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Winter storms threatens D.C.

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Brandon Runyon, Nicole Runyon, and daughter Grace, 1, trek through Lake Fairfax Park in Reston as a band of heavy snowfall passed through the D.C. area Sunday. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

Depending on where you live, Sunday's winter weather event may have left behind up to 5 inches of pasty snow or nothing but bare ground. The stormy pattern is now ready to deliver its next round of snow, ice and/or rain starting late Wednesday and possibly continuing into Friday.

This drawn out wintry weather event may come in two waves, traveling along an Arctic front draped over the Mid-Atlantic. Depending on where the front sets up, we could see mostly snow, a wintry mix, or some rain.

The latest reliable computer models favor a snowier scenario, with snow Wednesday night into Thursday morning, a pause on Thursday afternoon into the evening, and then another potential period of snow Thursday night into Friday morning. This would mark the third winter weather event in the past 10 days.

Snow-painted scenes at the Manassas National Battlefield Park

The National Weather Service has placed the entire region in an "enhanced" (level 3 out of 5) threat zone for a winter storm.

While several models have us in the sweet spot for snow, shifts in where the front is located could lead to very different outcomes as the two waves pass by. If one or both waves pass to our north, we'd see more sleet and freezing rain or even rain, while northern Maryland and Pennsylvania would get most of the snow. But if one or both waves pass to the south, we might end up with little precipitation while central Virginia sees more substantial snow.

Chance of at least 1 inch of snow: 70 percent

Chance of at least 3 inches of snow: 50 percent

Chance of at least 6 inches of snow: 25 percent

Wednesday night to Friday storm scenarios

1) Snowy scenario - at least 3 to 6 inches

The Arctic front pushes south of the D.C. area Tuesday with cold air firmly in place by Wednesday evening. Then, snow is generated as winds from the southwest aloft send comparatively mild air flowing across the frontal zone.

The snow would continue through Wednesday night before possibly pausing as the first wave of low pressure shifts off the coast. The snow would then probably redevelop later Thursday and keep going into the early morning hours on Friday as the next wave comes through.

The European modeling system, the UKMet model and the Canadian model support this scenario and suggest a high likelihood it would produce at least 3 inches and possibly more than 6 inches in the District.

2) The wintry mix scenario - 1 to 3 inches of snow and some sleet/freezing rain

The precipitation would begin as light snow around Wednesday evening with the snow giving way to mix of sleet and or freezing rain around the city and south and east due to milder air moving in at high altitudes. Temperatures near the ground would remain below freezing Thursday except over Southern Maryland.

As the first wave exits off the coast, the front would likely sink a little farther to the south putting the area deeper in the cold air. That push of colder air would allow the next round of light precipitation to fall as snow Thursday night into Friday morning.

The American model has been suggesting this scenario, although its most recent run shifted toward the colder and snowier European camp.

3) The big miss scenario - little or no snow and ice accumulation

In this scenario, the heaviest precipitation with the first wave would mostly miss us to the north. Areas near the Pennsylvania border might see snow, but the rest of the area would most likely see a light mix to rain event as mild air is drawn into the region at low levels.

Then the second wave would come through far enough south that its precipitation would mostly miss us, although we might get brushed with some light snow.

This scenario is favored by the NAM model and some of the individual simulations in the American modeling system.

We also could see a blend of these scenarios. Right now, we'd lean toward a blend of the first two scenarios. We'll do our best to narrow down the possibilities Tuesday.

Reviewing Sunday's forecast

On Sunday our prediction of 1 to 4 inches, mostly on grassy areas, worked out for large parts of the region. That's apparent in the map above, where all the observed amounts shaded in blue on the left hand panel fell within that range.

However, the observations in purple exceeded 4 inches and launched into our boom scenario. They were mainly well west and northwest into the mountains. Because temperatures were so marginal for accumulation, between 31 and 35 degrees, amounts tended to be elevation-dependent. Hilly and mountainous locations where the temperatures dipped to 31 or 32 degrees saw snow accumulate much more readily than those that were above 33.

Our forecast for snow was too high in the zone around downtown Washington and Alexandria and to the east and northeast. These locations just saw a coating or so. While it snowed here, air and ground temperatures proved too warm for it to stick much, and it didn't snow intensely enough to overcome that. Sometimes the snow mixed with rain. In parts of Southern Maryland, however, where the snow was heavier, amounts were as high as 2 to 4 inches despite similar temperatures.

Overall, compared with forecasts from the National Weather Service and other outlets, our forecast performed well. We accurately described the timeline for the event and when rain would change to snow. We correctly conveyed the storm would not have a major impact on the area, rating it a Category 1 on our five-point scale.

The possibility that the snow might have trouble sticking in lower elevations near the city was mentioned in our discussion. In hindsight, we should've communicated this in our snowfall map, something we'll try to do next time when temperatures are marginal for accumulation.

Another Sunday storm coming?

The fourth winter storm in two weeks is possible Saturday night into Sunday. Computer models differ on how it may evolve and whether it will produce significant precipitation, but there is some potential for additional snow, ice and/or rain. We'll focus more on that as it draws nearer.

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After Sunday's slush-fest, another winter storm threatens by Wednesday night

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Depending on where you live, Sunday's winter weather event may have left behind up to 5 inches of pasty snow or nothing but bare ground. The stormy pattern is now ready to deliver its next round of snow, ice and/or rain starting late Wednesday and possibly continuing into Friday.

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Air Pollution Robs Us Of Our Smarts And Our Lungs

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Gaint Panda are no more endangered.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/giant-pandas-are-no-longer-endangered-n643336

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Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

A leading international group has taken the giant panda off its endangered list thanks to decades of conservation efforts, but China's government discounted the move on Monday, saying it did not view the status of the country's beloved symbol as any less serious.

One-year-old female giant panda cub Nuan Nuan at the National Zoo in Kuala Lumpur on Aug. 23. Mohd Rasfan / AFP - Getty Images

The International Union for Conservation of Nature said in a report released Sunday that the panda is now classified as a "vulnerable" instead of "endangered" species, reflecting its growing numbers in the wild in southern China. It said the wild panda population jumped to 1,864 in 2014 from 1,596 in 2004, the result of work by Chinese agencies to enforce poaching bans and expand forest reserves.

The report warned, however, that although better forest protection has helped increase panda numbers, climate change is predicted to eliminate more than 35 percent of its natural bamboo habitat in the next 80 years, potentially leading to another decline.

Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

In a statement to The Associated Press, China's State Forestry Administration said Monday that it disputed the classification change because pandas' natural habitats have been splintered by natural and human causes. The animals live in small, isolated groups of as few as 10 pandas that struggle to reproduce and face the risk of disappearing altogether, the agency said.

"If we downgrade their conservation status, or neglect or relax our conservation work, the populations and habitats of giant pandas could still suffer irreversible loss and our achievements would be quickly lost," the forestry administration said. "Therefore, we're not being alarmist by continuing to emphasize the panda species' endangered status."

Still, animal groups hailed the recovery of the bamboo-gobbling, black-and-white bear that has long been a symbol of China and the global conservation movement.

The panda population reached an estimated low of less than 1,000 in the 1980s due to poaching and deforestation until Beijing threw its full weight behind preserving the animal, which has been sent to zoos around the world as a gesture of Chinese diplomatic goodwill.

The Chinese government and the World Wildlife Fund first established the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan province in 1980. Wild panda numbers have slowly rebounded as China cracked down on the skin trade and gradually expanded its protected forest areas to now cover 1.4 million hectares (5,400 square miles).
RELATED: Eastern Gorilla Gets Added to Critically Endangered List
International groups and the Chinese government have worked to save wild pandas and breed them at enormous cost, attracting criticism that the money could be better spent saving other animals facing extinction. The IUCN drew attention on Sunday to the 70 percent decline in the eastern gorilla population over the past 20 years.

But the WWF, whose logo has been a panda since 1961, celebrated the panda's re-classification, saying it proved that aggressive investment does pay off "when science, political will and engagement of local communities come together."

Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

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Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. A leading international group has taken the giant panda off its endangered list thanks to decades of conservation efforts, but China's government discounted the move on Monday, saying it did not view the status of the country's beloved symbol as any less serious.

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Drug Linked to Ohio Overdoses Can Kill in Doses Smaller than a Snowflake

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CINCINNATI - On the day he almost died, John Hatmaker bought a packet of Oreos and some ruby-red Swedish Fish at the corner store for his 5-year-old son. He was walking home when he spotted a man who used to sell him heroin.

Mr. Hatmaker, 29, had overdosed seven times in the four years he had been addicted to pain pills and heroin. But he hoped he was past all that. He had planned to spend that Saturday afternoon, Aug. 27, showing his son the motorcycles and enjoying the music at a prayer rally for Hope Over Heroin in this region stricken by soaring rates of drug overdoses and opioid deaths.

But first, he decided as he palmed a sample folded into a square of paper, he would snort this.

As he crumpled to the sidewalk, Mr. Hatmaker became one of more than 200 people to overdose in the Cincinnati area in the past two weeks, leaving three people dead in what the officials here called an unprecedented spike. Similar increases in overdoses have rippled recently through Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia, overwhelming ambulance crews and emergency rooms and stunning some antidrug advocates.

Addiction specialists said the sharp increases in overdoses were a grim symptom of America's heroin epidemic, and of the growing prevalence of powerful synthetic opiates like fentanyl. The synthetics are often mixed into batches of heroin, or sprinkled into mixtures of caffeine, antihistamines and other fillers.

In Cincinnati, some medical and law enforcement officials said they believed the overdoses were largely caused by a synthetic drug called carfentanil, an animal tranquilizer used on livestock and elephants with no practical uses for humans. Fentanyl can be 50 times stronger than heroin, and carfentanil is as much as 100 times more potent than fentanyl. Experts said an amount smaller than a snowflake could kill a person.

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A forensic drug analyst opened bags containing heroin last week at the Hamilton County Crime Laboratory in Cincinnati. Credit Ty Wright for The New York Times

Dr. Lakshmi Kode Sammarco, the coroner here in Hamilton County, said her office had determined that carfentanil was the cause of several recent overdose deaths, the first confirmed cases in the county. Investigators are now examining deaths back to early July to see if carfentanil was the cause.

"We'd never seen it before," Dr. Sammarco said in an interview, while toxicologists and drug specialists on the third floor of the coroner's office tested blood samples and small bags of white powder. "I'm really worried about this."

Officials suspect the carfentanil is being manufactured in China or Mexico and is making its way to the Cincinnati area in heroin shipments that flow north on Interstates 71 and 75. The drug has shown up in Columbus, Ohio, the Gulf Coast of Florida and central Kentucky, according to local news reports.

