaries as the fires stoke tensions between environmentalists and some normally supportive Democrats in Congress. Environmentalists who had long sought a bill to protect old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest are now vowing to oppose it, accusing Senate Democrats of undercutting conservation in the name of wildfire prevention. Republicans and representatives of the timber industry say it is environmentalists who have a credibility problem. The fires now raging in the West are helping build public support for more logging to thin overstocked forests after decades of fire suppression, they say. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and other Western senators are leading an effort to loosen federal restrictions that have allowed dry tinder to build up in the national forests, fueling the devastating blazes. "You've got forests that don't look like forests anymore," Domenici said. "They're totally built up with undergrowth. You try to do something about it, you're in court - it takes forever. We want to change that and I think we're going to do it." Among those caught in the shifting political winds is Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. A longtime friend of the environmental movement, Wyden now finds himself under attack from it because he's willing to allow increased logging in some areas to reduce the fire threat in exchange for GOP support of bill to ban timber harvesting in old-growth forests in western Oregon. With much of his state on fire, Wyden was under pressure to do something, said Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, a Portland-based timber group. So Wyden agreed to allowing expedited thinning in dry areas east of the Cascades to win Republican support for his plan to ban logging in areas where trees are more than 120 years old. With a Republican-controlled House and a closely divided Senate such a compromise was essential for Wyden's old-growth bill to have a chance of becoming law, West said. Jasmine Minbashian, coordinator of the Northwest Old Growth Campaign, called Wyden's proposal "somewhat shocking." Conservationists will not agree to a "divide and conquer approach" that sacrifices eastern trees in return for protection of older, western trees, she said. Wyden is not alone among Senate Democrats in challenging the conventional environmentalist line that prohibitions on logging represent the best forest policy. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota moved quietly last month to exempt some areas of his home state from environmental constraints on tree cutting. Daschle attached a rider to an emergency spending bill to allow some logging in areas of South Dakota's Black Hills National Forest. The measure waives key restrictions on forest thinning and blocks court challenges by logging opponents - a heresy the environmental movement fears will spread to forests throughout the West. Republican lawmakers quickly seized on Daschle's measure, calling it a model for allowing speedy action on thinning other national forests. Domenici and Republican Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona and Larry Craig of Idaho have vowed to introduce legislation that would allow up to 24 million acres of federal timberland with high fire potential to be thinned without going through standard environmental reviews. "If it can happen in South Dakota it should happen in all of the West," the three senators said in a statement. Daschle, in a letter last month to Republican lawmakers, defended his measure, saying it was the product of months of negotiations that involved all sides, including local chapters of the Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society and other environmental groups. "If Congress is ever to succeed in resolving the ongoing national debate over forest management ... it should foster more consensus-based decision-making like the one that produced the Black Hills agreement," Daschle wrote. Some environmentalists are not convinced. Measures similar to Daschle's could be used to bypass environmental laws "and log old-growth forests in the name of fire protection," said Joseph Vaile of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center in Oregon. "It's pretty scary." Those fears were exacerbated when Wyden and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., appeared at an Aug. 1 news conference with Domenici. Wyden did not speak in favor of the forest-thinning plan, but his presence - coupled with his proposal for expedited logging east of the Cascades - was troubling, Vaile said. Wyden declined to be interviewed for this story. But his chief of staff, Josh Kardon, said his office was "a little surprised that some of the groups seem to prefer to clear-cut the senator's proposal instead of selectively thinning what they don't like." "Unless you are willing to compromise," Kardon said, "you are resigned to sloganeering and accomplishing nothing." http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/news/politics/3852774.htm

The satellite imagry in this url is truly amazing! Unique Imagery: Coccolithophores in the Barents Sea http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4718 Storm: Hurricane Fausto http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4717 Flood: Flooding in Central China http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4712 Fire: Fires Scorch Oregon http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4705 Flood: Flooding on Elbe River http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4714 Flood: Flooding along Danube River http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4715 -------------------- In the News: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Flooding in Germany http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10301 MacDonnell Ranges http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10300 Anvil Tops of Thunderstorms http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10299 Hurricane Andrew http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10298 Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10297 MISR Global Images See the Light of Day http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10296 The Migrating Boreal Forest http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10295 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - NASA Satellites Help Hurricane Forecasters Since 1992's Destructive Hurricane Andrew - Satellites Show Overall Increases in Antarctic Sea Ice Cover * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Scientists Confirm Age of the Oldest Meteorite Collision on Earth - Livermore Researchers Show Depth of Injected CO2 into the Ocean Critical as a Global Warming Solution * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Global Warming Might Stall the Next Ice Age - Antarctic Sea Ice Increases Over the Past 20 Years - Satellites Help Show Half of U.S. Gripped by Drought - West Nile Virus Claims More Lives - Satellite Data Informs Wildfire Recovery - Soil Study May Yield Harvest of Water Cycle Data - Mild Winters, Dust and Floods in New Places: China - Cosmic Rays, Global Warming Linked * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/

