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When calamities like the Nepal earthquake hit, people look for numbers to help calculate the toll of destruction. That puts the spotlight on operations like earthquake-report.com, which is world’s largest independent Web site for earthquake data. The site has a rapid earthquake-loss estimation model, so that within 30 minutes of an event, anywhere in the world, they can offer a prediction about fatalities and economic loss. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) also has a prediction Web site; the models differ in how they determine an event’s impact, the economic inputs used and the databases they draw from....

THE HYPNOTIST, dangling a swinging pocket watch before the subject’s eyes, slowly intones: “You’re getting sleepy … You’re getting sleepy …” The subject’s head abruptly slumps downward. He is in a deep, sleeplike trance, oblivious to everything but the hypnotist’s soft voice. Powerless to resist the hypnotist’s influence, the subject obeys every command, including an instruction to act out an upsetting childhood scene. On “awakening” from the trance half an hour later, he has no memory of what happened....

If you’re ever having a problem being understood by an orangutan, you might want to try charades. Researchers report that when the shaggy, long-faced apes fail to get their point across using gestures, they adopt a strategy similar to that of human charades, repeating gestures that work but trying out new signals if completely missing the mark. Researchers have reportedly taught sign language to chimpanzees and other apes in the past....

By Victoria Cavaliere and Ian SimpsonNEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The first major winter storm of 2014 bore down on the northeastern United States on Thursday with heavy snow, Arctic temperatures and strong winds just as many people were returning from holiday breaks.The double-barreled storm system stretching from the lower Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic coast could dump more than 12 inches of snow in some areas, especially southern New England, by Friday morning, the National Weather Service said....

More than three decades ago Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror classic Alien introduced moviegoers to a menacing, insectlike, parasitoid extraterrestrial species. The film’s sequels and spinoffs over time created a rich mythology of a universe in which the films’ predatory antagonists and doomed heroes coexist, complete with terraformed colonies, interstellar mining and commerce, and a recurring role for the fictional Weyland Corp., whose relentless efforts to capture and control the alien species set in motion much of the film franchise’s narrative....

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed to eliminate artery-clogging fats from all foodstuffs last week, they could look across the Atlantic Ocean at one recipe for success. Denmark placed tight restrictions on its own partially hydrogenated oils—the main source of trans fats—a decade ago. In fact, U.S. action follows in the footsteps of a cadre of nations that have sought to limit trans fat intake already. And their results and playbook could provide a glimpse of the future in the U....

Teams of budding engineers and robotics enthusiasts recently squared off in New York City at the FIRST (For Inspiration, Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics “Lunacy” Competition, pitting their robots against one another in the hope of becoming one of 344 teams to move on to the championship round next month in Atlanta. (The nickname Lunacy is a nod to the 40th anniversary of NASA’s moon landing.) Sixty-six teams of high school students from the New York City and New Jersey as well as international competitors from the U....

December 1965 The life of the “Untouchables” of India “Without violence or much notice from the outside world India is undergoing a profound social revolution. Religious sanctions as well as economic, social and legal ones have traditionally enforced the inferior position of the lower castes. Today the nation’s new constitution and its government are firmly committed to the overthrow of those traditions. For understandable reasons the people of India themselves have always avoided the term “untouchables....

In the era of online social media, network contagion effects allow social causes to reach a large number of interconnected individuals fast, efficiently, and at low cost. Some social causes go viral and garner significant support very quickly; others are less successful. Understanding the nature of viral altruism and its core behavioural characteristics can help us sustain positive social change. Social causes go viral A prime example of the value of ‘social contagion’ effects is illustrated by the 2014 ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which went into history as one of the largest and most successful online viral social causes....