Fentanyl is widely used in hospitals as a fast-acting painkiller, but Dr. Sammarco said carfentanil is rare. She said she had to call zoos, rural veterinarians, federal law enforcement authorities and a licensed manufacturer in Canada to find a sample that her office could use to calibrate their drug-testing equipment.

Around Cincinnati, police officers and sheriff's deputies are so concerned about the potency of carfentanil and other synthetic opioids that they carry overdose-reversing naloxone sprays for themselves, in case they accidentally inhale or touch the tiniest flake.

Because of its potency, law enforcement agents have stopped field-testing the powders they find at the scenes of overdoses. When regional drug enforcement officers in Cincinnati pulled over two men on Aug. 26 and found an unknown pink substance, they sent it directly to the county coroner's office; it tested positive for heroin, fentanyl and carfentanil.

An ambulance crew resuscitating a victim of a car crash who had overdosed on heroin on Friday in Colerain Township, Ohio. Credit Ty Wright for The New York Times

And as ambulance crews and the police rushed to respond to this recent wave of overdoses, answering 20 or 30 calls each day, they said they sometimes had to give people two, three or five doses of naloxone spray to revive them. Usually, one quick spray is enough to block a person's opiate receptors and immediately jolt them out of an overdose. Some hospitals have had to give overdose patients intravenous drips of anti-opioid chemicals.

"Our antidote, our Narcan, is ineffective," Sheriff Jim Neil of Hamilton County said, using a trade name for naloxone. "It was meant for heroin. It wasn't meant for fentanyl or carfentanil."

Like much of the country, officials here along the Ohio-Kentucky border have been straining to cope with the toll of opioid use.

Accidental drug overdose deaths in Hamilton County doubled to 414 last year from 204 in 2012, according to the county coroner, most of those involving fentanyl or heroin.

There were an average of 92 overdose reports each month during the first six months of 2016, up from an average of 40 during the last half of 2015, according to numbers collected by the Greater Cincinnati Fusion Center, a regional law enforcement and public health group.

As deaths mounted, officials formed anti-heroin coalitions and task forces. Police officers and addiction experts visited the homes of people who had overdosed to try to persuade them into treatment. The Cincinnati Enquirer even has a heroin beat reporter.

Doug Rolf, a medic with Colerain Township Fire Department Station 26, restocking medicine on Friday after responding to a heroin overdose in Colerain Township, Ohio. Credit Ty Wright for The New York Times

Nan Franks, the executive director of the Addiction Services Council, the Cincinnati affiliate of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, said the problem was made worse by scarce bed space at the area's lone publicly funded detox center and a constant lack of money for treatment services.

Ms. Franks said drugs were so cheap that addicts said they can walk through one housing project and get four free samples from dealers.

"People are waiting for treatment," Ms. Franks said. "We need a better response to keep them safe."

Five days after Mr. Hatmaker overdosed, a police car pulled up outside his home in Norwood, an independent city of 20,000 inside Cincinnati. Lt. Tom Fallon, the commander of the county's heroin task force, was there to take Mr. Hatmaker to treatment.

As they drove, Mr. Hatmaker thought back to how he had gotten there. He said he started selling pain pills in 2012 after being laid off from his job at an online retailer's warehouse, then started taking them, then turned to heroin. Cycles of withdrawal, jail and treatment followed. Some of his friends died or went to prison for selling drugs.

He said he does not remember much from this latest overdose - only waking in an ambulance and feeling the pain where medics had pounded his chest to keep him alive. The medics who saved him told him he was minutes from death, Mr. Hatmaker said.

"I'm tired of this," he said. "I'm tired of overdosing; I'm tired of this life. Eventually, you're just going to die."

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Cincinnati Is Awash With a Drug That Kills in Minuscule Doses. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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Drug Linked to Ohio Overdoses Can Kill in Doses Smaller than a Snowflake

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CINCINNATI - On the day he almost died, John Hatmaker bought a packet of Oreos and some ruby-red Swedish Fish at the corner store for his 5-year-old son. He was walking home when he spotted a man who used to sell him heroin.

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Typhoons striking China and Southeast Asia have become much stronger

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Over the past 40 years, typhoons that strike East and Southeast Asia have become stronger - and presumably will only continue gathering strength, thanks to climate change. The likely cause is warming ocean waters near the coasts, according to new research.

The study, published today in the journal Nature Geoscience, falls short of pointing to climate change as the main culprit, but it warns that typhoons hitting eastern China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan will likely be even stronger - and deadlier - in the future. That's because ocean surface water is projected to become warmer in the years ahead.

"If you have warming coastal water, it means that typhoons can get a little extra jolt just before they make landfall," says Kerry Emanuel, a professor of meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who wasn't involved in the study but provided some data to the researchers, "and that's obviously not good news."

"That's obviously not good news"

Typhoons are storms that form over the ocean in tropical areas, with winds of at least 74 miles per hour. When they make landfall, they can become deadly and destructive. The most recent typhoon to hit the shores, called Lionrock, hit Japan last week and killed at least nine people.

Warming ocean waters intensify typhoons because they provide more heat - therefore, more energy - to the storm. To help illustrate the problem, imagine getting out of the shower; you feel chilly because the water is evaporating from your skin, carrying heat with it. That heat energy that's leaving your body doesn't disappear, it gets added to the air. The same happens with storms. "The fuel that powers the [storm] is an enormous transfer of heat from the ocean to the atmosphere when you have strong winds blowing across the surface," Emanuel says.

The researchers looked at two different data sets to calculate the intensity of the tropical storms from 1977 to today: the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), managed by the US Navy and Air Force, and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). They found that typhoons that strike East and Southeast Asia have intensified by 12 to 14 percent. They also found that the number of category 4 and 5 typhoons - those with wind speeds between 130 mph and 157 mph or higher - increased to around seven per year today, from less than five in late 1970s.

The researchers also looked at how the ocean water temperatures in the northwest Pacific changed between 1977 and 2013. They found that the ocean waters off the coasts of East and Southeast Asia, where typhoons got stronger, became a lot warmer. In the open ocean, instead, where temperatures haven't increased that much, the intensity of typhoons hasn't changed significantly. That means that the stronger storms are probably due to the warming waters, which are known to funnel energy into tropical storms.
Is it human-made climate change? We can't really tell
Instead of looking at global trends, the study focuses on specific typhoons that make landfall in highly populated areas and usually make severe damage. "It's the first time that anybody has really looked in a concrete way at such a regional trend," Emanuel says. But the study also falls short of saying why exactly typhoons are getting stronger: is it human-made climate change, or just variations that happen naturally on our planet? With only about 40 years worth of data, we can't really tell.

"The caveat with the study is the data they're dealing with," says Suzana Camargo, a research professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University who wasn't involved in the study, "but it's a problem there's no way around."

Before 1977, the JMA didn't provide wind measurements of typhoons, says Wei Mei, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the lead study author. And not a lot of satellite measurements were done before the 1970s, Mei says.
"Typhoons can cause very severe damage in human society."
Some researchers point to the fact that the typhoon data provided by the JTWC and JMA is inconsistent. The JMA, for example, calculates the storm's wind averages over 10 minutes, while the JTWC calculates it over one minute. The researchers had to adjust the JMA data to make up for the discrepancy, which of course leaves room for error. "There is some uncertainty in the results," Christina Patricola, an associate research atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University wrote in an email, "because those estimates rely on the validity of the assumptions behind them."

But Emanuel, the meteorology professor at MIT, thinks the authors did a good job at cross checking the JTWC and JMA data with other sources, like satellite measurements and their own modeling. "I think it's pretty strong," Emanuel says.

What remains to be determined is the million-dollar question: are the stronger typhoons a result to human-made climate change? Even if we don't have the answer to that question yet, we know that climate models project ocean waters off the coast of China and Southeast Asia to continue to warm up. So that means that stronger and deadlier storms are likely to occur in the future. "Typhoons can cause very severe damage in human society," Mei says. "An important factor in determining the damage is intensity and also the size of the storm."

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Typhoons striking China and Southeast Asia have become much stronger

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Over the past 40 years, typhoons that strike East and Southeast Asia have become stronger - and presumably will only continue gathering strength, thanks to climate change. The likely cause is warming ocean waters near the coasts, according to new research.

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Daniel Ganon BAD SHOCK - this is TOO OLD but I'll take it......

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Daniel Ganon BAD SHOCK - this is TOO OLD but I'll take it......

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Bees Dying At Alarming Rate In Pa., Could Impact Food Supply

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - For many of us, bees are something to avoid; but for the agricultural community, bees are all about success or failure of their crops.

To the farmer or grower, an active bee hive ready to mass pollinate is a thing of beauty.

"Every flower needs it, so every piece of fruit needs a bee to get to it," says Reed Soergel, of Soergel's Orchards. "So, to the crop, it's huge."

But bees in Pennsylvania are dying at an alarming rate.

"About 60 percent of colonies dying off here in our state," says Stephen Riccardi, of Penn Environment.

"It's getting into a situation where we're going to start running out of food," said Kevin Hermman, the executive chef at The Porch at Schenley.

Hermman has four hives on the roof of his Oakland restaurant to pollinate his herb and vegetable gardens.

"I've had hives die because of infestations or pesticides, different diseases," Hermman said.

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Riccardi says one answer is for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban neonics pesticides as Europe did.

"Since then we've started to see colonies in that part of the world bounce back," Riccardi said.

Penn Environment wants to ban neonics completely, but over at Soergel's Orchards, they have a different perspective.

"Some of these pesticides that they are trying to take off are so much safer to man than any of the older pesticides," Reed Soergel says.

But he's sympathetic to the bee issue.

"Usually, I rent bees to come in, [but] I'm running out of sources to be able to do it," Soergel says.

But Soergel believes the answer is better education.

"Teaching the growers that this product or a certain product is only good at a certain time when there's no bee... if there's no contamination, it shouldn't make any difference," Soergel says.

But Penn Environment says that's a chance the bees can't take, and the EPA needs to act.

"It's something that we can't continue to wait more and more years to really address," Riccardi says.

More From CBS Pittsburgh

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Bees Dying At Alarming Rate In Pa., Could Impact Food Supply

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - For many of us, bees are something to avoid; but for the agricultural community, bees are all about success or failure of their crops. To the farmer or grower, an active bee hive ready to mass pollinate is a thing of beauty.

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Deal with oil giant helps near-extinct whale recover

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Honolulu (AFP) - A decade ago, there were just 115 western gray whales left in the world, and their feeding grounds near Russia's Sakhalin Island, north of Japan, were being drilled for oil.

These massive whales, known as Esrichtiius robustus, faced a host of deadly threats, from underwater noise to collisions with ships and entanglements in fishing gear, and were listed as critically endangered in 2003.

Soon after, a deal was struck, whereby loans to Russia's Sakhalin Energy were restricted unless the oil company paid for a panel of marine scientists to advise its offshore operations.

The process "began as a 'David versus Goliath' and wound up as a 'David and Goliath story,'" said Azzedine Downes, president and CEO of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

This accord has allowed the whales to bounce back, boosting their numbers by about half since 2004, to about 174 today, experts said Saturday at the International Union for Conservation of Nature world meeting in Honolulu.

The current deal between scientists and Sakhalin drillers -- known as the Western Gray Advisory Panel -- will be extended another five years, until 2021.

The partnership has helped the western gray whale's numbers rise by three to four percent per year, said a joint report issued at the International Union for Conservation for Nature World Conservation Congress.

But environmental advocates warn that expanded oil exploration in the area by companies that are not part of the agreement mean that the western gray whale's survival is still tenuous.

"Success is also very fragile when you are talking about a population that is this small," the World Wildlife Fund's Wendy Elliott told reporters.

Sakhalin Energy -- an oil and gas company with Gazprom, Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi as shareholders -- is currently the only company involved in the agreement.

Other companies operating in the region include Exxon Neftegas Limited (ENL), Gazprom, and Rosneft, according to the IUCN.

Elliott said Exxon has started building a pier in an important lagoon area.

"The panel has expressed extreme concern about this development. That has unfortunately fallen on completely deaf ears," she said.

If more oil companies followed suit, protection for key creatures could be vastly expanded, she said, calling on Exxon to join the panel "and make sure this success is not destroyed."

Exxon said it did consider NGOs' concerns, and "has co-sponsored a successful western whale monitoring program conducted annually offshore Sakhalin since 1997, and has invested over $40 million in the program to date," according to spokesman Todd Spitler.

- 'Mistrust' was overcome -

Experts say Sakhalin Energy has followed 90 percent of the Western Gray Whale Advisory panel's recommendations, and has altered the route of its pipeline to avoid disrupting the whales' feeding grounds.

The scientific focus has also yielded new discoveries.

A satellite-tagging program advocated by the panel has led to the discovery that western gray whales are the longest migrating mammal known today, with one whale traveling 6,760 miles (10,880 kilometers) from Sakhalin to its wintering calving grounds in Mexico's Baja California peninsula.

And with 43 breeding females in the group in 2015, up from 27 in 2004, the whales have a fighting chance.

"The annual increase of Sakhalin whales is encouraging but their recovery in the long-term will depend on more companies in the region joining this effort," said Doug Nowacek, a whale behavior and member of the scientific advisory panel.

"Other companies in Sakhalin need to take similar measures to address the problem of cumulative impacts of industry on the marine environment."

When first announced, the plans for Sakhalin-2 -- Russia's first offshore gas project -- drew outcry from environmental groups.

Non-governmental organizations put pressure on banks not to lend any money to Sakhalin Energy unless certain conditions were met -- including a deal that the oil giant would have to finance an independent panel managed by IUCN to offer recommendations on their operations.

Shell spokesman Deric Quaile said there was "a lot of mistrust" early on in the partnership.

But the process "played an important role in improving environmental performance," he said.

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Deal with oil giant helps near-extinct whale recover

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A decade ago, there were just 115 western gray whales left in the world, and their feeding grounds near Russia's Sakhalin Island, north of Japan, were being drilled for oil. Soon after, a deal was struck, whereby loans to Russia's Sakhalin Energy were restricted unless the oil company paid for

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New launch window for Mars InSight mission approved by NASA

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NASA's Science Mission Directorate has finally approved the new launch window for the agency's upcoming Mars InSight mission. Liftoff of the spacecraft, initially planned for March 2016, was postponed due to a detected vacuum leak in one of its science instruments.

The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission aims to investigate the deep interior of Mars. To achieve its scientific goals, the InSight lander, once on the Martian surface, will deploy its robotic arm with a seismometer and a heat probe to study the planet's interior.

However, in December 2015, the spacecraft's Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), provided by the French Space Agency (CNES), was found to be malfunctioning and could not sustain a protective vacuum under simulated Martian conditions.

SEIS, in order to measure ground movements as small as half the radius of a hydrogen atom, needs to operate within a vacuum chamber to provide the exquisite sensitivity needed its measurements.

Therefore, NASA decided to put the liftoff on hold and chose a new launch window, which May 5, 2018, with a planned Nov. 26, 2018, landing. This is due to the fact that Earth and Mars are properly lined up only every 26 months to offer the best trajectory for sending spacecraft toward the Red Planet.

Now, the new date has been accepted by the agency's Science Mission Directorate, meaning the spacecraft team has the green light for redesigning, developing and qualifying the instrument that failed to work properly.

"This confirmation of the launch plan for InSight is excellent news and an unparalleled opportunity to learn more about the internal structure of the Red Planet, which is currently of major interest to the international science community," said CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall.

CNES will now focus on developing and delivering the key sensors for SEIS, integration of the sensors into the container, and the final integration of the instrument onto the spacecraft. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will be responsible for redesigning, developing and qualifying the instrument's evacuated container.

NASA estimated this delay and the instrument redesign will add an additional $153.8 million to the mission, and assured it will not delay or cancel any current missions. However, future missions, envisioned for fiscal years 2017-2020, may suffer from this additional spending on InSight's pre-launch operations.

The approval is perceived as the first step towards redesigning InSight's crucial instrument, keeping the mission on track and giving engineers additional time for final touches on the spacecraft.

"It's gratifying that we are moving forward with this important mission to help us better understand the origins of Mars and all the rocky planets, including Earth," said Geoff Yoder, acting associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

InSight will be launched atop United Launch Alliance's Atlas V booster from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Tomasz Nowakowski is the owner of Astro Watch, one of the premier astronomy and science-related blogs on the internet. Nowakowski reached out to SpaceFlight Insider in an effort to have the two space-related websites collaborate. Nowakowski's generous offer was gratefully received with the two organizations now working to better relay important developments as they pertain to space exploration.

Related Reading

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New launch window for Mars InSight mission approved by NASA

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NASA's Science Mission Directorate has finally approved the new launch window for the agency's upcoming Mars InSight mission. Liftoff of the spacecraft, initially planned for March 2016, was postponed due to a detected vacuum leak in one of its science instruments.

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A 7.1 magnitude earthquake strikes 100 miles off the coast of New Zealand's North Island.

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A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 struck about 100 miles off the east coast of New Zealand's North Island on Thursday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

There were no immediate reports of any damage. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii reports that no tsunami of significant strength is expected.

The temblor registered 167 kilometers (104 miles) off the coast in the South Pacific Ocean around 4:37 p.m. UTC at a depth of around 30.7 kilometers (19 miles), USGS reported.

USGS initially reported the quake to be 7.2 but downgraded it to 7.1.

The quake comes a day after a magnitude-5.7 quake registered in the same area, 100 km (62 miles) northeast of Te Araroa on the North Island's east coast.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Magnitude-7.1 earthquake hits off New Zealand coast

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Today's Top Stories WATCH NOW TOP VIDEOS A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 struck about 100 miles off the east coast of New Zealand's North Island on Thursday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There were no immediate reports of any damage.

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Violence erupts as native Americans resist oil pipeline

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Cannon Ball (United States) (AFP) - Protesters camping near Native American lands in North Dakota to protest the construction of an oil pipeline clashed late Saturday with construction company workers they blamed for destroying ancient sites.

Hundreds of protesters confronted a bulldozer crew in an area known as Cannon Ball, amid the vast grasslands of the northern US state.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe claims the crew dug up and destroyed sacred burial grounds, places of prayer and other cultural artefacts -- even after the pipeline developer had voluntarily paused construction in the disputed area less than a mile (1.6 kilometer) from the tribe's reservation.

Angry protesters broke through a fence and fought with private security guards, who employed dogs and pepper spray.

"They tried to push us back with their trucks and their bulldozers, but we just kept on coming," Seeyouma Nashcid, a protester from Arizona, told AFP.

Some protesters were left bloodied, and displayed signs of dog bites. The Morton County Sherriff's department said three private security guards were injured after being struck with fence posts and flag poles.

The tribe, whose reservation is located just south of where the 1,200-mile (1,900-kilometer) pipeline would cross the Missouri River, has been locked in a court battle to stop the project, which it says would endanger its drinking water and destroy historic sites.

Members of American Indian tribes from across the United States have rallied in support, gathering for months in a makeshift camp near the reservation.

On Saturday, protesters were suddenly alerted to renewed digging, a day after the tribe filed evidence in court of dozens of newly discovered artefacts, grave markers and sacred sites.

The tribe said in a statement that a two-mile stretch was destroyed before the bulldozer crew was confronted and stopped.

"This demolition is devastating," Standing Rock Sioux Tribe chairman David Archambault said in a statement. "These grounds are the resting places of our ancestors. The ancient cairns and stone prayer rings there cannot be replaced."

Witnesses said law enforcement officers were nearby during Saturday's clashes but did not immediately intervene. But sheriff's spokeswoman Donnell Preskey said deputies "were not on the scene when the conflict initially occurred," and arrived later.

The sheriff's office was notified of the situation by an emergency call from a private security officer.

Citing the safety and security of law enforcement, Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said that the number of protesters made it "unsafe for officers to directly respond until further officers were able to respond."

A federal judge is expected to decide by September 9 whether to grant a temporary injunction to stop the pipeline construction under the river, as the tribe pursues its lawsuit.

The pipeline's US developer Energy Transfer Partners did not return a call for comment placed during a holiday weekend.

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Violence erupts as Native Americans resist oil pipeline

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Protesters camping near Native American lands in North Dakota to protest the construction of an oil pipeline clashed late Saturday with construction company workers they blamed for destroying ancient sites. Hundreds of protesters confronted a bulldozer crew in an area known as Cannon Ball, amid the

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Monsoon floods threaten Bangladesh communities

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Floods in Bangladesh have once again exposed the fragile relationship between people and water.

On the one hand, water nurtures life. On the other, it can devastate entire communities. For the people of Jamalpur district, in northern Bangladesh, water has become a major threat.

Across the district nine people have been killed by floodwaters resulting from monsoon rains. The death toll for the entire country stands at 14.

An estimated 1.9 million people have been affected by flooding across 19 districts of Bangladesh. Nearly 7,400 people have sought refugee in 69 relief camps.

The floods, which started in mid-July, are moving towards the south of the country where river systems spill out into the Bay of Bengal.

Floodwaters also carry the potential for life-threatening waterborne diseases.