New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * Dropping in on a Hurricane (DAAC Study) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/camex4/ By dropping small sensors into hurricanes from above, scientists are acquiring data at high altitudes that will help them better unde rstand the structure and dynamics of hurricanes. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Storm: Typhoon Sinlaku http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4755 Fire: Widespread Burning across South Central Africa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4754 Storm: Tropical Storm Fay http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4752 Storm: Typhoon Ele http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4750 Storm: Tropical Storm Edouard http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4749 -------------------- In the News: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Dongting Lake Flooding in China http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10316 Iturralde Crater, Bolivia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10315 Mayn River, Siberia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10314 Petroleum Infrastructure, Denver City, Texas http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10313 South Georgia Island http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10312 Rainfall Inside Hurricane Hernan http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10311 Where on Earth...? MISR Mystery Image Quiz #10 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10310 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - NASA Scientists Determined to Unearth Origin of the Iturralde Crater * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - New Amazon Forest Monitoring Team: RAINFOR * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Warming Waters Affect Lobsters - Atmospheric Wave Linked to Sea Ice Flow Near Greenland - Satellites Show Overall Increases In Antarctic Sea Ice Cover - Climate and Cholera: An Increasingly Important Link - Satellite Trio Helps Track Hurricanes -------------------- New Data: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/ * Updated Data: Aerosol Optical Depth data for January 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/aer_od.modis.html Cloud Radiative Forcing data for July 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/cldforc.erbe.html Outgoing Longwave Radiation data for July 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/lwflux.erbe.html Net Radiation data for July 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/netflux.erbe.html Reflected Shortwave Radiation data for July 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/swflux.erbe.html UV Radiation Exposure data for March 2002 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/uv.toms.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- Earth Observatory weekly mailing -- http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ To unsubscribe, e-mail: eo-announce-unsubscribe@eodomo.gsfc.nasa.gov For additional commands, e-mail: eo-announce-help@eodomo.gsfc.nasa.gov

The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (09/18/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * Locust! http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Locusts/ A little bit of overcrowding can transform a population of solitary desert locusts into a marauding mob with a voracious appetite. By tracking rainfall-induced changes in vegetation in the desert locust's habitat, scientists can help predict when conditions are becoming ripe for the formation of a plague. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Flood: Flooding in Indochina http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=5115 Fire: Fires in Central and Southern Africa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4764 Unique Imagery: New York City http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4765 Flood: Flooding in Southern France http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4766 Fire: Fires in Western Russia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4760 Fire: Fires and Deforestation in Brazil http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4762 Storm: Tropical Storm Gustav http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4759 Storm: Tropical Storm Hagupit http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4761 Fire: Fires in Argentina http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4763 -------------------- In the News: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Distinguishing Natural Aerosols from Human Pollution http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10762 Topographic Map of the Iturralde Structure, Bolivia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10761 Kanaga Volcano, Alaska http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10321 Slash and Burn Agriculture in Brazil http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10320 Namaqualand, South Africa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10319 Ocean Sand, Bahamas http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10318 Typhoon Sinlaku http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10317 Dongting Lake Flooding in China http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10316 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - NASA Scientists Use Satellites to Distinguish Human Pollution from Other Atmospheric Particles - From Satellites to Sea: JPL Scientists Map Ocean Eddies - New Gravity Mission on Track to Map Earth's Shifty Mass * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Interpreting a Climate Record from 10,000-year-old Migrating Waters * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Summer Was Third Warmest on Record - EO Birds Confirm Rapid Changes in Earth's Polar Ice Sheets - Warming Could End Antarctic Species - Goodbye to Glaciers - Team Determined to Unearth Origin of Iturralde Crater * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/

The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (12/10/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Phytoplankton Thrive around the Falkland Islands http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10846 Emi Koussi Volcano, Chad, North Africa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10845 Apollo 17 Anniversary http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10844 Jau National Park, Brazil http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10843 Total Eclipse of the Sun http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10842 Fluctuations of Lake Eyre, South Australia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10841 Sediment Clouds the Caspian Sea http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10840 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Arctic Sea Ice Shrinking, Greenland Ice Sheet Melting, According to Study * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Climate Change Will Affect Carbon Sequestration in Oceans, Scientists Say - Satellite Images Predict Hantaviral Transmission Risk

In the News: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Tropical Cyclone Erica Off New Caledonia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=11279 Buenos Aires at Night http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=11278 Chicago, Illinois http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=11277 Dust Streamers Over Gulf of Alaska http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=11276 Shenandoah National Park, Virginia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=11275 Casting Light and Shadows on a Saharan Dust Storm http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=11274 Ice Covers the Great Lakes http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=11273 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Welcome the Sun With Understanding - The 1991 Mt. Pinatubo Eruption Provides a Natural Test for the Influence of Arctic Circulation on Climate - Educator Astronaut Report Card: Science Teachers Express Support * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Clouds Mitigate Effects of Warming on Arctic - Global Warming Could Trigger Cascade of Climate Changes - Improved Ocean Color Mapping When the NIST SIRCUS Is in Town * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Drought May Have Aided Fall of Maya Civilization - 3 Great Lakes Frozen Over, First Time Since 1994: Environment Official - Pinatubo Eruption Affected Arctic Climate - Greenland Cools as World Warms - Warmer Climate to Soak California - Chemists Make Air Quality Discovery - Rain Kills Reindeer - Changes in the Earth's Rotation Are in the Wind - Weak El Ni�o Means Less Snow in West - Climate Changes May Increase Extreme Rain/Snow Events in California - El Ni�o Weakening, Experts Say - Changes in the Earth's Rotation Are in the Wind - Climate Studies Hold Key to Future of Desalination Plant - Winter Weather Won't Replenish Great Lakes - Winter's Engine? * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/

Where did the rain kill the reindeer?

Rain Kills Reindeer March 10 � The reindeer, caribou and elk that many indigenous peoples depend upon starve when it rains on snow-covered land in Scandinavia, Canada, Alaska. (Nature)