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By Belinda Goldsmith LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The Ebola crisis in West Africa that claimed its first victim exactly a year ago is likely to last until the end of 2015, according to a scientist who helped to discover the virus. Two-year-old Emile Ouamouno died in the remote village of Meliandou in southern Guinea on Dec. 28 last year after suffering from a fever, headache and diarrhea. His 3-year-old sister, mother and grandmother died days later....

The federal government’s effort to avoid a flood disaster in New Orleans had catastrophic consequences of its own, causing massive fish kills and habitat destruction along the Gulf Coast, according to the governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The governors say the Army Corps of Engineers’ diversion of trillions of gallons of water from the swollen Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico killed fish, shrimp, oysters and crab and forced the extended closure of beaches....

WORRISOME SIDE EFFECTS of antidepressants—that they incite children and adults to kill themselves—have made headlines in recent years; accordingly, the Food and Drug Administration began to require warnings on these medications in 2005. Most experts, however, agree that this labeling is unwarranted, that the science in support of it is flawed and that the warning itself is detrimental to public health—reasoning that it is likely, if anything, to increase suicide by discouraging treatment of depression....

Heat will re-intensify over Kansas City, Omaha and Des Moines, while higher humidity leads to some downpours from Memphis to Louisville and Cincinnati into mid-August. Areas from Minneapolis to Chicago, Detroit and Indianapolis will be near the edge of the extreme heat and drought from the Plains and more temperate conditions farther east. The heat and accompanying drought continue to seriously impact the nation’s Corn Belt. According to Nathan Fields, Director of Biotechnololgy and Economic Analysis for the National Corn Growers Association, “Producers up north still have a tremendous amount of yield potential left in their crop, provided they get timely rains....

Plants might seem like pacifists, but they can launch devastating chemical attacks against their foes. One such warmonger is giant hogweed, an invasive plant whose sap triggers blistering burns when it contacts human skin—but only if the plant’s toxins are activated by sunlight. Giant hogweed’s defense strategy has evoked a mix of fear and morbid curiosity as the plant conquers new territory across North America. Giant hogweed is native to the Caucasus Mountains and central Asia, but was brought to New York City as a garden adornment in 1917....

Dear EarthTalk: I read that CO2 in our atmosphere is now more than 300 parts per million. Doesn’t this mean that we’re too late to avoid the worst impacts of climate change?—Karl Bren, Richmond, Va. Actually the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere today is roughly 390 parts per million (ppm). And that’s not good news. “Experts agree that this level cannot be sustained for many decades without potentially catastrophic consequences,” reports the Geos Institute, an Oregon-based non-profit and consulting firm that uses science to help people predict, reduce and prepare for climate change....

A series of damning documents seen by Nature expose deep concerns over the safety and efficacy of the controversial stem-cell therapy promoted by Italy’s Stamina Foundation. The leaked papers reveal the true nature of the processes involved, long withheld by Stamina’s president, Davide Vannoni. Other disclosures show that the successes claimed by Stamina for its treatments have been over-stated. And, in an unexpected twist, top Italian scientists are dissociating themselves from an influential Miami-based clinician over his apparent support for the foundation....

TROY, N.Y.—Despite their ubiquity, cell phones are not known for their ability to take picture-perfect photos. But budding “liquid lens” technology promises to change that by providing phone photogs with the autofocus capabilities lacking in today’s cellular optics. The latest advance in this area comes from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, here, where researchers have developed a liquid lens by placing a few drops of water into a cylindrical hole drilled in a Teflon surface and using a small speaker (that plays a high-frequency sound) to provide the resonance needed to move the water back and forth, changing the focus of the lens....

As New York gears up for a massive expansion of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, state officials have made a potentially troubling discovery about the wastewater created by the process: It’s radioactive. And they have yet to say how they’ll deal with it. The information comes from New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation, which analyzed 13 samples of wastewater brought thousands of feet to the surface from drilling and found that they contain levels of radium 226, a derivative of uranium, as high as 267 times the limit safe for discharge into the environment and thousands of times the limit safe for people to drink....