"We haven't experienced a flood like this in the last 30 years," said one local from Jamalpur.

"Water has seeped into every house. People with homes made from cement or tin are okay, but poor people like me are taking shelter along the rail tracks."
What do we do now?
Jamalpur is surrounded by two large rivers: the Jamuna and Brahmaputra. Heavy rains have meant that water levels remain dangerously high.

The majority of the local population earn a living through farming and fishing. Vast areas of agricultural land are currently submerged.

Moyez Uddin, a farmer, had just planted some seasonal vegetables. His sense of dismay hangs heavy in the air as he speaks about the floods.

"I took a loan of 20,000BDT (250USD) to buy vegetable seeds and fertilizers," said Moyez. "I had almost completed planting the seeds, but now I have nothing.

"The local government office provided some dry foods, but they will not last long. And how will I repay the borrowed money?"

The loss of life, damage to homes and livelihoods is not the end of it. Poor sanitation, due to the lack of toilets and hand-washing facilities, is a major problem. Women are particularly vulnerable.

"Only two thirds of toilets in our community are functioning," said Pari Banu, from Dewanganj.

"Everybody is using them. So we have to stand in a long queue. We try not to go at night as it does not feel safe."

Pari also explained how menstruating women cannot wash their clothes as water is scarce and preserved for drinking.
Building resilience
Across Bangladesh, some 9,300 homes have been destroyed with a further 12,370 houses damaged.

It will take time to rebuild homes, infrastructure and livelihoods. Many people may migrate to cities to earn a living.

"While there are urgent needs to address in the short term, we also have to look at building up the long-term resilience of these communities," said Adith Shah Durjoy, disaster operations coordinator for the IFRC in Bangladesh.

"We are extremely concerned about the danger posed by waterborne diseases and the lack of food, water and shelter. We're working with the Bangladesh Red Crescent to address these needs.

"But we also have to strengthen communities' resilience so they are better prepared for natural disasters.

"These floods happen every year, although this year they have been particularly bad. We have to help communities adapt so they do not have to rebuild their homes and livelihoods each time."

Bangladesh Red Crescent volunteers have so far distributed food to more than 1,400 families, and clean drinking water to 2,000 families.

The Red Crescent is using eight water treatment kits, which can each treat water at a rate of 1,000 litres/hour, to provide clean drinking water to 15,000 people across Bogra, Sirajganj, Jamalpur and Kurigram.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has released 248,701CHF from our disaster relief emergency fund to support the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society. Our emergency operation aims to help 11,000 families (55,000 people) over three months.

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Monsoon floods threaten Bangladesh communities

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Floods in Bangladesh have once again exposed the fragile relationship between people and water. On the one hand, water nurtures life. On the other, it can devastate entire communities. For the people of Jamalpur district, in northern Bangladesh, water has become a major threat.

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Samsung’s Note 7 Total Recall Will Be Expensive, ($1 Billion est.) But Probably Worth It

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Samsung Note 7 Recall Will Be Pricey, But Probably Worth It

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Samsung Electronics Co. 's recall of millions of big-screen smartphones isn't going to be cheap. The South Korean company may spend as much as $1 billion, after deciding to replace all of the 2.5 million Note 7 phones that were shipped since they went on sale two weeks ago, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

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Scientists make stunning Chickenpox discovery

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It may seem like an annoying little ailment that you get as a child, but in reality chickenpox can be serious in a lot of cases, and at the very least it's a tremendous burden on the lives of kids - fortunately, a new report indicates that, surprisingly, chickenpox has been plummeting for the past decade. And scientists think they know why.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recorded an 85 percent drop in chickenpox from 2005-2006 to 2013-2014, with the drop biggest among children from 5 to 14 years of age. That's the group that is most likely to have gotten a second dose of the vaccine that is meant to stop the varicella zoster virus responsible for chickenpox, and scientists think it is that second dose that has resulted in the steep decline - an important finding that could lead to future wins against this disease.

Chickenpox, which in most cases results in itchy rashes all over the body and fatigue as well as fever, can be quite serious in many cases, especially for young children, the elderly, and those who have their immune systems compromised. Also, the virus can later show up again in the form of shingles, a very painful condition.

The frequency of chickenpox has declined from 4 million cases annually in the United States in the 1990s, but the CDC credits vaccination with preventing about 3.5 million cases today, including 9,000 hospitalizations and 100 deaths, a pretty steep decline. This finding could help ensure those numbers continue to go down.

That said, not everyone should get the vaccine, the CDC cautions.

"Some people should not get chickenpox vaccine or should wait," the CDC states. "People should not get chickenpox vaccine if they have ever had a life-threatening allergic reaction to a previous dose of chickenpox vaccine or to gelatin or the antibiotic neomycin. People who are moderately or severely ill at the time the shot is scheduled should usually wait until they recover before getting chickenpox vaccine. Pregnant women should wait to get chickenpox vaccine until after they have given birth. Women should not get pregnant for 1 month after getting chickenpox vaccine."

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Scientists make stunning Chickenpox discovery

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It may seem like an annoying little ailment that you get as a child, but in reality chickenpox can be serious in a lot of cases, and at the very least it's a tremendous burden on the lives of kids - fortunately, a new report indicates that, surprisingly, chickenpox has been plummeting for the past decade.

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My article is a good shock about science. "Stay Cool in Summer: Stanford University Researches Creates Cooling Clothing Material"

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Stanford University researchers have developed a low-cost plastic clothing material that can cool the skin without external help. The material is a textile that promotes effective radiative cooling but still has enough air permeability, water-wicking rate and mechanical strength for wearability.

According to Stanford University's official website, this low-cost, plastic-based textile is able to cool the human body more efficiently than what's currently possible with the natural or synthetic fabrics in clothes today. The researchers claim that this new family of fabrics could become the solution to keeping people cool in hot climates without air conditioning.

"If you can cool the person rather than the building where they work or live, that will save energy," Yi Cui, said. He is an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford and of photon science at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

The new cooling clothing material has two ways to make the wearer feel cooler by about 4 degrees Fahrenheit. First, it cools by allowing perspiration to evaporate through the material which is already something that ordinary fabrics can do.

Second, it provides a revolutionary cooling mechanism by allowing body heat, emitted as infrared radiation, to pass through the plastic textile. Ordinary clothes and blankets keep us warm by trapping infrared heat emissions close to the body. With this new technology, heat can be pass through clothes and help keep us cool even during the hottest summer day.

The Stanford University researchers combined nanotechnology, photonics and chemistry to give polyethylene, the clear plastic used as kitchen wrap, additional characteristics that allows thermal radiation, air and water vapor to pass through. Plus, it is opaque to visible light.

It was revealed that cotton fabric made the skin surface 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the cooling textile. This is believed to result to reductions in energy consumption as wearers will no longer feel the need to turn on fans and AC units.

The researchers are still continuing to develop the material by adding more colors, textures as well as cloth-like characteristics. According to , the scientists are hopeful that the manufacturing process for the new cooling material will become more efficient and less costly in the years to come.

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Stay Cool In Summer: Stanford University Researchers Creates Cooling Clothing Material

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Stanford University researchers have developed a low-cost plastic clothing material that can cool the skin without external help. The material is a textile that promotes effective radiative cooling but still has enough air permeability, water-wicking rate and mechanical strength for wearability.

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Flooding caused by global warming has already Begun

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NORFOLK, Va. - Huge vertical rulers are sprouting beside low spots in the streets of Norfolk, so people can judge if the tidal floods that increasingly inundate their roads are too deep to drive through.

About 500 miles down the Atlantic Coast, the only road to Tybee Island, Ga., is disappearing beneath the sea several times a year, cutting the town off from the mainland.

And another 500 miles on, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., increased tidal flooding is forcing the city to spend millions fixing battered roads and drains - and, at times, to send out giant vacuum trucks to suck saltwater off the streets.

For decades, as the global warming created by human emissions caused land ice to melt and ocean water to expand, scientists warned that the accelerating rise of the sea would eventually imperil the United States' coastline.

Now, those warnings are no longer theoretical: The inundation of the coast has begun. The sea has crept up to the point that a high tide and a brisk wind are all it takes to send water pouring into streets and homes.

Federal scientists have documented a sharp jump in this nuisance flooding - often called "sunny-day flooding" - along both the East Coast and the Gulf Coast in recent years.

The sea is now so near the brim in many places that they believe the problem is likely to worsen quickly. Shifts in the Pacific Ocean mean that the West Coast, partly spared over the past two decades, may be hit hard, too.

These tidal floods are often just a foot or two deep, but they can stop traffic, swamp basements, damage cars, kill lawns and forests, and poison wells with salt. Moreover, the high seas interfere with the drainage of stormwater.

In coastal regions, that compounds the damage from the increasingly heavy rains plaguing the country, like those that recently caused extensive flooding in Louisiana. Scientists say these rains are also a consequence of human greenhouse emissions.

"Once impacts become noticeable, they're going to be upon you quickly," said William V. Sweet, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Silver Spring, Md., who is among the leaders in research on coastal inundation. "It's not a hundred years off - it's now."

Local governments, under pressure from annoyed citizens, are beginning to act. Elections are being won on promises to invest money to protect against flooding. Miami Beach is leading the way, increasing local fees to finance a $400 million plan that includes raising streets, installing pumps and elevating sea walls.

In many of the worst-hit cities, mayors of both parties are sounding an alarm.

"I'm a Republican, but I also realize, by any objective analysis, the sea level is rising," said Jason Buelterman, the mayor of tiny Tybee Island, one of the first Georgia communities to adopt a detailed climate plan.

But the local leaders say they cannot tackle this problem alone. They are pleading with state and federal governments for guidance and help, including billions to pay for flood walls, pumps and road improvements that would buy them time.

'Once impacts become noticeable, they're going to be upon you quickly. It's not a hundred years off - it's now.'

Yet Congress has largely ignored these pleas, and has even tried to block plans by the military to head off future problems at the numerous bases imperiled by a rising sea. A Republican representative from Colorado, Ken Buck, recently called one military proposal part of a "radical climate change agenda."

The gridlock in Washington means the United States lacks not only a broad national policy on sea-level rise, it has something close to the opposite: The federal government spends billions of taxpayer dollars in ways that add to the risks, by subsidizing local governments and homeowners who build in imperiled locations along the coast.

As the problem worsens, experts are warning that national security is on the line. Naval bases, in particular, are threatened; they can hardly be moved away from the ocean, yet much of their land is at risk of disappearing within this century.

"It's as if the country was being attacked along every border, simultaneously," said Andrea Dutton, a climate scientist at the University of Florida and one of the world's leading experts on rising seas. "It's a slow, gradual attack, but it threatens the safety and security of the United States."

