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Rising global temperatures are likely to shrink snowpacks in the Northern Hemisphere aggressively and sooner than previously thought, with some changes coming in the next 30 years, a new study out of Stanford University says. It would have major implications for water supplies that are used for drinking, agriculture and in some places hydropowered-electricity, experts said. It is also likely to affect the ability to control floods, as snowpack that melts earlier in the year increases downhill runoff....

Strong tectonic jolts continue to torment southwest China in the wake of its deadly May 12 earthquake, injuring dozens and leveling some 420,000 houses. These tremors—some as powerful as magnitude 6.4—persist as 600 emergency workers and soldiers Tuesday desperately tried to evacuate 80,000 residents and drain swelling lakes to keep them from flooding already devastated areas. More will have to be evacuated if the drainage plan fails. The official death toll from the quake and aftershocks now stands at more than 67,000....

Two years ago, on June 23, 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first “ethnic” drug. Called BiDil (pronounced “bye-dill”), it was intended to treat congestive heart failure—the progressive weakening of the heart muscle to the point where it can no longer pump blood efficiently—in African-Americans only. The approval was widely declared to be a significant step toward a new era of personalized medicine, an era in which pharmaceuticals would be specifically designed to work with an individual’s particular genetic makeup....

Because electricity and heat account for 41 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, curbing climate change will require satisfying much of that demand with renewables rather than fossil fuels. But solar and wind come with their own up-front carbon costs. Photovoltaics require much more aluminum—for panel frames and other uses—than other technologies do, according to a 2011 study at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Alloys for wind turbines demand lots of nickel....

Freshly discovered trails of ancient footprints, left on what was once the muddy shores of a river near Ileret, Kenya, indicate that some 1.5 million years ago human ancestors walked in a manner similar to that of people today. The international team of researchers who analyzed the prints say that those who left them had feet that looked a lot like ours. The prints were probably left by Homo ergaster, an earlier, larger version of the widespread Homo erectus, says David Braun, a lecturer in archeology at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and co-author of the study set to be published tomorrow in Science....

As Election Day nears, voters in two states will weigh in on climate-related ballot measures that could reverberate throughout the country—the nation’s first-ever carbon tax in Washington State and two constitutional amendments affecting the future of solar power development in Florida. Washington’s proposed Initiative Measure 732 would impose a carbon emissions tax on the sale and use of some fossil fuels and electricity generated using fossil fuels beginning July 1, 2017....

During the Great American Total Solar Eclipse on Aug. 21, millions of people will gaze at the sun to see the moon slowly pass in front of it, blocking out the light. But those who aren’t careful risk doing some nasty damage to their eyes. You’ve probably been told that it isn’t safe to stare at the sun and that watching a solar eclipse without proper eye protection can make you go blind....

Over the past couple of years the U.S. space program has gone through a huge shake-up, leaving the nation’s goals in space unclear. I have a suggestion. NASA, working with other national space agencies and private organizations, should take on the job of ensuring that no destructive asteroid ever hits Earth on our watch. What project is more worthwhile in the long term or awe-inspiring in the short term than protecting humanity from ruin?...

Today’s T cell therapy attacks targets on the surface of cells, but tomorrow’s tools must look inside. Finding interior targets, though, poses a challenge. In short, it’s easier to find targets outside cells than in. According to David Scheinberg—an oncologist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and a Scientific Advisory Board Member to Eureka Therapeutics—the key intracellular targets are likely to be tumor-specific mutations, transcription factors or other proteins related to cancer growth....

By Carey Gillam (Reuters) - A group of global biotech crop companies won a court victory on Monday that blocks enactment of a law passed last year limiting the planting of biotech crops and use of pesticides on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren of the U.S. District Court in Hawaii ruled that the law passed in November by local leaders on the island was invalid because it was pre-empted by Hawaii state law....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Lying at the crossroads of the eastern Mediterranean, the island of Cyprus has long been a meeting point for many of the world’s great civilizations. Situated where Europe, Asia and Africa meet, its location shaped its history of bringing civilizations together. Many powers conquered the island, and Cyprus was ruled in turn by the Hittites, the Egyptians, the Persians and the Greeks until it was absorbed by the Romans....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Constantine I (Flavius Valerius Constantinus) was Roman emperor from 306-337 CE and is known to history as Constantine the Great for his conversion to Christianity in 312 CE and his subsequent Christianization of the Roman Empire. His conversion was motivated in part by a vision he experienced at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in Rome in 312 CE....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Emperor Augustus (27 BCE – 14 CE) accomplished much during his time on the Roman throne, far more than many of his successors. According to historian Mary Beard in her book SPQR, he transformed the structures of Roman Empire, including its politics and army as well as the appearance of the city itself....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The United States holiday of Thanksgiving is generally understood to be inspired by the harvest feast celebrated by the citizens of Plymouth Colony (later known as pilgrims) and the Native Americans of the Wampanoag Confederacy in the fall of 1621. Although there is evidence of earlier thanksgiving celebrations in the Americas by the Spanish in the 16th century and at the Jamestown Colony of Virginia in 1610, following what is known as the “starving times” of 1609, these are not recognized as the “First Thanksgiving”, a term coined by the editor Alexander Young in 1841 referring specifically to the account of the 1621 event as given by the Plymouth Colony’s chroniclers William Bradford (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 reign of Assyrian king Sennacherib (705-681 BCE) was chiefly characterized by his difficulties with Babylon. Throughout the history of the Assyrian Empire, Babylon had caused problems and had even been destroyed by the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I in c. 1225 BCE. Even so, there were direct cultural bonds between Babylon and Ashur, capital of the Assyrian Empire, and the city was always re-built and re-populated....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The history of the ancient world has always been told as a history of cities, from Homer’s epic poems about events just before and just after the sack of Troy, through the prose histories of wars between Athens and Sparta, Rome and Carthage. From the 5th century BCE, most historians, dramatists, philosophers, orators, and scholars spent much of their lives in cities, and crucially so did their readers....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. In April 2019 The Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, Norway opened its doors to the new exhibition VÍKINGR containing rich treasures and unique archaeological finds from the Viking Age (c. 750 - 1050 CE). The Viking age is considered Norway’s and the rest of Scandinavia’s “golden age”, and the tales of violent warrior seafarers have fascinated people all over the world for centuries....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Women in ancient China did not enjoy the status, either social or political, afforded to men. Women were subordinate to first their fathers, then their husbands, and finally, in the case of being left a widow, their sons in a system known as the “three followings” or sancong....

NEW YORK—If you, me and every person and thing in the cosmos were actually characters in some giant computer game, we would not necessarily know it. The idea that the universe is a simulation sounds more like the plot of “The Matrix,” but it is also a legitimate scientific hypothesis. Researchers pondered the controversial notion Tuesday at the annual Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate here at the American Museum of Natural History....

When scientists in California discovered a new strain of Clostridium botulinum, the bacterium responsible for causing the paralytic illness botulism, they duly reported their findings in a scientific journal. The resulting studies were noteworthy for at least two reasons: the new strain of C. botulinum was the first to be identified in 40 years, and, perhaps more extraordinary, the researchers purposefully withheld key details of their discovery. The scientists are keeping the information secret because of bioterror concerns....