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Residents living in the Washington, D.C., suburbs are learning that tornadoes are not just a threat to the Great Plains. More than 200 people were injured and several homes and businesses were destroyed Monday when three twisters tore through Virginia. Gov. Tim Kaine declared a state of emergency as hazardous weather continued to plague the central part of the state, just one day after tornadoes slammed into St. Charles and Hyattsville in suburban Maryland....

The debate about the future of the U.S. automobile industry exemplifies the shortcomings of U.S. public discussion about large-scale technological change. The auto industry has been widely vilified in recent months, with public opinion running strongly against government financial support for it. There has been an insistence on “letting free markets work” despite the fact that financial markets have collapsed in the worst crisis since the Great Depression. Environmentalist critics of the industry have understandably criticized the poor performance of the Big 3 automakers yet have not acknowledged the missing role of public policy and public finance in any lasting solution....

One important function of your inner ear is stabilizing your vision when your head is turning. When your head turns one way, your vestibular system moves your eyes in the opposite direction so that what you are looking at remains stable. To see for yourself how your inner ears make this adjustment, called the vestibulo-ocular reflex, hold your thumb upright at arm’s length. Shake your head back and forth about twice per second while looking at your thumb....

Hours after the news broke that the U.S. Department of Agriculture e-mailed its scientists ordering them not to speak to the press, and informing them that there would be an immediate halt on press releases, the USDA insisted it isn’t really suppressing its researchers’ communications with the public—because they can still publish peer-reviewed journal articles or give media interviews if the agency approves them. “What happened yesterday was a misunderstanding,” Christopher Bentley, director of communications for the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), told Scientific American Wednesday....

You mean the Internet? Oh. Internet services such as these have become essential elements in the Apple, Google and Microsoft ecosystems. Have an iPhone? Then you have a big incentive to get a Mac and an iPad, too—because Apple’s free iCloud service will make sure that your calendar, address book, e-mail, to-do list, notes and passwords are magically synced with all your Apple gadgets. Have an Android phone? You’ll want to stick with Google’s Web browser, tablets and laptops for the same reason....

If you have experienced the evolution from having a crush to falling in love, it may seem like the transition happens naturally. But have you ever wondered how we make such a huge emotional leap? In other words, what changes take place in our brains that allow us to fall deeply in love? Stephanie Cacioppo, a psychologist at the University of Chicago who has studied the neuroscience of romantic love for the past decade, explains that the process involves several complex changes, particularly in the brain’s reward system....

Astronomers have found a surprisingly heavy early galaxy, according to a new report. Data from two NASA telescopes have revealed the presence of a galaxy that had eight times the mass of our own Milky Way when it was less than a billion years old. “This galaxy appears to have ‘bulked up’ amazingly quickly, within the first few hundred million years after the big bang,” remarks team member Bahram Mobasher of the Space Telescope Science Institute and the European Space Agency....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Battle of Manzikert (Mantzikert) in ancient Armenia in August 1071 CE was one of the greatest defeats suffered by the Byzantine Empire. The victorious Seljuk army captured the Byzantine emperor Romanos IV Diogenes, and, with the empire in disarray as generals squabbled for the throne, nothing could stop them sweeping across Asia Minor....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Etruscans, who flourished in central Italy between the 8th and 3rd century BCE, were noted in antiquity for their sumptuous banquets, drinking parties, and general easy-living. Although such pleasures were probably restricted to the wealthy elite, strong evidence of the popularity of the practice is seen in many Etruscan tomb wall paintings and carved sarcophagi....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Issues in the modern-day regarding gender identity and civil rights for members of the LGBTQ community are a relatively recent phenomenon as are the terms ‘homosexual’ and ‘heterosexual’. In ancient societies, there was no distinction made between same-sex and opposite-sex couples as both were equally acceptable. The terms ‘homosexual’ and ‘heterosexual’ are modern constructs of the 19th century, coined by the Austrian writer Karl-Maria Kertbeny (l....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Twelve Tribes of Israel refer to the sons of the Jewish Patriarch Jacob and are important for the tribal lineages of those who constituted the nation of Israel. In the ancient world, all ethnic groups developed stories of their ancestors in what are known as foundation myths as bloodlines were important in maintaining ancestral lineage and provided status as identity markers....

