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. The dinosaurs of the Cretaceous may have faced an unexpected hazard: fire! In a paper published online today, researchers from Royal Holloway University of London and The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago have shown that during the Cretaceous (145-65 million years ago) fire was much more widespread than previously thought. http://phys.org/news252246605.html Other Sciences Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:30:51 EST news252246605 Lightning is a fascinating but dangerous atmospheric phenomenon. New research reveals that brief bursts of intense laser light can redirect these high-power electrical discharges. http://phys.org/news250850269.html Physics Tue, 13 Mar 2012 09:38:09 EST news250850269 Star charts, compasses, sextants, even dead reckoning. For centuries, sailors have used one or all of those to determine their position on the globe and to help them navigate from one place to another. http://phys.org/news243759386.html Space & Earth Thu, 22 Dec 2011 06:56:53 EST news243759386 At any given moment about 2,000 thunderstorms roll over Earth, producing some 50 flashes of lightning every second. Each lightning burst creates electromagnetic waves that begin to circle around Earth captured between Earth's surface and a boundary about 60 miles up. Some of the waves – if they have just the right wavelength – combine, increasing in strength, to create a repeating atmospheric heartbeat known as Schumann resonance. This resonance provides a useful tool to analyze Earth's weather, its electric environment, and to even help determine what types of atoms and molecules exist in Earth's atmosphere, but until now they have only ever been observed from below. http://phys.org/news241773967.html Space & Earth Tue, 29 Nov 2011 07:26:49 EST news241773967 Only a few decades ago, scientists discovered the existence of "sprites" 30 to 55 miles above the surface of the Earth. They're offshoots of electric discharges caused by lightning storms, and a valuable window into the composition of our atmosphere. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University say that sprites are not a phenomenon specific to our planet. http://phys.org/news241098252.html Space & Earth Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:44:52 EST news241098252 Researchers the world over are seeking reliable ways to predict earthquakes, focusing on identifying seismic precursors that, if detected early enough, could serve as early warnings. http://phys.org/news240766148.html Physics Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:00:01 EST news240766148 Photos taken by the researchers show plasma arcs up to 60 meters long casting an eerie blue glow over buildings and trees at the High Voltage Laboratory at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. http://phys.org/news239997287.html Physics Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:55:14 EST news239997287 (PhysOrg.com) -- When opportunity knocked, NASA heliophysicist Doug Rowland answered. He and his team recently secured another flight opportunity for a pint-sized instrument studying lightning in Earth's upper atmosphere and now are bracing for a veritable "fire hose" of data about a little-understood phenomenon first discovered by scientists nearly two decades ago. http://phys.org/news238235392.html Space & Earth Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:29:59 EST news238235392 It's more than 40 years since Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon, but his memories of the historic flight remain as undimmed as his passion for further exploration of space. http://phys.org/news233807632.html Space & Earth Mon, 29 Aug 2011 03:34:04 EST news233807632 (PhysOrg.com) -- The Lightning Motorcycles SuperBike recently set a speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats as the world’s fastest electric bike, vrooming in at over 200 mph. Lightning Motorcycles set its newest speed coups at a record-breaking 215.960 mph with a best speed of 218.637 mph. Until this month's triumph, no electric motorcycle had ever topped a speed of 200 mph. http://phys.org/news233727239.html Technology Sun, 28 Aug 2011 05:14:40 EST news233727239 (AP) -- A Mauna Kea telescope that was knocked out by lightning more than two months ago is fully operational again after undergoing repairs, the telescope's director said Friday. http://phys.org/news233033660.html Space & Earth Sat, 20 Aug 2011 04:34:38 EST news233033660 An apparent increase in shark attacks may well have a human cause, with low-cost air travel but also over-fishing and possibly global warming among the hidden suspects, say experts. http://phys.org/news232876597.html Biology Thu, 18 Aug 2011 08:56:48 EST news232876597 Today, the GOES-13 satellite captured a visible image of the thick brown smoke streaming from the Lateral West Fire burning in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge (GDSBWR) in southeastern Virginia. http://phys.org/news232282051.html Space & Earth Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:47:44 EST news232282051 "Study of lightning rays in the Basque Country, and their relation to precipitation" is the title of the PhD thesis that physicist Joseba Areitio presented at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). In fact, since systems for the detection of these rays of lightning were developed in the 80s, the possibility of estimating the precipitation produced in a storm as a function of the rays generated therein has been an object of research. http://phys.org/news232105032.html Space & Earth Tue, 09 Aug 2011 10:38:05 EST news232105032 Thunderstorms threatened to delay NASA's last space shuttle launch set for Friday with lightning striking near the pad as astronauts descended on Cape