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The Trump administration scorns climate science: it has rolled back environmental regulations while promoting fossil fuels, and removed and downplayed mentions of climate change on government websites, among other moves that could weaken efforts to address global warming. It should come as no surprise, then, that the White House also seems to be ignoring—even potentially challenging—research and expert opinions on the connections between climate change and national security. The administration has not articulated a clear-cut view on climate and security....

Today (Aug. 9), Vice President Mike Pence unveiled a detailed plan for the military Space Force proposed by President Donald Trump in a speech at the Pentagon. If Congress agrees to establish it, the Space Force will be the sixth branch of the U.S. military. The Department of Defense is expected to release a report later today “outlining the first stages of our administration’s plan to implement the president’s guidance and turn his vision into a reality,” Pence said....

Some people literally act out their dreams. Their bodies fail to undergo the normal paralysis that accompanies REM sleep, the stage most associated with dreaming. Their bodies may quake violently, pantomiming the scenes unfolding in their heads. This dream state often is a sign of larger health problems to come. More than 80 percent of people with rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD), as the condition is known, go on to develop certain neurodegenerative maladies such as Parkinson’s disease, multiple system atrophy or dementia with Lewy bodies, studies have found....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Black Death is the name given to the plague outbreak in Europe between 1347-1352 CE. The term was only coined after 1800 CE in reference to the black buboes (growths) which erupted in the groin, armpit, and around the ears of those infected as the plague struck the lymph nodes; people of the time referred to it as “the pestilence” among other terms....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. This short analysis will investigate the associations known as ‘collegia’ (also known as clubs, associations, companies) mentioned in the letters (10.33-34) from the Roman pro-consul Pliny to the emperor Trajan. We will determine why Trajan was against the formation of such an association in Pontus-Bithynia, as well as place the nature of collegia in the wider historical narrative....

Imagine a modular solar array that you can install—without too much fear of electrocuting yourself—at a relatively low price. That’s the vision of Chad Maglaque and Clarian Technologies, and one that hopes to become a reality by spring 2011. “The key here is slowing the [electricity] meter down,” Maglaque says. “Every kilowatt counts.” The “Sunfish” would work like this: Next spring go to your local hardware store or electronics retailer, purchase a power module, circuit monitor and pluggable solar panel—all the components of the “Sunfish”....

View slideshow Around the turn of the last century, people suspected that inventors were hard at work building flying machines that could take them up into the sky and (more importantly) deliver them safely back to the ground. The editors of Scientific American were among those curious about these devices and frustrated by the seclusion in which these inventors worked, particularly bicycle magnates Orville and Wilbur Wright. Despite their successful flights that fateful afternoon of December 17, 1903, the Wrights kept their invention under wraps, for fear of a competitor stealing their design and making a fortune....

From Nature magazine A highly specific and sensitive fluorescent molecule can rapidly detect tuberculosis (TB) bacteria in sputum samples, according to work published this week in Nature Chemistry1. Scientists hope that it will soon lead to a quick and cheap diagnostic tool for the disease. TB has a devastating effect. The disease killed almost 4,000 people per day in 2010, predominantly in the developing world. Although there are treatments available, diagnosis can take several weeks, during which time patients can transmit the infection to others....

By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - The battle over a proposed ban in California on using killer whales in entertainment shows at amusement parks like SeaWorld stepped up on Monday, as animal rights activists converged on Sacramento to present petitions they said were signed by 1.2 million people worldwide. The symbolic move to present the petitions by representatives of the Animal Welfare Institute and others came a day before a committee of state lawmakers was set to debate a bill to end orca shows at SeaWorld’s San Diego park....

A coyote howls, its characteristically pointed muzzle aimed high toward the night sky. But the moon is not visible over this brightly lit Target store parking lot in Matamoras, Penn.—only a glowing globe atop a metal pole casting its electric illumination on the pavement. Although similar scenes are becoming increasingly common in the U.S.—even New York’s Central Park is currently accommodating a coyote—this one is a pretender. The animal is stuffed, and the scene is being staged by New York City–based photographer, Amy Stein....