Because the land is sinking as the ocean rises, Norfolk and the metropolitan region surrounding it, known as Hampton Roads, are among the worst-hit parts of the United States. That local factor means, in essence, that the region is a few decades ahead in feeling the effects of sea-level rise, and illustrates what people along the rest of the American coast can expect.

The biggest problems involve frequent flooding of homes and roads. As the sea rises, hundreds of tidal creeks and marshes that thread through the region are bringing saltwater to people's doorsteps.

Several studies have concluded that Naval Station Norfolk, the world's largest naval base, is profoundly threatened by rising seas, as are other coastal bases. The Pentagon has managed to build floodgates and other protective measures at some facilities. But attempts by the military to develop broader climate change plans have met fierce resistance in Congress.

That was the case this summer, when an effort by the Pentagon to appoint officers to take charge of climate resilience led to a House vote prohibiting taxpayer money from being spent on the plan.

Many people in Congress, almost all of them Republicans, express doubt about climate science, with some of them promulgating conspiracy theories claiming that researchers have invented the issue to justify greater governmental control over people's lives.

The Obama administration has been pushing federal agencies, including the Pentagon, to take more aggressive steps. But without action in Congress, experts say these efforts fall far short of what is required.

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national oceanic and atmospheric administration

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Flooding of coast, caused by global warming, has already begun - The Boston Globe

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NORFOLK, Va. - Huge vertical rulers are sprouting beside low spots in the streets of Norfolk, so people can judge if the tidal floods that increasingly inundate their roads are too deep to drive through. About 500 miles down the Atlantic Coast, the only road to Tybee Island, Ga., is disappearing beneath the sea several times a year, cutting the town off from the mainland.

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California's native salmon struggling in 5th year of drought

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Crops destroyed as canal breaches

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"SpaceX to shift Florida launches to new pad after explosion."

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By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - SpaceX said on Friday it would shift Florida flights to a nearly completed second site after damage to its launch pad on Thursday from the explosion of a rocket belonging to the space services company run by Elon Musk.

The Federal Aviation Administration has sent seven people to Florida to supervise investigation of the disaster, said FAA spokesman Hank Price. The agency, which oversees U.S. commercial rocket launches, requires that SpaceX's flights be suspended pending results of the probe.

Any sign of rocket malfunction could require changes throughout the SpaceX fleet. After a SpaceX rocket exploded in June 2015, the program was paused for six months while defective brackets were replaced in Falcon 9 launch vehicles.

Damage to SpaceX's Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is still being assessed.

"The pad clearly incurred damage, but the scope has yet to be fully determined," SpaceX said in a statement late Friday.

Pictures of the launch site after the explosion showed the top portion of a launch pad tower, which is used to raise the rocket and support it vertically, had canted over.

The U.S. Air Force said in a statement that damage appeared to be contained within SpaceX's launch complex.

The cause of the accident, which destroyed a $200 million communications satellite, is under investigation. Meanwhile, more than 70 missions aboard Falcon rockets, worth more than $10 billion, are on hold.

With its launch pad likely facing major repairs, SpaceX said it would use a second Florida site, called 39A, which is located a few miles north at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and was used for space shuttle missions.

The pad is on schedule to be operational in November, SpaceX said. The company had planned to use the pad for the first time later this year for a test flight of its new Falcon Heavy rocket.

NASA spokesman Michael Curie said in an email that the site could be used for commercial and government flights, and SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell in a May conference said one customer, SES SA of Luxembourg, had expressed interest in flying from the historic launch pad.

Other customers slated for Falcon 9 launches from Florida in 2016 are EchoStar Corp of Englewood, Colorado, South Korea's KT Sat and NASA. In addition, SpaceX has contracts to fly satellites for Iridium Communications Inc, Taiwan's National Space Organization and Seattle-based Spaceflight from its West Coast launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

"Our number one priority is to safely and reliably return to flight for our customers," SpaceX said.

The last time a launch pad sustained heavy damage was in October 2014 when an Orbital Antares rocket exploded seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia. The explosion sent debris falling back onto the launch site. The pad is due to return to service this month after $15 million worth of repairs.

The FAA had required that SpaceX buy $12 million in liability insurance and $13 million policy to cover any damage to government property during pre-launch activities, according to a Commercial Space Transportation License the FAA issued to SpaceX in January 2016 for six commercial satellite launches in Florida.

SpaceX did not respond to questions about what additional insurance it has, if any, to cover damage to its own equipment.

United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed-Martin Corp and Boeing Co that flies its Atlas rockets at a pad next to SpaceX's, said on Friday it had inspected its facility and found no damage or concerns.

SpaceX's next launch had been scheduled for mid-September from California. Its next flight from Florida was targeted for October.

That California flight could go ahead as soon as the rocket is deemed ready, but the pad cannot substitute for the one in Florida. SpaceX uses Vandenberg to launch satellites requiring polar orbits, while Florida is better situated for satellites heading into equatorial orbits and for cargo ships flying to the International Space Station for NASA.

SpaceX was founded by Musk in 2002, and the Hawthorne, California-based company began launching its Falcon 9 rockets in June 2010. Since then, it has racked up 27 successful flights and one launch accident in June 2015 that destroyed a load of cargo headed for the space station.

(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Andrew Hay)

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SpaceX to shift Florida launches to new pad after explosion

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By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - SpaceX said on Friday it would shift Florida flights to a nearly completed second site after damage to its launch pad on Thursday from the explosion of a rocket belonging to the space services company run by Elon Musk.

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Rutgers engineers use microwaves to produce high-quality graphene

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Rutgers University engineers have found a simple method for producing high-quality graphene that can be used in next-generation electronic and energy devices: bake the compound in a microwave oven. The discovery is documented in a study published online today in the journal .

"This is a major advance in the graphene field," said Manish Chhowalla, professor and associate chair in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in Rutgers' School of Engineering. "This simple microwave treatment leads to exceptionally high quality graphene with properties approaching those in pristine graphene."

The discovery was made by post-doctoral associates and undergraduate students in the department, said Chhowalla, who is also the director of the Rutgers Institute for Advanced Materials, Devices and Nanotechnology. Having undergraduates as co-authors of a Science paper is rare but he said "the Rutgers Materials Science and Engineering Department and the School of Engineering at Rutgers cultivate a culture of curiosity driven research in students with fresh ideas who are not afraid to try something new.''

Graphene - 100 times tougher than steel - conducts electricity better than copper and rapidly dissipates heat, making it useful for many applications. Large-scale production of graphene is necessary for applications such as printable electronics, electrodes for batteries and catalysts for fuel cells.

Graphene comes from graphite, a carbon-based material used by generations of students and teachers in the form of pencils. Graphite consists of sheets or layers of graphene.

The easiest way to make large quantities of graphene is to exfoliate graphite into individual graphene sheets by using chemicals. The downside of this approach is that side reactions occur with oxygen - forming graphene oxide that is electrically non-conducting, which makes it less useful for products.

Removing oxygen from graphene oxide to obtain high-quality graphene has been a major challenge over the past two decades for the scientific community working on graphene. Oxygen distorts the pristine atomic structure of graphene and degrades its properties.

Chhowalla and his group members found that baking the exfoliated graphene oxide for just one second in a 1,000-watt microwave oven, like those used in households across America, can eliminate virtually all of the oxygen from graphene oxide.

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Rutgers engineers use microwaves to produce high-quality graphene

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Rutgers University engineers have found a simple method for producing high-quality graphene that can be used in next-generation electronic and energy devices: bake the compound in a microwave oven. The discovery is documented in a study published online today in the journal .

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"Strong Oklahoma earthquake felt from Arizona to Nebraska"

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Samarco dam failure in Brazil 'caused by design flaws'

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The deadly collapse of a dam at the Samarco mine in Brazil was due to design flaws, according to a report.

The Fundao dam-burst disaster caused a huge mudslide which killed 19 people and polluted a river.

The technical report, commissioned by Samarco's joint owners BHP Billiton and Vale, did not assign blame for the disaster.

A separate police investigation has accused iron miner Samarco of wilful misconduct, which the firm denies.

Dams holding mining waste, known as "tailings", commonly have walls made of a mixture of sand-like particles and clay-like silt.

The report said that a change in the Fundao dam's design between 2011 and 2012 led to less efficient water drainage, and ultimately to the dam's collapse in November 2015.

Sand in the dam walls became saturated, and abruptly started to behave more like a liquid, in a process known as "liquefaction".

"There was a fundamental change in the design concept whereby more widespread saturation was allowed and accepted," the report said, adding "this increase in the extent of saturation introduced the potential for sand liquefaction."

There was increased weight on the tailings as the height of the dam was raised to more than 100m.

This weight pushed clay-like silt in one part of the dam outwards "like toothpaste from a tube," ultimately causing the dam to collapse.

"The tailings that had been solid ground just minutes before transformed into a roiling river, overtopping but not breaching the downstream Santarem Dam, then entering the town of Bento Rodriguez shortly thereafter en route to its ultimate destination in the sea," the report said.

A small earthquake on the day of the dam burst may also have "accelerated" the failure, the report added.

Carlos Eduardo Pinto, a prosecutor in the case against Samarco, said: "Samarco has long claimed it performs good practice but the report did not demonstrate this. Quite the opposite, it showed the company altered the project in a way that would not have been permitted."

In a statement, Dean Dalla Valle, BHP Billiton's chief commercial officer, said the dam failure had "a devastating impact."

"In November 2015, BHP Billiton committed to making the findings of this investigation public, and we are determined to learn from this tragedy," Mr Dalla Valle said.

BHP Billiton said it had reviewed 10 of its biggest tailings dams and found they were stable, but was taking steps to improve risk management.

The disaster has already cost BHP Billiton about $2.2bn, including a total write-off of its investment in Samarco, due to uncertainty over when the mine will reopen.

The figure also includes funds for its share of agreed compensation and damages.

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Samarco dam failure 'due to poor design'

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The deadly collapse of a dam at the Samarco mine in Brazil was due to design flaws, according to a report. The Fundao dam-burst disaster caused a huge mudslide which killed 19 people and polluted a river. The technical report, commissioned by Samarco's joint owners BHP Billiton and Vale, did not assign blame for the disaster.

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Strawberries linked to hepatitis A outbreak in 6 states.

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strawberries linked to multistate hepatitis a outbreak  - cnn

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Strawberries linked to hepatitis A outbreak in 6 states

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An outbreak of hepatitis A caused by imported frozen strawberries from Egypt has sickened 55 people in six states, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

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"Are Drought-resistant crops in Africa the tech fix they're cracked up to be?"

