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Shale development helped push total U.S. natural gas reserves higher last year even as production increased, according to the Energy Information Administration. An EIA report yesterday charted U.S. proved reserves of oil and natural gas, a measure of what is recoverable from known reservoirs under current economic and operating conditions. Proved natural gas reserves at the end of last year were 244.7 trillion cubic feet (tcf), the highest level since EIA began reporting them in 1977....

A star becomes an asteroid Nothing like getting your own asteroid. Just ask former Star Trek star George Takei. The International Astronomical Union’s Committee on Small Body Nomenclature this week approved renaming a celestial rock between Mars and Jupiter 7307 Takei in honor of the actor best known for his role as Captain Kirk’ssteadfast helmsman Hiakru Sulu in the original Star Trek TV series and movies. The asteroid, formerly dubbed 1994 GT9, was discovered by two Japanese astronomers 13 years ago....

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. A beach in Wales recently faced an eight-armed invasion. Over 20 octopuses were reportedly seen crawling up New Quay beach on the west coast of the country, with many later being found dead after failing to make it back to the sea. Strandings of octopuses and other cephalopods (squishy, intelligent creatures including squid and cuttlefish) are pretty rare and the exact truth of why this happened may never be known....

As the world’s population grows, farmers will need to produce more and more food. Yet arable acreage cannot keep pace, and the looming food security threat could easily devolve into regional or even global instability. To adapt, large farms are increasingly exploiting precision farming to increase yields, reduce waste, and mitigate the economic and security risks that inevitably accompany agricultural uncertainty. Traditional farming relies on managing entire fields—making decisions related to planting, harvesting, irrigating, and applying pesticides and fertilizer—based on regional conditions and historical data....

A massive rift valley that lies under a portion of the West Antarctic ice sheet could be speeding its melt, according to scientists who compared their discovery to a frozen Grand Canyon. The subglacial basin underneath the Ferrigno Ice Stream is up to a mile deep in places. It lies in West Antarctica, a region where thinning glaciers shed so much ice they contribute 10 percent of global sea-level rise....

Limestone scrubbers deployed at natural gas power plants could help reduce carbon emissions as well as lower ocean acidification by pumping a byproduct of the scrubbing process back into the water, according to an experiment conducted by the Energy Department’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Greg Rau, a scientist at LLNL and the University of California, Santa Cruz, conducted a series of small-scale lab experiments that found seawater and calcium can be used to remove carbon dioxide from a gas-fired plant....

Performing genetic tests on cancer tumors without comparing the results with patients’ normal tissue could lead to inaccurate diagnoses and poor treatment decisions in nearly half of all patients under certain circumstances. This unexpected conclusion comes from a study of more than 800 people published in the April 15 Science Translational Medicine and underscores how complicated the genetic testing of tumors is becoming as well as how careful clinicians must be in interpreting the results....

Teachers who give tests on a daily or weekly basis–often at the expense of their popularity–can take solace in a new study out of Washington University in St. Louis. Researchers found that tests help students remember what they’ve been taught–including the material that doesn’t appear on the exam. The findings appear in the November issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. The research team, led by psychology graduate student Jason Chan, designed three experiments to determine whether testing can enhance the long-term recall of studied material....

By Geoff BrumfielThe proton seems to be 0.00000000000003 millimeters smaller than researchers previously thought, according to work published in the July 8 issue of Nature.The difference is so infinitesimal that it might defy belief that anyone, even physicists, would care. But the new measurements could mean that there is a gap in existing theories of quantum mechanics. “It’s a very serious discrepancy,” says Ingo Sick, a physicist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, who has tried to reconcile the finding with four decades of previous measurements....

Superhero science has taught me this: Entire universes fit comfortably inside our skulls. Not just one or two but endless universes can be packed into that dark, wet, and bony hollow without breaking it open from the inside.—Grant Morrison, Supergods, 2011 An eclectic crowd of cosplay zombies, manga characters, and assorted villains and heroes, all sweltering under their makeup in the Arizona summer heat, presses us along at the 2014 Phoenix Comicon convention....

