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A trio of European satellites is being readied for launch tomorrow from Russia’s Plesetsk spaceport to study Earth’s magnetic field in unprecedented detail. The $296-million mission, known as Swarm, will map the magnetosphere for at least four years. Mission managers with the European Space Agency (ESA) are awaiting the launch—postponed twice owing to problems with the Russian rocket’s upper stage—with anxiety. In 2009, a Rockot carried two ESA Earth-observation satellites—GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) and SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity)—safely into orbit....

With air pollution responsible for around 3.4 million deaths annually, there are still many gaps in global monitoring. The use of remote sensing and other technology, including citizen science, can revolutionize our understanding of air pollution and policies to address it. The interactive infographic below examines the gaps in data and understanding for four health-relevant air pollutants (particulate matter, ozone, mercury and persistent organic pollutants) and describes what is needed to design the next-generation indicators to address them....

Researchers seeking to unpick the complex genetic basis of mental disorders such as schizophrenia have taken a huge step towards their goal. A paper published in Nature this week ties 108 genetic locations to schizophrenia — most for the first time. The encouraging results come on the same day as a US$650-million donation to expand research into psychiatric conditions. Philanthropist Ted Stanley gave the money to the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts....

Depression affects more than 264 million people of all ages globally. The World Health Organization ranks depression as one of the most debilitating diseases to society. It is the leading cause of disability worldwide and the psychiatric diagnosis most commonly associated with suicide, which accounts for nearly 800,000 deaths globally each year. Individuals suffering from depression may face an inability to manage life’s demands and maintain social connections, affecting all aspects of their experiences, from school and employment to relationships and overall quality of life....

With its recent decision in West Virginia v. EPA, which reined in the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to address climate change, the Supreme Court wrote into precedent an idea that has been gaining traction for years in conservative legal circles. The concept, known as the “major questions” doctrine, holds that regulatory agencies may not take actions with wide-ranging economic impact unless Congress has specifically authorized them to do so. The case concerned the powers granted by the Clean Air Act, the landmark 1970 law that— in the absence of legislation specifically dealing with climate change—has been the best tool available for checking greenhouse gas emissions....

More than 120 million years ago, while giant dinosaurs crashed through the forests in fearsome combat, a quieter drama unfolded in the Cretaceous underbrush: some lineage of hairy, diminutive creatures stopped laying eggs and gave birth to live young. They were the progenitors of nearly all modern mammals (the exceptions, platypuses and echidnas, still lay eggs to this day). What makes mammals’ live birth possible is the unique organ called the placenta, which envelops the growing embryo and mediates the flow of nutrients and gases between it and the mother via the umbilical cord....

Charles Darwin was not yet 30 when he got the basic idea for the theory of evolution. But it wasn’t until he turned 50 that he presented his argument to the world. He spent those two decades methodically compiling evidence for his theory and coming up with responses to every skeptical counterargument he could think of. And the counterargument he anticipated most of all was that the gradual evolutionary process he envisioned could not produce certain complex structures....

Expectations for marriage come from many places—family life, past relationships, observations of other married couples. Now a study published last September in the journal Mass Communication and Society finds that television may also affect how we feel about marriage and our spouse. Researchers at Albion College surveyed 392 married individuals, analyzing their television-viewing habits, belief in the portrayal of television relationships, expectations for relationships and feelings toward their own marriage. They found that participants who believe that couples on TV are true to life are less committed in their own marriage: their survey responses indicate they are more likely to cheat and less likely to stay in the marriage....

New York’s recently released review of the environmental risks (PDF) posed by natural gas production in the Marcellus shale offers the clearest picture yet of the chemicals used in the drilling process called hydraulic fracturing. The document makes public the names of 260 chemicals, more than eight times as many as Pennsylvania state regulators have compiled. The list is the most complete released by any state or federal agency and could help answer concerns about hydraulic fracturing in Congress and in states where gas drilling has increased in recent years....

The latest outbreak of Ebola virus in west Africa is the worst ever—as of Monday, it had infected more than 1,200 people and claimed at least 672 victims since this spring. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone all have confirmed cases. An official at Doctors Without Borders has declared the outbreak as “totally out of control,” according to NBC News. Unfortunately, doctors have no effective vaccines or therapies. Health care workers can only attempt to support patients’ immune systems (regulating fluids, oxygen levels, blood pressure and treating other infections) to help the afflicted fight off the virus as best they can....