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The rains are not what they once were in Kitui County. As climate change bites, the wet season is more erratic and drought has become an all-too-common phenomenon in this rural corner of eastern Kenya.

This year, the community's produce of peas, sorghum and other staples failed to reach maturity because the rains arrived one month late, says Onesmus Mwangangi, an agricultural expert at the charity Farm Africa. "Farmers in this region have lost more than 80% of their crops due to lack of rain," he adds.

They are not alone. Much of southern Africa is currently suffering consecutive seasons of drought, prompting the Southern African Development Community to declare a regional disaster and to request $2.7bn in aid. If donors were to follow the recent advice of the UN, a proportion of that funding should be spent on so-called drought-resistant seeds.

Seeds have been conventionally bred to be more tolerant to low water levels for decades. Plants are either conventionally crossed and then screened to identify those with optimum gene patterns or, more recently, they have been genetically modified (GM) to include the desired DNA traits.

Among the early pioneers of conventional cross-breeding for drought resistance are organisations such as the non-profit International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre and AGRA (supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). In Kitui County, Farm Africa is already encouraging farmers to adopt drought-tolerant hybrids of traditional crops, with evidence suggesting these seeds use water more efficiently and, in many cases, mature over shorter periods.

The big guns of the biotech world are also moving in, with seed giants such as Monsanto, Syngenta and DuPont investing heavily in GM strains of drought-resistant crops for the US, but not yet Africa.

Do drought-resistant seeds work?

The evidence in favour of drought-resistant seeds is strong, says Kate Fehlenberg, from the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scaling project (DTMASS), funded by USAID. Over a five-year period, a total of 2.9 million farmers in 13 African countries covered by an earlier version of the DTMASS project saw their yields increase by 20% to 30% after sowing a variety of drought-tolerant hybrids.

Fehlenberg says that the hurdle has less to do with science and more to do with distribution. "The challenge is to get [the seed] out to the farmers ... You can have the best corn in the world but it's no good if it's sitting in the freezer."

Some inroads are being made. The Water Efficient Maize for Africa programme, involving Monsanto, for example, saw sales of its drought-tolerant hybrid non-GM seed variety increase by more than 300% last year [pdf], with around 200,000 farmers having used its seeds.

Such successes remain relatively isolated, however. In reality, most smallholder farmers in Africa have yet to hear about drought-resistant seed technology. And those that have are still to be convinced. According to an as yet unpublished survey of more than 4,000 farmers by DTMASS, common concerns include the cost, reliability and productivity of these novel seed varieties.

The seed market also needs better regulation, says Fehlenberg. In countries such as Kenya and Tanzania, for example, the sale of fake and falsely labelled seeds is widespread.

DTMASS recently set up a seed scaling programme to increase awareness and demand for drought-tolerant varieties among small farmers in Africa. Part of its strategy will be to look beyond formal market channels such as seed companies' local salespeople and try to access informal farmer networks.

Seeds not the only solution

There are, however, reservations. Seed sovereignty in particular has become a red-flag issue for many farmer groups in Africa. The drought-tolerant seeds have to be purchased anew every year, unlike traditional seeds, which can be regularly recycled. If seed companies like Monsanto end up controlling the sale of drought-tolerant seeds in Africa in the future, many farmers fear becoming locked into cycles of financial obligation as well as losing control over local systems of food production.

The solution, says Clare Oxborrow, senior food and farming campaigner at Friends of the Earth UK, is an approach to seed development, including drought-tolerant seeds, that prioritises local-led breeding and local knowledge.

Seeds are also only one piece of the puzzle, says Fehlenberg. Other important steps to increase resilience to drought include good farm management, effective irrigation, suitable crop insurance, and the use of crops suited to the local climate and soil.

With this advice in mind, Farm Africa currently trains farmer groups in agricultural best practices such as manure-based fertility management, water conservation and proper tillage. The charity is also working to provide improved early warning of potentially extreme weather conditions so farmers can better prepare for drought conditions.

* This article was amended on 12 September 2016. An earlier version referred to the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project rather than the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scaling project that succeeded it.

Topics

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Are drought-resistant crops in Africa the tech fix they're cracked up to be?

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The rains are not what they once were in Kitui County. As climate change bites, the wet season is more erratic and drought has become an all-too-common phenomenon in this rural corner of eastern Kenya.

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Louisiana flood: Worst US disaster since Hurricane Sandy

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louisiana flood: worst us disaster since hurricane sandy

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Louisiana flood: Worst US disaster since Hurricane Sandy, Red Cross says

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The catastrophic flood devastating Louisiana is now the worst natural disaster to strike the United States since Hurricane Sandy four years ago, the Red Cross said.

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Experimental drug reduces protein clumps and slows memory loss in early Alzheimer's

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In the search for a treatment capable of changing the course of Alzheimer's disease, new findings are offering a rare glimmer of hope: In a preliminary trial of subjects suffering from memory and thinking problems or diagnosed with early Alzheimer's, a bioengineered medication called aducanumab has demonstrated the ability to clear accumulations of beta-amyloid proteins - a hallmark of Alzheimer's - from the brain.

And compared with subjects receiving a placebo medication, those who got monthly infusions of aducanumab in high doses appeared to experience less progressive loss in mental function.

The results of the early clinical trial, reported Wednesday in the journal Nature, offer new evidence that clearing amyloid plaques might be an effective strategy for preventing, halting or even reversing Alzheimer's dementia, especially if the degenerative brain disorder is detected and treated early.

"It is a hopeful sign," said Dr. James A. Hendrix, director of global science initiatives for the Alzheimer's Assn. "This is a small trial, but it still is exciting for a number of reasons.

The new study reflects the findings of a trial designed primarily to test the safety of aducanumab at a range of doses. The drug's developer, Washington, D.C.-based Biogen Inc., is soon to launch a pair of much larger trials designed to test aducanumab's effectiveness as a treatment for Alzheimer's.

"We hope to see these findings confirmed," Hendrix said.

Although aducanumab holds promise as a potential Alzheimer's drug, it is for now an early answer to a more basic question about Alzheimer's disease: What role do clumps of beta-amyloid protein play in the disease?

As long as 25 years ago, scientists suspected a role for amyloid plaques - accumulations in the brain of beta-amyloid proteins - in Alzheimer's disease. When they examined the brains of people who died after suffering a progressive loss of memory and reasoning skills, scientists typically found clumps of beta-amyloid surrounded by destroyed synapses and brain cells that had long since died.

Over the last decade or so, the "amyloid hypothesis" has been put to the test often, without clear results. Many experimental therapies have sought and failed to prevent or clear amyloid plaques. Where a few therapies have succeeded in doing so, patients beset with dementia symptoms failed to improve, and their loss of memory and function continued unabated.

After a year of monthly infusions of aducanumab therapy, the brains of subjects who got the highest dose had significant reductions in their baseline levels of amyloid plaque accumulation. Their scans showed a level of amyloid plaques very near the cutoff point for normal protein accumulation. Those who got a placebo drug showed, on average, no change in amyloid plaque above the levels shown on baseline scans.

And on a key test of mental function, subjects who got the experimental drug showed less progression toward dementia at the one-year mark than did those who got placebo. How much less progression was proportionate to the dose they got.

"The dose-related reduction in brain amyloid with aducanumab is dramatic and convincing," said Dr. Paul Aisen, director of the Keck School of Medicine's Alzheimer's Therapeutic Research Institute at USC. Aisen, who has consulted extensively with Biogen but was not involved in the newly published clinical trial, said that if confirmed by further trials, the benefits of a therapy like aducanumab "would represent a true breakthrough" in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

The complication tended to disappear four to 12 weeks into treatment. But it prompted 46% of those who developed it to drop out of the clinical trial.

Increasingly, the most promising experimental therapies appear to be those that target people who are at risk for Alzheimer's, or who have some of the earliest brain changes seen in the disease but who do not yet exhibit any cognitive deficits. In planning clinical trials, that has put a premium on finding subjects who carry gene variants that make Alzheimer's more likely, or who have a family history of the disease.

But research on treatments for those already affected by dementia continues as well. For people interested in participating in studies and trials, the Alzheimer's Assn. has developed a program called Trial Match that can connect potential study participants with researchers exploring all aspects of the disease.

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Experimental drug reduces protein clumps and slows memory loss in early Alzheimer's

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In the search for a treatment capable of changing the course of Alzheimer's disease, new findings are offering a rare glimmer of hope: In a preliminary trial of subjects suffering from memory and thinking problems or diagnosed with early Alzheimer's, a bioengineered medication called aducanumab has demonstrated the ability to clear accumulations of beta-amyloid proteins - a hallmark of Alzheimer's - from the brain.

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Tropical Storm Hermine Forms in Gulf of Mexico

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Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency Wednesday morning, when the system was still known as Tropical Depression 9.
Related: Severe Weather Looms for Florida, North Carolina, Hawaii
"It is crucial that every Floridian has a plan in place to ensure their families, homes and businesses are fully prepared," Scott said in a statement. "By declaring a state of emergency in advance of this storm, we are ensuring that state, regional and local agencies can work together to meet the needs of our communities."

Weather Channel meteorologist Kevin Roth warned the system could bring a storm surge of up to 3 feet to the areas between Apalachicola and Tampa in northwestern Florida.

"But there could be a few spots that could go up to 4 or 5 [feet] and this part of this coastline is susceptible to flooding," he added.

Hermine is part of a triple weather threat currently looming across the U.S., with storms also set to hit the Southeast and Hawaii.

North Carolina's Outer Banks will likely be drenched as a tropical weather system blows by with up to 5 inches of heavy rain, forecasters said.

NBC meteorologist Bill Karins warned of rough surf and dangerous rip currents off of North Carolina as so-called Tropical Depression 8, which had glanced the coastline late Tuesday, headed back out into the Atlantic. The storm system had maximum sustained wind speeds of 35 mph and was moving northeast at 5 mph early Wednesday.

In the Pacific, Category 1 Hurricane Madeline churned toward Hawaii, promising to bring heavy rain and high winds. Category 4 Hurricane Lester followed roughly Madeline's path and toward the islands. It was forecast to hit over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

"Madeline is going to pass dangerously close to the Big Island of Hawaii late today into Thursday morning Hawaiian time," Karins said early Wednesday.

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Tropical Storm Hermine forms in Gulf of Mexico off Florida coast

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Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency Wednesday morning, when the system was still known as Tropical Depression 9. Related: Severe Weather Looms for Florida, North Carolina, Hawaii "It is crucial that every Floridian has a plan in place to ensure their families, homes and businesses are fully prepared," Scott said in a statement.