By Declan Butler of Nature magazineAfter weeks of debate, two controversial papers describing forms of the H5N1 avian influenza virus capable of transmitting between mammals should be published in full. That was the unexpected outcome of a meeting convened last week in Geneva, Switzerland, by the World Health Organization (WHO), which also promised to create a more rigorous oversight system for such research.The decision goes against a recommendation from the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), which the US government has adopted as its official position....

Our decisions are constantly shaped by subtle changes in our environment. Even choices that feel deliberate and conscious can be swayed by cues that we may not even notice, such as social norms or the setting of a default option. Behavioral scientists use the phrase “choice architecture” to describe the ways in which the environment influences how we decide. In the past five years several governments have begun to guide people toward making better choices—for themselves and for society—by using behavioral science research....

By Nicola JonesCanada’s tar sands mining operations seem to be raising the levels of toxins in local rivers, according to a study released today. The report finds that levels of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) are higher downstream of mining activity, and can be detected in concentrations high enough to merit concern about the development of fish eggs.The authors note that their results contradict some government and industry claims that these compounds arise from natural erosion of the surrounding oily landscape and are not a cause of environmental concern....

The so-called “streetlight effect” has often fettered scientists who study complex hereditary diseases. The term refers to an old joke about a drunk searching for his lost keys under a streetlight. A cop asks, “Are you sure this is where you lost them?” The drunk says, “No, I lost them in the park, but the light is better here.” For researchers who study the genetic roots of human diseases, most of the light has shone down on the 2 percent of the human genome that includes protein-coding DNA sequences....

Reggie Miller, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant. They’ve all gone on seemingly memorable shooting streaks. But past research has shown that the so-called hot hand is a myth, rooted in our tendency to see patterns where there are none. Myth or no, the shooters still seem to think they’re on fire when statistics show they’re not. A recent study finds that professional basketball players put too much stock in the outcome of their last three-point shot....

Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet by Claire L. Evans. Portfolio, 2018 ($27) In the earliest days of computing, rooms of women performed manual calculations for research projects run by the national defense agencies and the precursor to NASA. Though often marginalized and outnumbered by men, women stayed in the burgeoning field of computing long after their manual number crunching was replaced by lightning-fast machines connected by global information networks....

Skintight spacesuits may look good in the recent Star Trek movie, but they don’t fit NASA’s future plans—not yet, anyway. The space agency has its sights set on a new spacesuit for astronauts returning to the moon within the next decade or so—a more traditional design that will seek to balance protection and mobility. The revision comes 40 years after Apollo astronauts first hopped and skipped across the lunar landscape. Now NASA wants more flexible garb that can also endure longer moon missions....

Editor’s note: The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Wind turbines take energy from the atmosphere and turn it into electricity: so we know they must have some impact on the atmosphere’s flow. With industrial grade turbines being built at a terrific rate, scientists have been trying to assess exactly what the effects are both at local and at global levels....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Chimera of Arezzo is a bronze statue sculpted by the Etruscans of northern and central Italy during the 5th-4th century BCE. The creature is the fire-breathing monster from Greek mythology which has the head of a lion, tail of a snake, and a goat’s head protruding from its back....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Göbekli Tepe is the world’s oldest example of monumental architecture; a ’temple’ built at the end of the last Ice Age, 12,000 years ago. It was discovered in 1995 CE when, just a short distance from the city of Şanliurfa in Southeast Turkey, a Kurdish shepherd noticed a number of large, embedded stones, stones which had clearly been worked - and which turned out to be the most astonishing discovery....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The central pillars of Christianity originate from the story of the trial, crucifixion, and death of Jesus Christ. The events cover the time when Jesus of Nazareth and his followers entered Jerusalem for the festival of Passover to Sunday morning when his followers proclaimed that he had been raised from the dead....