Canaveral by the dozens on the eve of the historic flight. http://phys.org/news229267974.html Space & Earth Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:33:04 EST news229267974 For nearly two decades, the medical world and the American public have grappled with the lightning-rod topic of stem cells, in particular the controversy surrounding cells from human embryos. But when researchers four years ago successfully "reprogrammed" adult body cells to become stem cells, some thought the ethical debate was nearly over. Those redirected cells, known as induced pluripotent cells, or iPS cells, show potential as therapy. http://phys.org/news229098525.html Biology Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:29:01 EST news229098525 When it comes to lightning, females are cautious and males are reckless. http://phys.org/news228666066.html Other Sciences Thu, 30 Jun 2011 16:00:01 EST news228666066 Electricity pylons across the British countryside may soon cease to be eyesores thanks to a government backed competition for a new design. http://phys.org/news225363594.html Technology Mon, 23 May 2011 10:00:20 EST news225363594 The European Space Agency's Paolo Nespoli took this image of lightning over Brazil as seen from the International Space Station in January 2011. http://phys.org/news224749973.html Space & Earth Mon, 16 May 2011 07:33:18 EST news224749973 They say lightning never strikes the same place twice—unless, of course, that place is a lightning rod. An enzyme called UROD acts like a lightning rod for cancer cells, drawing radiation and chemotherapy toward specific spots in diseased tissue, a new study in mice and humans reports in Science. http://phys.org/news215690468.html Medicine & Health Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:01:17 EST news215690468 A city that rarely sees snowfall, Huntsville, Ala., was blanketed the evening of Jan. 9 under several inches of snow following a winter storm that also produced a rare "thundersnow" or lightning flashes. This unique weather event allowed scientists at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and the University of Alabama in Huntsville the opportunity to assemble one of the most detailed snowfall datasets on record for the deep southern tier of the continental United States. http://phys.org/news215261321.html Space & Earth Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:49:58 EST news215261321 (PhysOrg.com) -- New Zealand scientists are playing a key role in developing a new system to give early warning of aviation-endangering volcanic eruptions by detecting the lightning their ash clouds trigger. http://phys.org/news211715727.html Space & Earth Thu, 16 Dec 2010 09:55:41 EST news211715727 (PhysOrg.com) -- It's one of the more frustrating parts of summer. You check the weather forecast, see nothing dramatic, and go hiking or biking. Then, four hours later, a thunderstorm appears out of nowhere and ruins your afternoon. http://phys.org/news211651891.html Space & Earth Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:11:55 EST news211651891 Using a custom-built camera the size of a refrigerator, Florida researchers have made the world's first crude pictures of X-rays streaming from a stroke of lightning. http://phys.org/news211561407.html Physics Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:03:54 EST news211561407 The eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull in April this year resulted in a giant ash cloud, which – at one point covering most of Europe – brought international aviation to a temporary standstill, resulting in travel chaos for tens of thousands. http://phys.org/news211175936.html Space & Earth Fri, 10 Dec 2010 03:59:17 EST news211175936 (PhysOrg.com) -- An Australian scientist studying photographs of fireballs, UFO sightings and a report of a strange green light in the sky suggests some UFOs may be ball lightning caused by fireball meteors. http://phys.org/news210489052.html Physics Thu, 02 Dec 2010 07:40:04 EST news210489052 These days, plastic components are vital to many fields of industry - lightweight construction, automobile manufacturing and electrical engineering, to name but a few. Now researchers have found ingenious ways to combine plastics with nanoparticles and endow them with new properties. Thanks to these innovative materials, aircraft could in future be better protected against lightning strikes. http://phys.org/news205143540.html Nanotechnology Fri, 01 Oct 2010 09:22:49 EST news205143540 Despite the great differences between the atmospheres of Venus and Earth, scientists have discovered that very similar mechanisms produce lightning on the two planets. The rates of discharge, the intensity and the spatial distribution of lightning are comparable, thus scientists hope to be able to better understand the chemistry, dynamics and evolution of the atmospheres of the two planets. These results were presented by Dr. Christopher Russell at the European Planetary Science Congress, on Thursday 23d September. http://phys.org/news204832802.html Space & Earth Mon, 27 Sep 2010 19:01:34 EST news204832802 The Expedition 24 crew aboard the International Space Station photographed the Twitchell Canyon Fire in central Utah on Sept. 20. http://phys.org/news204391550.html Space & Earth Wed, 22 Sep 2010 17:00:02 EST news204391550 Satellites are big. They cost a lot of money. At least that's the impression a couple of University of Maryland-College Park students had when they applied for an internship to help construct a satellite instrument with scientists at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. As the pair quickly discovered, nothing could have been farther from the truth. http://phys.org/news204220951.html Space & Earth Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:40:01 EST news204220951