NASA’s premier gamma-ray space telescope may be changing tack in the coming months from an equal-opportunity scan of the whole sky to a pattern that prioritizes the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The new strategy could help the Fermi telescope find more spinning stars called pulsars, observe a cloud on a collision course with the galaxy’s supermassive black hole and, just maybe, find evidence of dark matter. In March 2013, after five years of business as usual, the Fermi team put out a call for alternative observing strategies....

Everyone agrees that a vaccine will be essential to stop the global spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. But Ofer Levy, a physician-scientist at Boston Children’s Hospital, worries that vaccines being designed today are not going to be effective enough for the people who need them most: older adults. “Whatever we develop, we’ve got to make sure it works in the elderly. Otherwise we don’t have our eye on the ball....

By Tom Miles GENEVA, Nov 16 (Reuters) - The El Niño weather pattern, a phenomenon associated with extreme droughts, storms and floods, is expected to strengthen before the end of the year and become one of the strongest on record, the U.N. weather agency said on Monday. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said this El Niño was already “strong and mature” and the biggest in more than 15 years. The phenomenon is driven by warm surface water in the eastern Pacific Ocean, and this time three-month averages will peak at more than 2 degrees Celsius above normal, putting this El Niño in the same league as those seen in 1972-73, 1982-83 and 1997-98, the WMO said....

Dear EarthTalk: If you have an electric or plug-in hybrid car, you’re paying for electricity rather than gasoline all or most of the time. How does that cost compare to a gas-powered car’s cost-per-mile? And since the electricity may be generated from some other polluting source, does it really work out to be better for the environment? – Kevin DeMarco, Milford, Connecticut When you compare battery to gasoline power, electricity wins hands down....

As a culinary scientist, I’m constantly straddling the border between two worlds. My career is predicated on marrying two disparate skill sets and ideologies—those of the chef and those of the biochemist—to reinforce the strengths and cover the weaknesses of each side. There are gaps in this hybrid armour, however—situations where science, technology and culinary creativity have yet to catch up with our ambition. At times, these puzzles can appear maddeningly simple....

The brain’s wiring patterns can shed light on a person’s positive and negative traits, researchers report in Nature Neuroscience. The finding, published on September 28, is the first from the Human Connectome Project (HCP), an international effort to map active connections between neurons in different parts of the brain. The HCP, which launched in 2010 at a cost of US$40 million, seeks to scan the brain networks, or connectomes, of 1,200 adults....

HWASEONG, South Korea (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor Co. plans to start selling its first battery-powered electric vehicle (EV) in 2016 as South Korea’s champion of fuel-cell cars hedges its bets in next-generation green technology. Hyundai has leant toward engines which turn hydrogen into electricity in response to stricter emissions regulations in markets such as the U.S. Research and development partner Kia Motors Corp. has focused on rechargeable batteries. But the division of labor is blurring at a time when the number of battery-powered EVs is on the rise....

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), resigned today following accusations of sexual harassment by a former employee at the energy think tank he heads in New Delhi. The United Nations’ climate science body, which is currently meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, will now be headed temporarily by Vice Chairman Ismail El Gizouli. Pachauri, 74, did not travel to Nairobi this week for the IPCC meeting due to a police investigation into a complaint filed Feb....

Scientists recently analyzed data that was collected using seismometers during two summer months at a Swiss Alps glacier in 2007. They discovered potentially revelatory harmonic properties of ice quakes, which are minor rumbles produced when cracks in the ice are reshaped by water flowing through them. The ice quakes cause a glacier to hum in a way that’s normally imperceptible to humans. But you can listen to a sped-up version of the glacier’s amplified atonal aria here:...

Editor’s Note, this story will appear in the February/March 2009 issue of Scientific American MIND and has been made available early due to tonight’s series premiere of Lie To Me. READING FACES Lie to Me FOX, Wednesdays at 9 P.M. EST “If you see this microexpression in your spouse’s face, your marriage is coming to an end,” announces Dr. Cal Lightman to a room full of skeptical FBI agents as they watch a recording of a neo-Nazi skinhead accused of planning arson....