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Massive flood barriers may not be the most cost-effective way to control severe flooding from future Sandy-like storms in New York City, at least in the next two decades, according to a new analysis from Dutch and American researchers. However, the city needs to be planning for those types of huge barriers more as part of a longer-term plan, and as preparation for the possibility that climate change and sea-level rise may be worse than expected, warns the analysis, published last week in Science....

The muon is going mainstream. The particle, a heavy version of the electron that rains down on every square centimetre of Earth, is little known outside particle physics—and last year it helped archaeologists to make a stunning discovery of a previously unknown chamber in Egypt’s Great Pyramid. Volcanologists and nuclear engineers are also finding new uses for the same technique, called muography, which harnesses muons to probe the innards of dense structures....

From ancient times until the advent of antibiotics, physicians used maggots to help clean injuries and prevent infection. Because the maggots feed solely on dead flesh, doctors did not have to worry about bugs feasting on healthy tissue. The arrival of antibiotics relegated medical maggots to an artifact of an earlier era. Widespread antibiotic resistance, however, rekindled interest in the use of medical maggots, and in 2004 the fda approved them as a valid “medical device....

(Reuters) - Rescuers searched for more than 800 people missing in the southern Philippines on Sunday after flash floods and landslides swept houses into rivers and out to sea, killing more than 650 people in areas ill-prepared to cope with storms. Cagayan de Oro and nearby Iligan cities on Mindanao island were worst hit when Typhoon Washi slammed ashore while people slept late on Friday and early Saturday, sending torrents of water and mud through villages and stripping mountainsides bare....

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Studies on the health impact of “plain” or standardized cigarette packs suggest they can deter non-smokers from taking up the habit and may cut the number of cigarettes smokers get through, scientists said on Tuesday. In a collection of scientific papers in the journal Addiction, researchers said that while standardized packs were still too new to provide substantial evidence, studies so far showed they were likely to reduce smoking rates....

Psychologists have occasionally given people psychedelic drugs such as LSD or magic mushrooms to induce altered states, in an attempt to treat mental illness. Today, many of those drugs are illegal, but if clinical trials testing their efficacy yield positive results, a handful could become prescription medicines in the next decade. The furthest along in this process is MDMA—a drug sold illegally as ecstasy or Molly—which is showing promise in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)....

Scientists, sailors, journalists and government officials set sail from San Francisco Bay yesterday to start a study of the planet’s largest known floating garbage dump, about 1,000 miles north of Hawaii. The goal of the monthlong mission, dubbed Project Kaisei after the 151-foot brigantine that was bought from Japanese sailors in 1991, is to chart the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch and learn about its mysterious vortex of discarded plastic and assess what might be done about it....

I love dictionaries. I like to sit and read them, immersed in the words that make up our own stories. That is how I first came across the original meaning of the word “manufacture.” The Oxford English Dictionary, in its primary, 17th-century, definition of the word, defines it as “the action or process of making by hand.” Another definition from the 17th century reads: “Working with the hands; a manual occupation, handicraft....

Mosquitoes are the world’s deadliest animals, transmitting diseases that kill hundreds of thousands of people annually. Only the females bite, to acquire protein to make their eggs. But blood can also serve as a refreshing beverage on a hot, dry day. A new study finds that dehydrated mosquitoes are more aggressive, land more often on hosts and feed more frequently than those with ready access to water. In quenching their thirst, they may also increase the spread of disease, says Joshua Benoit, a biologist at the University of Cincinnati and senior author of the study, published in May in Scientific Reports....

From Nature magazine An elite chemical club has a new member, after a team in Germany found a way to link two boron atoms together with a stable triple bond. Boron joins carbon and nitrogen as one of the few elements in the periodic table known to form stable compounds featuring triple bonds. Theory had predicted that such boron structures should be possible, says Holger Braunschweig, a chemist at the University of Würzburg who led the research....

I’ll be honest: I’m something of a yoga nut. I’ve practiced for decades and recently became a certified yoga teacher. But, to be honest again, some of the health claims I’ve heard about yoga make me squirm. Does yoga really fix poor digestion? How on earth can it regulate thyroid function? In yoga classes, I sometimes struggle to calm my mind when a teacher invites us to do the anatomically impossible: “Breathe into your kidneys....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The best-known vision of the Norse afterlife is that of Valhalla, the hall of the heroes where warriors chosen by the Valkyries feast with the god Odin, tell stories from their lives, and fight each other in preparation for the final battle of Ragnarök, the end of the world and death of the gods....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The megalithic temples of Malta and Gozo rank amongst the oldest free-standing buildings in the world. Construction of these temples started c. 3500 BCE, an impressive architectural feat for their time, particularly given that the builders had limited access to materials and did not have metal tools at their disposal....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Scandinavians from the island of Gotland began to spread throughout the Baltic region along the Russian rivers in the 700s. While the Vikings of Norway and Denmark from the 8th to 11th centuries are widely recognized as fearsome raiders and colonists, Gotlander traders were as much warriors as businessmen and advanced into new areas via fortified outposts....

Dear EarthTalk: Which is better for our environment: to use dryer sheets in the dryer or liquid fabric softener in the wash? It seems they both have properties that are not very green. – Deborah, via e-mail If you’re concerned about the health and safety of your family members, you might want to stay away from both conventional dryer sheets and liquid fabric softeners altogether. While it may be nice to have clothes that feel soft, smell fresh and are free of static cling, both types of products contain chemicals known to be toxic to people after sustained exposure....

You can’t please all the people all the time, and nobody knows it better than tech companies. Any little change will infuriate some subset of your customers: change the layout, change how a feature works, change the system requirements. Even if the overall outcome is a step forward, a bit of customer disgruntlement is just a cost of doing business. Apparently, however, it’s also possible to enrage just about your entire customer base at once....

The exoplanet discoveries by NASA’s Kepler space telescope keep rolling in. Astronomers poring through data gathered during Kepler’s current extended mission, known as K2, have spotted 95 more alien planets, a new study reports. That brings the K2 tally to 292, and the total haul over Kepler’s entire operational life to nearly 2,440—about two-thirds of all the alien worlds ever discovered. And more than 2,000 additional Kepler candidates await confirmation by follow-up observations or analysis....

Editor’s note (10/9/2012): We are making the text of this article freely available for 30 days because the article was cited by the Nobel Committee as a further reading in the announcement of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics. The full article with images, which originally appeared in the June 1997 issue, is available for purchase here. “I am sorry that I ever had anything to do with quantum theory,” Erwin Schrödinger reportedly complained to a colleague....

Key concepts Chemistry Acids Bases Light Introduction You might have done experiments with well-labeled acids and bases in school, but have you ever wondered whether a certain food or chemical around the house is an acid or a base? You can find out using a red cabbage to make an indicator solution. When two or more ingredients are entirely dissolved in one another, you have a solution. For example, mixing salt with water creates a clear solution, even though the salt is there and the solution tastes salty....

Large petroleum pumps nodded up and down in the background as British Prime Minister David Cameron donned a blue industrial jumpsuit to promote a controversial drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. In his 2014 visit to a potential drill site in eastern England, Cameron laid out the benefits of tapping Britain’s shale formations to release valuable natural gas. “We’re going all out for shale,” he said. “It will mean more jobs and opportunities for people, and economic security for our country....