CLIMATEWIRE | Severe rainstorms continued to pelt eastern Kentucky early this week, just days after catastrophic floods slammed the region’s mountain communities. More than three dozen people are confirmed dead, with hundreds more missing. The floods are some of the most extreme in the state’s recorded history. Experts have classified the deluge as a one-in-1,000-year event — or one that only has a 0.1 percent chance of occurring in any given year....

Targeting Troublesome T Cells In type 1 diabetes, renegade Tcells of the immune system kill the insulin-making beta cells of the pancreas. New beta cells could, in theory, cure diabetes, but because the misguided autoreactive Tcells would eventually destroy them as well, stopping the wayward attack is important [see “Insights: Putting Up with Self”; SciAm, December 2006]. Previously, Denise L. Faustman of Harvard Medical School had shown in mice that activating a natural compound in the body called tumor necrosis factor (TNF) could selectively kill the autoreactive Tcells and permit restored beta cell function....

A venomous sea snake washed up on a Southern California beach recently, striking fear in the hearts of beachgoers but eliciting excitement from the scientists who study these marine reptiles. The stranded snake, which was dead when it was discovered on Dec. 12, was a yellow-bellied sea snake (Pelamis platura), the most widespread marine snake in the world. But despite its wide range of habitats, this snake isn’t usually observed in the waters off the coast of Southern California, as it tends to keep to the warmer waters just south of that coastline, closer to Baja California, Mexico....

Editor’s Note (12/21/21): This article is being showcased in a special collection about equity in health care that was made possible by the support of Takeda Pharmaceuticals. The article was published independently and without sponsorship. Recently, one of my patients borrowed money from a loan shark just to get a private taxi to the hospital. When we had a problem locating her test results, she broke down, justifiably furious. She probably wouldn’t be able to find the money to come in again....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Galatia was the most long-lasting and powerful Celtic settlement outside of Europe. It was the only kingdom of note to be forged during the Celtic invasions of the Mediterranean in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. From its foundation, Galatia was a formidable power in Asia Minor, capable of demanding tribute from powerful states like the Kingdom of Pergamon....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. II:35. The Egyptians in agreement with their climate, which is unlike any other, and with the river, which shows a nature different from all other rivers, established for themselves manners and customs in a way opposite to other men in almost all matters: for among them the women frequent the market and carry on trade, while the men remain at home and weave; and whereas others weave pushing the woof upwards, the Egyptians push it downwards: the men carry their burdens upon their heads and the women upon their shoulders: the women make water standing up and the men crouching down: they ease themselves in their houses and they eat without in the streets, alleging as reason for this that it is right to do secretly the things that are unseemly though necessary, but those which are not unseemly, in public: no woman is a minister either of male or female divinity, but men of all, both male and female: to support their parents the sons are in no way compelled, if they do not desire to do so, but the daughters are forced to do so, be they never so unwilling....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Before Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb, he began his career as a 17-year-old artist on an excavation in Egypt. His skills were soon recognized, and he quickly rose to be an excavator and later chief inspector for Luxor. Because of a misunderstanding with Gaston Maspero, Director of the Antiquities Service, Carter resigned and became an independent excavator....

Government ministers at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) have reached a deal on further steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions after discussions overran by 24 hours. On 13 November, representatives from nearly 200 countries agreed the final text of the deal, which pledges further action to curb emissions, more frequent updates on progress and additional funding for low- and middle-income countries. Researchers have expressed relief that the meeting did not fail to produce an agreement, but some left COP26 dissatisfied at the lack of stronger commitments to reduce emissions, and failure to agree “loss and damage” finance for countries that are vulnerable to climate change....

By Kim Krieger of Nature magazine Katia Bertoldi is talking fast. She has only 12 minutes to present her work in the burgeoning field of ’extreme mechanics’. But first, the Harvard University engineer smiles at the physicists gathered in Boston at the March 2012 meeting of the American Physical Society. She has to show them what she found in a toy shop. Projected onto the screen, the Hoberman Twist-O looks like a hollow football made of garishly colored plastic links....

By Barbara Liston ORLANDO Fla. (Reuters) - A rare Florida panther, found near death as a 1-pound newborn in January, bounded into its permanent new fenced home in a state park on Thursday, now a lively, nearly 50-pound kitten. “He’s really a miracle cat,” said Susan Strawbridge of the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. A critically endangered animal, only 100 to 180 Florida panthers are believed to be in existence....