Each year hundreds of the best and brightest researchers gather in Lindau, Germany, for the Nobel Laureate Meeting. There, the newest generation of scientists mingles with Nobel Prize winners and discusses their work and ideas. The 2013 meeting is dedicated to chemistry and will involve young researchers from 78 different countries. In anticipation of the event, which will take place from June 30 through July 5, we are highlighting a group of attendees under 30 who represent the future of chemistry....

This year 2.25 million Americans will get married—and a million will get divorced. Could birth control be to blame for some of these breakups? Recent research suggests that the contraceptive pill—which prevents women from ovulating by fooling their body into believing it is pregnant—could affect which types of men women desire. Going on or off the pill during a relationship, therefore, may tempt a woman away from her man. It’s all about scent....

Three of the U.S. military’s newest recruits reported for duty this week at the Army Test and Evaluation Command. These troops are different from normal soldiers in several ways—for starters, each has six feet. And they are robots designed to look and move like cockroaches. Aside from those details, the Army is hoping its new Boston Robotics RHex bots will soon join grunts in Afghanistan. RHex furthers the U.S. military’s ongoing efforts to deploy aerial drones and land robots to assist troops in the field....

By Eric Hand of Nature magazine Even the best pictures of a distant galaxy are a bit lopsided. But this is an attribute, not a bug. Because mass distorts space-time, light coming from distant galaxies is bent as it passes through intervening shoals of invisible matter, leaving the images of these distant objects minutely sheared and stretched. Two astronomical surveys now scheduled to come online seek to take advantage of this effect, which is known as weak gravitational lensing....

Not too long ago many investors made the bet that renewable fuels from biomass would be the next big thing in energy. Converting corn, sugarcane and soybeans into ethanol or diesel-type fuels lessens our nation’s dependence on oil imports while cutting carbon dioxide emissions. But already the nascent industry faces challenges. Escalating demand is hiking food prices while farmers clear rain-forest habitats to grow fuel crops. And several recent studies say that certain biofuel-production processes either fail to yield net energy gains or release more carbon dioxide than they use....

Show up an hour late in Brazil, and no one bats an eyelash. But keep someone in Switzerland waiting for five or 10 minutes, and you have some explaining to do. Time is elastic in many cultures but snaps taut in others. Indeed, the way members of a culture perceive and use time reflects their society’s priorities and even their own worldview. Social scientists have recorded wide differences in the pace of life in various countries and in how societies view time–whether as an arrow piercing the future or as a revolving wheel in which past, present and future cycle endlessly....

A battle over how aggressively California beach cities must plan for sea-level rise is headed for a major showdown, one that could send reverberations up and down the state’s coast. The California Coastal Commission will decide next week whether Del Mar, a beach town in San Diego County, needs to overhaul its climate adaptation plans. The city submitted a blueprint to the state commission with plans to add sand to beaches, build a levee near a river and make homes more flood-resistant....

By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) - Codeine isn’t safe for children and shouldn’t be used to ease pain or relieve coughs, the American Academy of Pediatrics warned in a statement issued September 19. Codeine has been prescribed for decades for both purposes, despite mounting evidence that it doesn’t always work and sometimes causes serious or potentially fatal side effects, the AAP said in the statement in Pediatrics. “We firmly believe that there is never a reason to use codeine,” said the lead author of the statement, Dr....

Glenn Waller’s 100 acres of soybeans in Washington County, Georgia, are the highest yielding in the state. But the “Mr. Efficiency” award winner is worried about rust. Soybean farmers in the Southeast survived a bout with the crop-destroying fungus in 2005 by using pesticides to halt its spread. But Waller remains worried about a rust resurgence. “I’m afraid we’re going to kind of put it on the back burner and it’s going to jump back up and get us,” he said....