In the five years since the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”) became law it has survived some 60 recall attempts by the House of Representatives and one major U.S. Supreme Court challenge. Most of the House votes were little more than opportunities to burnish GOP credentials but the latest legal challenge could be a game-changer for the 2010 law designed to help millions of uninsured Americans get health insurance and lower health care costs....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Of Plymouth Plantation (also known as History of the Plymouth Plantation and William Bradford’s Journal, written 1630-1651 CE) is the first-hand account of William Bradford (l. 1590-1657 CE), second governor of the Plymouth Colony (1620-1691 CE) relating the events leading to his congregation of religious separatists (later known as pilgrims) leaving Europe for North America, their voyage aboard the ship Mayflower, and the establishment of the colony in modern-day Massachusetts....

Near the end of 2006 Mitch Daniels, then governor of Indiana, announced a plan to give the state’s “neediest people a better chance to escape welfare for the world of work and dignity.” He signed a $1.16-billion contract with a consortium of companies, including IBM, that would automate and privatize eligibility processes for Indiana’s welfare programs. Rather than visiting their county office to fill out applications for assistance, members of the public were encouraged to apply through a new online system....

In recent decades neuroscience has emerged as a star among the biological disciplines. But its enormous popularity as an academic career choice has been accompanied by a drop in the percentage of trained neuroscientists who actually work in academic research positions—largely because of a lack of funding. In 2014 the National Academies organized a workshop to ponder the question of whether this trend bodes well for the scientists-to-be who are now getting their Ph....

If a cascade of meteors struck Earth billions of years ago, could they have deposited genetic blueprints and forged an indelible link between Earth and another planet? Perhaps. Although that puzzling question remains unanswered, scientists have uncovered a new clue that suggests it is possible for DNA to withstand the extreme heat and pressure it would encounter when entering our atmosphere from space. In a new study published today in PLOS ONE, a team of Swiss and German scientists report that they dotted the exterior grooves of a rocket with fragments of DNA to test the genetic material’s stability in space....

Contrary to rumor, the incandescent lightbulb is not going away—at least not right away. New U.S. regulations, starting January 1, cap energy consumption of a roughly 1,600-lumen bulb (equivalent to a standard 100-watt incandescent bulb) at 72 watts—which means the workhorse of home lighting will have to become about 30 percent more efficient overnight. The law will expand in the next two years to cover 75-, 60- and 40-watt bulbs. There is room for improvement: incandescent bulbs currently waste 90 percent of their energy as heat....

The last of a four part series. Click here for part one, here for part two and here for part three. In his State of the Union address, President Obama painted a vision of the jobs of tomorrow – then pointed to the scientists of today. “None of us can predict with certainty what the next big industry will be, or where the new jobs will come from,” Obama admitted. But historically, he said, the government has funded basic research that the private sector hesitated to fund itself....

The laboratory monkeys run obsessively in circles, largely ignore their peers and grunt anxiously when stared at. Engineered to have a gene that is related to autism spectrum disorder in people, the monkeys are the most realistic animal model of the condition yet, say their creators. Researchers hope that the animals will open up new ways to test treatments and investigate the biology of autism. But the jury is still out on how well the monkeys’ condition matches that of people with autism....

After a large telescope is constructed, engineers and astronomers often have to spend months or years tinkering before it finally begins contributing to science in earnest. But last year, with just one quarter of its construction completed, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array radio telescope—the largest, highest-altitude and most expensive ground-based observatory yet—turned its dishy ears to the skies and began to listen. Already it has begun to sing out its discoveries....

A protein that helps combat stress on cells caused by environmental influences like rising ambient temperatures appears to block the onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), at least in a mouse model of the neurodegenerative illness. Commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease (after the famed New York Yankee slugger who succumbed to it in 1941 at age 37), ALS is a poorly understood, incurable disorder characterized by the degeneration of motor neurons (nerve cells that control voluntary motion)....

WAKEHURST PLACE, England – Scientists at the Millennium Seed Bank in this idyllic rural area some 30 miles south of London are racing against time to gather seeds from as many of the world’s plant species as they can before habitat loss and climate change erases them from the face of the Earth. In the decade since they started, it has been an uphill struggle against tight budgets, political whims and local suspicion....