http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (Phys.org)—In the stratosphere of high-performance supercomputing, a team led by Sandia National Laboratories is designing an operating system that can handle the million trillion mathematical operations  per second of future exascale computers, and then create prototypes of several programming components. http://phys.org/news275213846.html Technology Thu, 20 Dec 2012 08:17:35 EST news275213846 Dreaming of a white Christmas? Go to Fairbanks, Alaska, where an inch or more of snow has been on the ground every Christmas day for 50 straight years. http://phys.org/news275210288.html Space & Earth Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:18:13 EST news275210288 You'd think it would be easy to use seismic waves to find tunnels dug by smugglers of drugs, weapons or people. You'd be wrong.  http://phys.org/news274003626.html Space & Earth Thu, 06 Dec 2012 08:07:20 EST news274003626 People with respiratory problems can get an instant up-to-date local report on a key air pollutant through a new free mobile phone app created at The University of Alabama in Huntsville. http://phys.org/news273995329.html Technology Thu, 06 Dec 2012 05:49:12 EST news273995329 (Phys.org)—University of California, Davis, atmospheric scientist Stephen Conley is flying over the spine of California, tracing 600 miles of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s natural gas pipeline for methane leaks. Specialized instruments on Conley's plane allow UC Davis researchers to detect gas leaks several miles downwind from the source. http://phys.org/news273317822.html Space & Earth Wed, 28 Nov 2012 09:37:08 EST news273317822 (Phys.org)—Global climate models abound. What is harder to pin down, however, is how a warmer global temperature might affect any specific region on Earth. http://phys.org/news272041405.html Space & Earth Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:20:01 EST news272041405 (Phys.org)—This year's dismal UK summer could be part of a run of poor summers caused by a major warming of the North Atlantic Ocean that occurred back in the 1990s. http://phys.org/news268892968.html Space & Earth Mon, 08 Oct 2012 05:34:01 EST news268892968 The first comprehensive analysis of what we knew about the Gale crater on Mars before the recent landing of space rover Curiosity has been published by the International Journal of Astrobiology (IJA). http://phys.org/news267872181.html Space & Earth Wed, 26 Sep 2012 09:57:21 EST news267872181 (Phys.org)—As sea ice in the Arctic continues to shrink during this century, more than two thirds of the area with sufficient snow cover for ringed seals to reproduce also will disappear, challenging their survival, scientists report in a new study. http://phys.org/news267119215.html Space & Earth Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:47:20 EST news267119215 Extreme precipitation in the tropics comes in many forms: thunderstorm complexes, flood-inducing monsoons and wide-sweeping cyclones like the recent Hurricane Isaac. http://phys.org/news267079832.html Space & Earth Mon, 17 Sep 2012 05:50:45 EST news267079832 GLORIA, the innovative imaging infrared spectrometer of Karls-ruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), will take part in the first atmospheric science mission of the new German HALO research aircraft from the Arctic to the Antarctic. On August 20, HALO will be handed over to the scienctific community by Germany's Federal Minister Professor Annette Schavan. GLORIA, a novel and worldwide unique infrared imaging spectrometer developed jointly by research groups from KIT and Forschungszentrum Jülich, has been installed on board of HALO in a bellypod, a dedicated compartment mounted underneath the aircraft fuselage,. During TACTS, the first atmospheric science mission of HALO , GLORIA will measure climate-relevant atmospheric trace gases with unprecedented spatial coverage and resolution. http://phys.org/news265958035.html Space & Earth Tue, 04 Sep 2012 06:14:05 EST news265958035 (Phys.org)—Grabbing a virtual tiger by the tail, scientists led by researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory directly linked a cloud's inclination to rain to its effects on the climate. Using global satellite data and complex calculations, they were able—for the first time—to develop a proxy measurement for one of the most vexing questions in atmospheric science: how tiny particles in the atmosphere affect the amount of cloud. Using this new metric, they showed that aerosols' effects on clouds are overestimated by as much as 30 percent in a global climate model. http://phys.org/news265276762.html Space & Earth Mon, 27 Aug 2012 09:20:02 EST news265276762 The extreme Texas heat often keeps Houstonians from heading to the park or taking an afternoon jog. Sometimes, however, they're dissuaded from outdoor activities due to poor air quality. http://phys.org/news264688066.html Space & Earth Mon, 20 Aug 2012 13:29:02 EST news264688066 A comprehensive analysis of the Cascadia Subduction Zone off the Pacific Northwest coast confirms that the region has had numerous earthquakes over the past 10,000 years, and suggests that the southern Oregon coast may be most vulnerable based on recurrence frequency. http://phys.org/news263047742.html Space & Earth Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:50:42 EST news263047742 (Phys.org) -- At the beginning of 2010, Oregon State University geologist Bob Yeats told a national reporter that Port au Prince, Haiti, was a "time bomb" for a devastating earthquake because of its crowded, poorly constructed buildings and its proximity to the Enriquillo Fault. http://phys.org/news259944128.html Space & Earth Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:42:25 EST news259944128 This past March was the second warmest winter month ever recorded in the Midwest, with temperatures 15 degrees above average. The only other winter month that was