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Zika Worsens in Singapore, and U.S. Experts Are Worried

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Singapore's outbreak of Zika is worsening fast and U.S. health official say they are worried.

Singapore, a city-state about two-thirds the size of Washington, D.C., has 115 confirmed cases of the viral infection spread by local mosquitoes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has added Singapore to its list of Zika-affected countries that pregnant women should avoid.

The U.S. now has 47 home-grown cases, all in Florida. Florida health officials added one more case to the count Wednesday.

The jump to Singapore is worrying, health experts say. "I really think we need to keep our eye on Singapore, among other places," said Dr. Tony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases.

"It went from a handful of cases to 50, to 80 and now it's well over 100 cases," Fauci told a session on Zika at Georgetown University law school Wednesday.

Workers prepare to spray insecticide to combat the spread of the Zika virus in Recife, Brazil, on Feb. 3, ahead of Carnival. The city expects more than a million visitors for the celebration.

"Any time there is a disease outbreak in Singapore, it tells us how difficult that disease is to control," CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden told reporters.

That's because Singapore has a tight system for controlling disease. It made Zika a notifiable disease, meaning any doctor who diagnoses a Zika case must inform the government.
Related: Questions About Zika and Pregnancy
"To prevent Zika from becoming entrenched in our local population, all confirmed cases will be admitted to a public hospital until they recover and test negative for the virus," Singapore's National Environmental Agency (NEA) says in a statement on its website.

"(The Ministry of Health) will also screen people in close vicinity of the case (e.g. household, colleagues) for the Zika virus."

Singapore is home to the Aedes mosquitoes that spread Zika, and has struggled to fight dengue virus, a close relative of Zika that's spread by the same mosquitoes.

What impresses Frieden is Singapore's team of inspectors, who keep an eye out for the standing water that breeds mosquitoes. The Aedes mosquitoes that spread Zika virus are notorious for breeding in small containers such as potted plants or trash.

"As a pre-emptive approach, NEA conducts regular inspections at residential and commercial premises to remove the breeding habitats of vectors and prevent the transmission of diseases," it said.

"Where lapses are found, fines and other penalties will be levied."

These measures tend to be very effective.
Related: Who Should Worry About Zika
"Any time there's disease in Singapore, we say that disease is hard to control," Frieden said.

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The CDC is warning pregnant women to avoid Zika-affected Singapore

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Singapore's outbreak of Zika is worsening fast and U.S. health official say they are worried. Singapore, a city-state about two-thirds the size of Washington, D.C., has 115 confirmed cases of the viral infection spread by local mosquitoes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has added Singapore to its list of Zika-affected countries that pregnant women should avoid.

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At least 12 tornadoes tear through homes in Indiana, Ohio

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A wave of severe storms produced at least a dozen tornadoes in Indiana and Ohio, damaging homes and businesses but causing no serious injuries, authorities said Thursday, as crews worked to restore power and remove fallen trees.

The National Weather Service said an EF3 tornado hit the south side of Kokomo, Indiana, packing winds of up to 165 mph. That tornado toppled a Starbucks coffee shop and damaged numerous homes and businesses in the city about 40 miles north of Indianapolis. But Howard County Sheriff Steve Rogers said the 10 to 15 Kokomo residents who were hurt suffered only minor injuries.

Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight said Thursday that about 220 people stayed overnight in a temporary shelter. Police were restricting access to storm-damaged neighborhoods, saying residents must show identification to gain access.

"The areas that have been hit the hardest, we're asking people to stay away unless they absolutely have to be in those areas," Goodnight said at a news conference, adding that he's relieved no one was killed or seriously injured.

Tornadoes were also spotted across the border in northwest Ohio. Emergency Management Agency spokesman Jay Carey said damage was reported in Defiance, Henry, Paulding and Van Wert counties and that one person was reportedly hurt. The worst damage appeared to be at a mobile home park in Defiance, and roads around the site were blocked late Wednesday.

Weather service crews were still assessing the scope of the storms in Indiana, but a spokesman for the state Department of Homeland Security, John Erickson, said at least 12 tornadoes were confirmed in eight northern and central counties.

Several struck central Indiana's Howard County, where utility companies reported at least 15,000 homes and businesses remained without electricity Thursday morning. Goodnight said utility crews from elsewhere in the state were traveling to the city to help restore power and clean up storm debris.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, the Republican vice presidential candidate, returned home Wednesday evening after campaigning in North Carolina. He was scheduled to tour Howard and Montgomery counties and possibly other areas Thursday to assess the damage.

At the Park Place Apartments in Kokomo, maintenance technician Mitchell Carlson described the post-storm scene as "a madhouse." He said the complex has 16 buildings and "probably eight of them don't have a roof." Falling tree limbs and air conditioners damaged 20 to 30 cars, he said.

Howard County Commissioner Paul Wyman said the area was also slammed by a tornado in 2013 and "will bounce back once again." That tornado injured nearly three dozen people.

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At least 12 tornadoes tear through homes in Indiana, Ohio

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A wave of severe storms produced at least a dozen tornadoes in Indiana and Ohio, damaging homes and businesses but causing no serious injuries, authorities said Thursday, as crews worked to restore power and remove fallen trees. The National Weather Service said an EF3 tornado hit the south side of Kokomo, Indiana, packing winds of up to 165 mph.

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Bad Shock - EXLCLUDED.

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REACH: Improving water security for the poor

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24 August 2016

'Water can be both a blessing and a curse: at any location there can be too much or too little of it at different times,' says the scene-setter for this year's World Water Week theme ' Water for sustainable growth '.

In the Awash basin in Ethiopia, impacts of hydrological variability on the economy are severe, according to a new report published by Vivid Economics for the Global Green Growth Institute, with input from our research team. The study shows that future variability due to climate change could lead to swings in basin Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 5-20% while a prolonged drought would reduce economic production by at least 20%.

Quantifying economic impacts

The Awash basin is home to many economic and livelihood activities - such as agriculture, manufacturing and pastoralism - which are vulnerable to changes in rainfall and water-related extremes such as floods and drought. While the basin is rich in water resources, these are unevenly distributed across the basin and variable. The recent drought in Ethiopia shows how vulnerable the region is, but studies quantifying the impact of extreme events on economic and poverty outcomes are lacking.

This study takes a first step towards understanding how water- and climate-related factors influence the economy at the river basin scale. It estimates the direct impacts of rainfall and extreme events on crop production - the mainstay of the basin's economy and the biggest water user. The results show that output is highly sensitive to flooding and drought, the overall level of rainfall, as well as the timing of rains and their distribution across different areas of the basin. Economic losses are even greater when taking into account the knock-on effects on other sectors in the economy.

Improving water management

The authors warn that the economic impacts reported in the study - though large - are conservative and do not account for future pressures on water resources due to rapid economic and population growth projected for the region. Given the importance of the Awash's economy, which accounts for around 30% of national GDP, it is critical that water resource management in the basin is prioritised in Ethiopia's development plans.

The Awash Basin Authority is already taking action to improve data collection, forecast supply-demand balances, and develop tariff and permitting schemes for water abstraction and wastewater discharges. However, policy-makers recognise that more can be done to improve the way water is conserved and allocated between users to protect the interests of all stakeholders.

Poverty matters

Of course an analysis of total GDP is only one part of the picture. REACH is interested in how water management in the basin affects poor women, men and children. And if water security investments are made to support economic development, will these groups also experience improved water security?

Our Water Security Observatory in the Awash basin will study how water availability affects economic and livelihood opportunities for the poor. This understanding will inform interventions to support economic growth while protecting the interests of the most vulnerable.
The report and its findings will be presented by Dr Katrina Charles at the World Water Week session Water as a driver for sustainable growth in Stockholm on 29 August 2016. Download the report

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Water-related extremes and economic shocks in Ethiopia | REACH

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'Water can be both a blessing and a curse: at any location there can be too much or too little of it at different times,' says the scene-setter for this year's World Water Week theme ' Water for sustainable growth '.

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Powerful quake hits central Italy, hundreds dead

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At least 247 people have died after a powerful earthquake struck central Italy, destroying dozens of villages, the country's civil protection agency said, raising a previous count of 120.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi warned on Wednesday that the figure could still rise as rescue efforts continued in the mountain villages devastated by the quake.

About 368 people were injured in the tremor, he said at a press conference in the Rieti region, not far from the epicentre of the 6.0-6.2 magnitude quake.

"This is not a final toll," Renzi added.

The US Geological Survey said it was a 6.2 magnitude quake that hit near the town of Norcia, in the region of Umbria, at 3:36am local time (01:36 GMT).

The earthquake caused buildings to collapse and sent panicked residents fleeing into the streets of numerous towns and cities.

The mayor of the small town of Amatrice reported extensive damage.

"Half the town is gone," Sergio Pirozzi told RAI state television. "There are people under the rubble ... There's been a landslide and a bridge might collapse."

Italy's civil protection agency said the earthquake was "severe".

A 5.5 magnitude aftershock hit the same region an hour after the initial quake.

Luca Cari, fire department spokesman, said "there have been reports of victims" in the quake zone, but he did not have any precise details.

Besides Amatrice, the worst-hit towns were believed to be Accumoli, Posta and Arquata del Tronto, Cari told Reuters news agency, adding that helicopters would be sent up at first light to assess the damage.

Gilberto Saccorotti, a geologist at Italy's National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology, told Al Jazeera: "That particular area has a long history of very [powerful], very energetic seismicity. It's not surprising to have had a [powerful] earthquake there.

"From my knowledge of the area, the roads are very narrow, so if one road fails, the connection may become very difficult ... The depth is quite shallow, about four kilometres. Usually the typical depth is in the order of ten kilometres."
WATCH: Return to L'Aquila - Broken Promises
Saccarotti said it is difficult to predict whether there will be another earthquake or more aftershocks.

Residents of Rome, about 170km from the registered epicentre, were woken by Wednesday's tremors, which rattled furniture and swayed lights in most of central Italy.

A hostel on the Gran Sasso mountain, a popular area for hikers and climbers, said on its Facebook page that a large piece of rock had collapsed as a result of the tremor.

The spokesperson for Matteo Renzi, Italy's prime minister, said on Twitter the government was in touch with the country's civil protection agency and following the situation closely.

The last major earthquakes to hit Italy occurred in 2012. Two quakes struck the northern Italian province of Modena in May, killing about 27 people, injuring many others and wreaking widespread havoc.

In 2009, more than 300 people were killed after a massive earthquake struck the central Italian city of L'Aquila.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera News and agencies

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Powerful quake hits central Italy, hundreds dead

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At least 247 people have died after a powerful earthquake struck central Italy, destroying dozens of villages, the country's civil protection agency said, raising a previous count of 120. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi warned on Wednesday that the figure could still rise as rescue efforts continued in the mountain villages devastated by the quake.

