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908 articles from PhysOrg
Evacuations begin in Bahamas as Category 4 Dorian bears down
Hurricane Dorian shut down most major resorts in the Bahamas and forced authorities to evacuate much of the northern shore and low-lying islands Saturday as the fierce Category 4 storm prepared to unleash torrents of rain but was projected to spin farther away from the coast of the Southeast U.S. next week.
How forecasters track Hurricane Dorian
The path of Hurricane Dorian, which is currently over the Atlantic and heading for the state of Florida, is closely monitored by US weather services with powerful forecasting tools.
Bahamas, Florida in path of 'dangerous' Hurricane Dorian
Hurricane Dorian strengthened into an "extremely dangerous" storm on Friday as it bore down on the Bahamas and the east coast of the US state of Florida.
Fires not the only threat facing Amazon
Raging wildfires have drawn the world's attention to the Amazon but immolation is just one of the dangers facing the world's largest rain forest, environmental experts across the region say.
Dorian becomes a Category 4 monster powering toward Florida
Hurricane Dorian powered toward Florida with increasing fury Friday, becoming an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm but leaving forecasters uncertain whether it would make a direct hit on the state's east coast or inflict a glancing blow.
FRIDAY 30. AUGUST 2019
HOT SHOT findings could save defense tech developers time and money
An early milestone for developing missile technologies is to show they can work in computer-simulations or large-scale field tests that shake and spin components without falling to pieces.
Hand- versus machine-harvested juice and cider apples: A comparison of phenolic profiles
A study out of Washington State University sought to determine if there is a measurable impact of harvest method on the phenolic profile of 'Brown Snout' juice and cider to better inform equipment adoption.
Hurricane puts 10 million in the crosshairs in Florida
An increasingly alarming Hurricane Dorian menaced a corridor of some 10 million people—and put Walt Disney World and President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in the crosshairs—as it steamed toward Florida on Friday with the potential to become the most powerful storm to hit the state's east coast in nearly 30 years.
NASA satellites on-hand as Dorian becomes a category 3 hurricane
As Hurricane Dorian was upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, NASA's fleet of satellites were gathering data during the day to assist weather forecasters and scientists. At 2:00 pm EDT the National Hurricane Center (NHC) posted a supplemental advisory. NHC reports that "extremely dangerous Hurricane Dorian poses a significant threat to Florida and the...
Early start of 20th century arctic sea ice decline
Boulder, Colo., USA: Arctic sea-ice has decreased rapidly during the last decades in concert with substantial global surface warming. Both have happened much faster than predicted by climate models, and observed Arctic warming is much stronger than the global average. Projections suggest that Arctic summer sea-ice may virtually disappear within the course of the next fifty or even thirty years.
Moving faster in a crowd
Cell particles move more quickly through a crowded cellular environment when the crowding molecules are non-uniformly distributed. New research also shows that particle transport in crowded cells can actually be faster than movement in a non-crowded environment as long as the particles are moving from densely crowded areas to less crowded areas. Understanding the rate at which particles move in...
Oxygen depletion in ancient oceans caused major mass extinction
Late in the prehistoric Silurian Period, around 420 million years ago, a devastating mass extinction event wiped 23 percent of all marine animals from the face of the planet.
The 'universal break-up criterion' of hot, flowing lava?
Thomas Jones' "universal break-up criterion" won't help with meltdowns of the heart, but it will help volcanologists study changing lava conditions in common volcanic eruptions.
Breakthrough enables storage and release of mechanical waves without energy loss
Light and sound waves are at the basis of energy and signal transport and fundamental to some of our most basic technologies—from cell phones to engines. Scientists, however, have yet to devise a method that allows them to store a wave intact for an indefinite period of time and then direct it toward a desired location on demand. Such a development would greatly facilitate the ability to...
Reconstructing the Anak Krakatau flank collapse that caused the December 2018 Indonesian tsunami
A new study published in Geology presents the detailed observation of a tsunami-generating volcano collapse by remote sensing. The paper by Rebecca Williams of the University of Hull and colleagues analyzes the 2018 collapse of Anak Krakatau, which triggered a tsunami that claimed over 430 lives and devastated coastal communities along the Sunda Strait, Indonesia.
Scientists discover evidence for past high-level sea rise
An international team of scientists, studying evidence preserved in speleothems in a coastal cave, illustrate that more than three million years ago—a time in which the Earth was two to three degrees Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial era—sea level was as much as 16 meters higher than the present day. Their findings represent significant implications for understanding and predicting the...
Florida waits: Hurricane Dorian is looking increasingly dire
Unsure of where Hurricane Dorian might strike, Florida residents watched the increasingly dire forecast with a sense of helplessness Friday and braced for what could be the most powerful storm to hit the state's east coast in nearly 30 years.
Hurricane Dorian marching slowly across Atlantic
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami reports that an Air Force plane is finding Dorian a "little stronger" as of the 8:00am EDT advisory put out today, Aug. 30, 2019. Data from an Air Force Reserve reconnaissance aircraft indicate that maximum sustained winds have increased to near 110 mph (175 km/h) with higher gusts. That is in keeping with what weather forecasters are predicting for...
Convection-permitting models better depict the heavy rainfall events in 2016 eastern China flooding
A study by Chinese and British scientists that investigates a heavy rainfall event in the Yangtze River Basin at both global and regional scale by using the Met Office Unified Model proves the added value of the convection-permitting model in simulating heavy rainfall event.
Air pollution under clear skies reduces sunlight reaching the Earth's surface
Scientists have found that air pollution absorbs and disperses sunlight and thereby reduces the amount that reaches the Earth's surface. The latest study, published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences on Aug 20, 2019 also reports that the smaller the particles, the more harmful the impacts are.
Scientist identifies cone snail's strike as one of the quickest in the animal kingdom
With the use of ultra-high-speed videography, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Associate Professor Emanuel Azizi and colleagues from Occidental College Los Angeles have shed light on the hunting mechanism of the cone snail Conus catus. Published online in Current Biology - Cell Press, the researchers identified the snail's hydraulically propelled feeding structure as the quickest movement among...
Research team aims to reduce cost of drug development using 3-D-printed living tissues
Thomas E. Angelini, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida and his research group, the Soft Matter Engineering lab have successfully fabricated living micro-beams from glioblastoma cells and extra-cellular material (ECM) embedded in a packed microgel support medium. They subsequently characterized the physical properties of...
Illinois engineer continues to make waves in water desalination
For the past several years, University of Illinois researcher Kyle Smith has proven his growing expertise in the field of water desalination, with a range of research results that could address the immediate need to combat diminishing clean water sources around the world.
How children who dread PE lessons at school can be given a sporting chance
For some school children, PE is the best lesson of the week—a chance to leave the desk behind, get outside, and enjoy a run around with friends. For others, it is a frequently miserable experience—a time when they feel degraded, embarrassed, and may even experience physical pain.
Defrosting surfaces in seconds
In the future, a delayed flight due to ice will be no cause for a meltdown.