warmer was December of 1889, during which temperatures were 18 degrees above average. Now, MU researchers may have discovered why the weather patterns during these two winter months, separated by 123 years, were so similar. The answer could help scientists develop more accurate weather prediction models. http://phys.org/news258897673.html Space & Earth Thu, 14 Jun 2012 13:01:34 EST news258897673 Bart Geerts likes to chase storms high in the mountains. And, oftentimes, he helps contribute to them. http://phys.org/news258276745.html Space & Earth Thu, 07 Jun 2012 08:33:17 EST news258276745 One popular climate record that shows a slower atmospheric warming trend than other studies contains a data calibration problem, and when the problem is corrected the results fall in line with other records and climate models, according to a new University of Washington study. http://phys.org/news255625238.html Space & Earth Mon, 07 May 2012 16:01:25 EST news255625238 In the opening lines to The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot wrote "April is the Cruelest Month." http://phys.org/news253790904.html Space & Earth Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:40:01 EST news253790904 While scientists believe conditions suitable for life might exist on the so-called "super-Earth" in the Gliese 581 system, it's unlikely to be transferred to other planets within that solar system. http://phys.org/news251462038.html Space & Earth Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:34:04 EST news251462038 (PhysOrg.com) -- Fish parents can pre-condition their offspring to grow fastest at the temperature they experienced, according to research published in the February 2012 edition of Ecology Letters. This pre-conditioning, known as transgenerational plasticity (TGP), occurs whenever environmental cues experienced by either parent prior to fertilization changes how their offspring respond to the environment. http://phys.org/news245492758.html Biology Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:50:08 EST news245492758 A new analysis of satellite data from the late 1990s documents for the first time the "uplift" of ground above a site of underground nuclear testing, providing researchers a potential new tool for analyzing the strength of detonation. http://phys.org/news245427811.html Space & Earth Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:24:29 EST news245427811 A truck-mounted radar dish often used to chase Midwest tornadoes is getting a workout in Utah this month as University of Utah meteorologists use it to get an unprecedented look inside snow and rain storms over the Salt Lake Valley and the surrounding Wasatch and Oquirrh mountains. http://phys.org/news240143162.html Space & Earth Thu, 10 Nov 2011 10:26:28 EST news240143162 (AP) -- An asteroid bigger than an aircraft carrier will dart between the Earth and moon on Tuesday - the closest encounter by such a huge rock in 35 years. http://phys.org/news239698411.html Space & Earth Sat, 05 Nov 2011 10:00:01 EST news239698411 The Greenland ice sheet can experience extreme melting even when temperatures don't hit record highs, according to a new analysis by Dr. Marco Tedesco, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at The City College of New York. His findings suggest that glaciers could undergo a self-amplifying cycle of melting and warming that would be difficult to halt. http://phys.org/news238775807.html Space & Earth Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:36:55 EST news238775807 Relatively accurate predictions for the extent of Arctic sea ice in a given summer can be made by assessing conditions the previous autumn, but forecasting conditions more than five years into the future depend on understanding the impact of climate trends on the ice pack, new research shows. http://phys.org/news235923308.html Space & Earth Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:15:29 EST news235923308 A growing body of recent research indicates that, in Earth's warming climate, there is no "tipping point," or threshold warm temperature, beyond which polar sea ice cannot recover if temperatures come back down. New University of Washington research indicates that even if Earth warmed enough to melt all polar sea ice, the ice could recover if the planet cooled again. http://phys.org/news232820340.html Space & Earth Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:19:14 EST news232820340 Aerosol particles, including soot and sulfur dioxide from burning fossil fuels, essentially mask the effects of greenhouse gases and are at the heart of the biggest uncertainty in climate change prediction. New research from the University of Michigan shows that satellite-based projections of aerosols' effect on Earth's climate significantly underestimate their impacts. http://phys.org/news231431798.html Space & Earth Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:37:04 EST news231431798 Japan's March 11 Tohoku Earthquake is among the strongest ever recorded, and because it struck one of the world's most heavily instrumented seismic zones, this natural disaster is providing scientists with a treasure trove of data on rare magnitude 9 earthquakes. Among the new information is what is believed to be the first study of how a shock this powerful affects the rock and soil beneath the surface. http://phys.org/news230208280.html Space & Earth Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:45:18 EST news230208280 Thanks to popular Hollywood films like "E.T.," "Avatar" and "Super 8," life on other planets seems highly conceivable to people who have considered the idea that we are not alone in the universe. Jim Kasting, distinguished professor of geosciences in Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and an expert in atmospheric evolution, is one person who considers it a lot. http://phys.org/news227522616.html Space & Earth Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:43:53 EST news227522616