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"House prices held back in areas at risk of natural disasters"

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By

Getty Images

Flames sweep through a rural community at the Blue Cut Fire near Wrightwood, California.

As a rash of fires consumes parts of California and floods ravage Baton Rouge, would-be homebuyers are paying attention.

Home sales in the first six months of 2016 rose more than twice as fast, 4.2%, in U.S. counties with the lowest risk of natural hazards than in the top fifth of counties with the highest level of such risk, where they rose 1.9%.

That data comes from Attom Data Solutions, formerly known as RealtyTrac. Attom Vice President Daren Blomquist acknowledged that jobs and housing affordability are the primary drivers of local real estate markets. Still, Blomquist said, "there is a consistent trend of stronger increases in home sales volume compared to a year ago in the lowest-risk markets for natural hazards compared to the highest-risk markets."

ATTOM Data Solutions

For a larger chart, please click here.

Among 804 counties analyzed for home sales and price trends, the Top 5 in Attom's Natural Hazard Housing Risk Index were Oklahoma County, Oklahoma; Monroe County, Florida (Key West); Cleveland County, Oklahoma (Oklahoma City); Nevada County, California (Truckee); and Lake County, California (Clearlake).

The counties that ranked lowest on the risk index were Milwaukee County, Wisconsin; Kewaunee County, Wisconsin (Green Bay); Racine County, Wisconsin (Racine); Knox County, Maine; and Kenosha County, Wisconsin (Chicago metro area).

Also read: Lessons from Baton Rouge: How to storm-proof your home insurance

Home prices are lower in the lowest-risk counties, Attom said. The median sales price there was $187,291, 33% lower than the average estimated market value for homes in the highest-risk counties, which was $279,570. But over the past ten years, prices have appreciated 9.5% there compared to the highest-risk counties, which have notched a 1.9% gain.

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House prices held back in areas at risk of natural disasters

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By As a rash of fires consumes parts of California and floods ravage Baton Rouge, would-be homebuyers are paying attention. Home sales in the first six months of 2016 rose more than twice as fast, 4.2%, in U.S.

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"The Latest: Hurricane warning issued for Hawaii’s Big Island"

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"DNA Sequenced in Space For First Time"

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DNA has been successfully sequenced in space for the first time.

Nasa astronaut Kate Rubins carried out the test on the International Space Station (ISS) at the weekend.

She was using a compact DNA sequencing device called Minion, which was developed in the UK.

The device, which was sent up to the space station in July, could help astronauts diagnose illness in space and allow them to identify disease-causing microbes on the ISS.

DNA sequencing is the process used to determine the order of the four chemical building blocks that make up the genetic information from a given living organism.

While Dr Rubins carried out her work on the orbiting outpost, researchers were simultaneously sequencing identical test samples on the ground.

The experiment was set up to attempt to make spaceflight conditions, particularly microgravity, the only variables that could account for differences in the results.

Using the Minion in a weightless environment introduces several challenges including the formation of air bubbles in fluid used in the test.

Bubbles rise to the top of a liquid solution and can be removed by centrifuge. But in space, bubbles are less predictable.

Sarah Castro-Wallace, project manager for the experiment, said: "Onboard sequencing makes it possible for the crew to know what is in their environment at any time.

"That allows us on the ground to take appropriate action - do we need to clean this up right away, or will taking antibiotics help or not?

"We can resupply the station with disinfectants and antibiotics now, but once crews move beyond the station's low Earth orbit, we need to know when to save those precious resources and when to use them."

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DNA has been successfully sequenced in space for the first time. Nasa astronaut Kate Rubins carried out the test on the International Space Station (ISS) at the weekend. She was using a compact DNA sequencing device called Minion, which was developed in the UK.

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"Earth Will Only Have 12 Hours To Prepare For Massive Solar Storm!”

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Earth Will Only Have 12 Hours To Prepare For Massive Solar Storm

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In a new government document, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills has laid out its Space Weather Preparedness Strategy, outlining the risks of unsettled space weather as well as what it plans to do about them. The document explains that the worst case scenario is a ‘coronal mass ejection’ - huge eruptions on the sun which cause parts of its corona to detach. The worst case scenario is based on the Carrington event of 1859, which caused solar-flare related x-rays and radiation storms.

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"New technology helps farmers conserve fertilizer and protect their crops"

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We have a nitrogen problem. Nitrogen is essential to our existence, a required nutrient for the plants we eat. It is the broad swath at the bottom of our own human food pyramid and it is applied by farmers to agriculture fields all over the world.

From there, much of it is lost to the atmosphere, as a greenhouse gas 300 times as potent as carbon dioxide. Still more of it leaches into waterways, creating dead zones, like the ones that inevitably creep up in the Gulf of Mexico, decimating fish populations.

Researchers at Cornell University are hoping they've created the beginnings of a solution. Adapt-N, a software program developed after years of research, aims to help farmers simultaneously save money and mitigate these environmental impacts by giving them the information they need to determine how and when to apply nitrogen fertilizer to their fields.

The online tool monitors nitrogen applied and lost on cornfields across the country. Farmers input field-specific information including soil composition and field history, as well as the amount of fertilizer they apply to their fields and when. The program combines this information with real-time weather monitoring to track the nitrogen's likely fate. It sends farmers and agronomists daily email updates and allows them to retroactively explore field histories.

According to Dr Harold van Es, professor and chair of Cornell University's Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, the tool combines three major innovations: research that shows nitrogen variability can be managed, cloud computing technology, and high-resolution weather information. The latter is especially important.

"Any time you put nitrogen in a reactive form in the soil, you can lose a lot of it within a matter of a couple days," explains van Es. "That's primarily driven by rainfall, by precipitation."

The first version of Adapt-N was created in 2005 and the first web edition launched in 2008. From there demand grew rapidly. The Cornell team realized they needed a company to manage the software, so they could focus on their primary work: research.

"There's a phenomenal team of soil scientists, climatologists, and crop modelers that work on it but they're not software platform management people and they're not customer service people and it really just taxed them significantly," says Greg Levow, co-founder of the tech startup Agronomic Technology Corporation (ATC).

When Cornell began its search for a private company to manage the software, Levow and his co-founders at ATC were looking for something like Adapt-N - a startup and a cloud technology project that a group of young entrepreneurs could sink their teeth into.

ATC took over management of Adapt-N at the end of 2013 through a unique public-private partnership with the university. This year, the company launched the first commercial rendition of Adapt-N, with farmers and agronomists in 25 states using the tool to manage tens of thousands of acres of corn.

Studies show that the nitrous oxide emitted from cornfields has a greenhouse gas impact of similar magnitude to the entire aviation industry of the United States.

"With greenhouse gases, most people think about carbon dioxide and maybe methane, but people don't think about nitrous oxide and it's a very big concern," says Dr van Es. "If you were to say within the aviation industry we can reduce our carbon footprint by 25%, people would be saying well that's fantastic, that is big news. We think we can do that with nitrous oxide."

Aiming to combat crop loss as well as pollution

Shannon Gomes is an agronomist in Decora, Iowa - corn country. He helps farmers manage 25,000 acres of the commodity crop and has 27 years of experience under his belt. Gomes uses Adapt-N with the farmers he advises, showing them how long-held practices, like applying nitrogen in the fall, can lead to lost nitrogen and lost profits.

"One of the biggest benefits of Adapt-N is as a teaching tool," says Gomes. "We can input or change a variable to show less loss."

Since 2011, Gomes has been a participant in field trials of Adapt-N, conducted by the team at Cornell University. Field trials conducted in a dozen states, including Iowa and New York, show results you'd expect, but also ones you might not - like the ones from the summer of 2013.

"In 2011 and 2012 we saw average and fairly dry years in much of our region and that resulted typically in a reduction in fertilizer rates", says ATC's Greg Levow. "However, 2013 was a very different year from a weather perspective. It was a very wet spring in much of the Corn Belt and the Northeast, so we did in fact recommend significantly more nitrogen, not in every case, but on the average certainly. That was needed to avoid yield losses that would have resulted from those crops becoming deficient in N later on in the season."

As a result, around three quarters of New York farmers who field-tested Adapt-N in 2013 actually increased the amount of nitrogen they used compared to farmers who did not use the tool. They also increased their profits.

According to the software's developers, this is an essential part of adaptive management.

Attracting the attention of deep-pocketed competitors

Even with years when nitrogen applications increase, the overall environmental benefits are clear. So much so that the tool has attracted the attention of an unlikely collection of players, including the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Walmart.

As part of its sustainability plan, the corporate retailer committed to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with its global supply chain by 20m metric tons of carbon equivalent, by the end of 2015. Of this amount, 40% is to come from fertilizer use optimization. EDF, which facilitated some of the nitrogen rate trials for Adapt-N in the past, has been helping Walmart work with tools like Adapt-N to help its suppliers, and the farms that supply those suppliers, mitigate environmental impacts.

The market value of this technology has also attracted the attention of some of agri-businesses major players: multi-national corporations Monsanto and Dupont Pioneer. Monsanto's Climate Pro program, which includes Nitrogen Advisor in its arsenal, claims that it can save farmers up to $100 an acre. Pioneer is also poised to launch its own cloud-based nitrogen management tool.

For the makers of Adapt-N, this comes as both a boon and a challenge.

"[Monsanto and Pioneer] are two very large seed companies, of course with very deep pockets and so it has changed the competitive environment a little bit. I mean for us, as scientists, it's a feather in our cap, because imitation is the highest form of flattery. But for Agronomic Technology Corporation, it means that there's a lot more competition," says Dr van Es.

While increasing adoption rates is key for reaching environmental goals, the challenge to ATC and Adapt-N is hard to ignore. In this newly competitive landscape, for Levow, it comes down to independent, unbiased recommendations.

"We really suggest that people who are looking at these systems forget about the privacy policy of the website and just figure out what the intent of the provider is," says van Es. "We would strongly question a system that's trying to make nitrogen recommendations, that's also trying to sell seed and insurance, or crop protection."
Kayleigh Burgess is a master\s student in journalism and public affairs at Indiana University, and a reporter for "Organic Solutions in Global Food Affairs" on studentreporter.org. The technology and innovation hub is funded by BT. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more Topics

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Adapt-N: Harnessing technology, farming the future

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We have a nitrogen problem. Nitrogen is essential to our existence, a required nutrient for the plants we eat. It is the broad swath at the bottom of our own human food pyramid and it is applied by farmers to agriculture fields all over the world.