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NIST 9/11 investigation finds building fires caused collapse
After three years study, NIST experts say fire caused the collapse of the 47-story World Trade Center building 7; this is the first known instance of fire causing the total collapse of a tall building
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Unmanned helicopter to aid in search and rescue
The UAVs will search for people in isolated regions, monitor large-area disasters such as floods or forest fires, sample gas emissions over industrial disaster sites, and act as a communication platform when the regular infrastructure is down
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Can New York City's infrastructure handle climate change's consequences?
Mayor Michael Bloomberg sets up a panel of experts to examine whether NYC can cope with flooded subway tunnels, rising sea levels, intense heat, and other consequences of climate change
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Global warming will reduce frequency but increase intensity of hurricanes
Two variables — ocean temperature and wind shear — are considered to be the two most important factors in predicting hurricane activity, both in operational forecasting and in consideration of climate change; new research shows that global warming will likely reduce the frequency of hurricanes, but increase their intensity
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The pandemic potential of H9N2 avian influenza viruses
Researchers show that some currently circulating avian H9N2 viruses can transmit to naïve ferrets placed in direct contact with infected ferrets — but aerosol transmission was not observed, a key factor in potentially pandemic strains
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New bird flu strain detected in Nigeria
Nigeria has reported two new highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreaks; laboratory results show that the newly discovered virus strain (H5N1, clade 2, EMA3) is genetically different from the strains that circulated in Nigeria during earlier outbreaks
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Five ways for humans to trigger a natural disaster
Most scientists now agree that human activity contributes to a long-term changes in global climate, with serious consequences for humans, animals, and plants; human activity, though, can also trigger sudden “natural” catastrophes
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Thales chooses e2v for Sentinel-3 Earth observation satellite
Sentinel-3 will be used to study sea surface topography, sea, and land surface temperature, ocean color, and land color with a high level of accuracy
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Floods strip Midwest of tons of valuable topsoil
Floods are stripping the Midwest of its most valuable resource: soil; farmers and environmentalists are at odds over what to do with erosion-prone land — take their chances planting crops on marginal land in hopes of good yields and high grain prices, or plant trees, native grasses, or ground cover that act as a natural flood buffer
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Earth's surface features predict earthquakes
Seismologists could make better use of the surface features of mountains to detect the troubles which lurk beneath
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Midwest floods to create record dead zone in Gulf of Mexico
Each year, an influx of nutrients — mainly nitrogen — which come from fertilizers flushed out of the Mississippi basin creates dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico — zones where there is not enough oxygen to sustain life; the summer’s Midwest floods flush record levels of nutrients into the Gulf, creating a dead zone the size of New Jersey
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Better picture of what lies beneath the Earth's surface
A tool which measures minute changes in the planet’s gravity field from the air allows a cheaper alternative to seismic surveying
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NASA's UAV helps fight California wild fires
Fire crews are fighting more than 1,700 blazes that have blackened 829,000 acres of California this fire season; they need all the help they can get — and NASA extends such help by lending the state a modified Predator UAV
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Evidence of acid rain supports meteorite theory of Tunguska catastrophe
There are many theories about the source of the mysterious 1908 explosion in Siberia, an explosion which leveled more than 80 million trees over an area of more than 2,000 square kilometers; presence of acid rain lends support to one of them
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Predicting hurricanes
During the summer and autumn, a large body of warm water with a surface temperature of more than 28 °C appears in the Gulf of Mexico; at certain times the current cannot remove heat fast enough from the gulf, creating conditions that are particularly favorable for intense hurricane formation
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The long view
Close Calls at Michigan’s Dams Are a Climate Warning to America
Record flooding pushed Michigan’s dams to the brink of disaster. The near miss reflects the national problem of infrastructure that is not suited to the challenges of a warming world.