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Many people who have problems with their memory, especially if they are elderly, worry that they have Alzheimer’s disease, which afflicts at least 5.5 million people in the U.S. and brings tremendous burdens to families as well. This concern is paramount among those who have seen a family member, friend or colleague develop this insidious progressive disease....

By Heidi Ledford of Nature magazineA computer program has been trained to grade breast cancer, predicting which tumours are associated with worse outcomes and, therefore, deserve more aggressive treatment.In doing so, the program aims to improve on a technique that has remained essentially unchanged for more than 80 years. The method for grading breast tumours was established in 1928, and is largely based on three criteria: how well the tumour cells resemble healthy tissue, how many cells have abnormal nuclei, and how many cells in the sample are dividing....

From Nature magazine Cambridge, Massachusetts It’s a result only a mathematician could love. Researchers hoping to get ‘2’ as the answer for a long-sought proof involving pairs of prime numbers are celebrating the fact that a mathematician has wrestled the value down from infinity to 70 million. “That’s only [a factor of] 35 million away” from the target, quips Dan Goldston, an analytic number theorist at San Jose State University in California who was not involved in the work....

In the race for bigger offshore wind turbines, what’s under the water can be just as much trouble as what’s above. Turbine makers are building giant machines that must withstand powerful storms in the inhospitable waters of the North Sea – but they will also need to spend money on sturdy foundations, specialized installations and ships that can nail the turbines to the ocean floor at depths of 115 feet....

Portions of the Greenland ice sheet melted a “moderate” amount thousands of years ago during an extremely warm period, raising new questions about its likely behavior in the future amid rising temperatures, according to a new study from a team of international scientists. The conclusions about the Eemian interglacial period, 130,000 to 115,000 years ago, enlighten an ongoing debate over a deceptively simple question: To what degree will Greenland add to rising seas in a warming world, and to what degree will Antarctica?...

This article is reproduced with permission from the Connectivist. The article was first published on December 18, 2013. In times past, counting up scholarly citations– i.e. how often other academics were using your work for their own research – was one of the only ways to know how widely read and appreciated a piece of research had been. But today, a number of journals publish more modern alternative metrics, or altmetrics, such as how many times articles have been tweeted, shared on Facebook, downloaded, or written up in news reports....

Most of us are no stranger to this scenario: A group of friends sits down to a meal together, laughing, swapping stories, and catching up on the news – but not necessarily with the people in front of them! Nowadays, it’s not unusual to have one’s phone handy on the table, easily within reach for looking up movie times, checking e-mails, showing off photos, or taking a call or two. It’s a rare person who doesn’t give in to a quick glance at the phone every now and then....

But industrial farming is fast swallowing this unique landscape. And its rapid transformation is creating a ticking carbon bomb that scientists warn could significantly affect the global carbon cycle if the current rate of destruction continues. This enormous expanse in central Brazil was once as impenetrable as the deepest rainforest, so isolated that Portuguese settlers dubbed it Cerrado, or “closed.” Today roads connect the Cerrado’s southern boundary in the São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul states with its northern limits some 1,500 miles away near the Atlantic coast....

By Scott Malone A 64-year-old man became the first in the United States to undergo a successful penis transplant in a procedure at Massachusetts General Hospital earlier this month, his doctors said on Monday. Thomas Manning of Halifax, Massachusetts, had his penis amputated in 2012 when he was diagnosed with penile cancer. He recently underwent a 15-hour surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston during which a penis provided by a donor was attached....

Elementary Mind-Set: Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmesby Maria Konnikova Viking Adult, 2013 ($26.95)Long before science revealed that synapses fire in patterns, literature endeavored to map the cognitive landscape. From Odysseus restraining himself against the Sirens’ song to Tom Sawyer conning his way out of painting fences, fictional characters have captured many nuances of human psychology. Perhaps no character has articulated the science of thinking as directly as Sherlock Holmes, the great consulting detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle....