http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) suggest that the eccentricity of Saturn's orbit around the sun may be responsible for the unusually uneven distribution of methane and ethane lakes over the northern and southern polar regions of the planet's largest moon, Titan. On Earth, similar "astronomical forcing" of climate drives ice-age cycles. http://www.physorg.com/news178724806.html Space & Earth Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:49:18 EST news178724806 Intervals of regional warmth and cold in the past are linked to the El Niņo phenomenon and the so-called "North Atlantic Oscillation" in the Northern hemisphere's jet stream, according to a team of climate scientists. These linkages may be important in assessing the regional effects of future climate change. http://www.physorg.com/news178459644.html Space & Earth Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:10:05 EST news178459644 (AP) -- Ships are on alert and maritime authorities are monitoring the movements of hundreds of menacing icebergs drifting toward New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean, officials said. http://www.physorg.com/news178374623.html Space & Earth Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:33:50 EST news178374623 (PhysOrg.com) -- In the first video showing the auroras above the northern latitudes of Saturn, Cassini has spotted the tallest known "northern lights" in the solar system, flickering in shape and brightness high above the ringed planet. http://www.physorg.com/news178303936.html Space & Earth Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:53:17 EST news178303936 This morning, Cyclone Anja was a powerful Category 4 cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Wind shear has now giving Anja a strong "punch in the gut" as the storm has weakened to a Category 1 cyclone. http://www.physorg.com/news177693888.html Space & Earth Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:40:02 EST news177693888 Scientists with NASA`s IceBite project are heading this week for University Valley, a hanging valley perched more than 1600 feet (more than 1 mile) above sea level in Antarctica`s McMurdo Dry Valleys. Their objective: to test a set of ice-penetrating drills and select one for use on a future mission to the martian polar north, the same region of the planet that NASA`s Phoenix lander investigated in 2008. http://www.physorg.com/news177613575.html Space & Earth Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:07:23 EST news177613575 NASA's Terra satellite captured a stunning image of Anja, the first tropical cyclone of the southern Hemisphere cyclone season. When Anja formed on Saturday, November 14, in the Southern Indian Ocean, about 330 miles south-southwest of Diego Garcia it was designated Tropical Cyclone 01S ("S" for south). By Sunday, November 15, 01S had strengthened into a tropical storm and was named Anja. http://www.physorg.com/news177606562.html Space & Earth Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:10:02 EST news177606562 Most of the linguistic functions in humans are controlled by the left cerebral hemisphere. A study of captive chimpanzees at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center (Atlanta, Georgia), reported in the January 2010 issue of Elsevier's Cortex, suggests that this "hemispheric lateralization" for language may have its evolutionary roots in the gestural communication of our common ancestors. A large majority of the chimpanzees in the study showed a significant bias towards right-handed gestures when communicating, which may reflect a similar dominance of the left hemisphere for communication in chimpanzees as that seen for language functions in humans. http://www.physorg.com/news177592801.html Biology Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:30:04 EST news177592801 (PhysOrg.com) -- Winter images of NASA's Phoenix Lander showing the lander shrouded in dry-ice frost on Mars have been captured with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE camera, aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. http://www.physorg.com/news176629880.html Space & Earth Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:52:02 EST news176629880 The number of swine flu deaths jumped by 700 in a week, reaching more than 5,700 worldwide since the virus was first uncovered in April, World Health Organisation data indicated Friday. http://www.physorg.com/news176113112.html Medicine & Health Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:40:02 EST news176113112 (PhysOrg.com) -- The National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Taj network has expanded to the Global Ring Network for Advanced Application Development (GLORIAD), wrapping another ring of light around the northern hemisphere for science and education. Taj now connects India, Singapore, Vietnam and Egypt to the GLORIAD global infrastructure and dramatically improves existing U.S. network links with China and the Nordic region. http://www.physorg.com/news174842700.html Technology Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:25:29 EST news174842700 (PhysOrg.com) -- Look out below! That's the warning a University of Alberta geophysics researcher has for hydrocarbon and water drillers after discovering uncharted land forms beneath the surface of the province. Deep valleys, cut out by glaciers and then filled with loose aggregate rock, silt and sand, are hiding fresh water reservoirs and natural gas deposits. http://www.physorg.com/news174751818.html Space & Earth Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:20:01 EST news174751818 After 15 years of research in the waters of the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the American Museum of Natural History, and an international coalition of organizations have unveiled the largest genetic study of humpback whale populations ever conducted in the Southern Hemisphere. http://www.physorg.com/news174718568.html Biology Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:10:01 EST news174718568 Plumes of harmful air pollutants can be transported across oceans and continents -- from Asia to the United States and from the United States to Europe -- and have a negative impact on air quality far from their original sources, says a new report by the National Research Council. Although degraded air quality is nearly always dominated by local emissions, the influence of non-domestic pollution sources may grow as emissions from developing countries increase and become relatively more important as a result of tightening environmental protection standards in industrialized countries. http://www.physorg.com/news173444507.html Space & Earth Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:02:49 EST news173444507 (PhysOrg.com) -- Since May 2009, the tropical Pacific Ocean has switched from a cool pattern of ocean circulation known as La Niņa to her warmer sibling, El Niņo. This cyclical warming of the ocean waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific generally occurs every three to seven years, and is linked with changes in the strength of the trade winds. El Niņo can affect weather worldwide, including the Atlantic hurricane season, Asian monsoon season and northern hemisphere winter storm season. But while scientists agree that El Niņo is back, there's less consensus about its future strength. http://www.physorg.com/news173426040.html Space & Earth Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:54:34 EST news173426040 A series of record-setting unmanned research flights are providing University of Colorado at Boulder researchers with some of the first 3-D observations of gaping holes in the Antarctic sea ice known as polynyas and the blasting winds that help form them. http://www.physorg.com/news171818910.html Space & Earth Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:50:01 EST news171818910 (AP) -- The alarm sounded with two sneezy children in California in April. Just five months later, the never-before-seen swine flu has become the world's dominant strain of influenza, and it's putting a shockingly younger face on flu. http://www.physorg.com/news170863242.html Medicine & Health Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:20:01 EST news170863242 A new 2,000-year-long reconstruction of sea surface temperatures (SST) from the Indo-Pacific warm pool (IPWP) suggests that temperatures in the region may have been as warm during the Medieval Warm Period as they are today. http://www.physorg.com/news170598165.html Space & Earth Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:23:44 EST news170598165 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new international research effort on the Greenland ice sheet with the University of Colorado at Boulder as the lead U.S. institution set a record for single-season deep ice-core drilling this summer, recovering more than a mile of ice core that is expected to help scientists better assess the risks of abrupt climate change in the future. http://www.physorg.com/news170516207.html Space & Earth Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:10:01 EST news170516207 New research announced at the International Water in a Changing Climate Science Conference in Melbourne 24-28 August, implicates pollution from Asia, Europe and North America as a contributor to recent Australian rainfall changes. Australian scientists using a climate model that includes a treatment of tiny particles - or aerosols - report that the build up of these particles in the northern hemisphere affects their simulation of recent climate change in the southern hemisphere, including rainfall in Australia. http://www.physorg.com/news170499861.html Space & Earth Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:20:01 EST news170499861 (AP) -- The global spread of swine flu will endanger more lives as it speeds up in coming months and governments must boost preparations for a swift response, the World Health Organization said Friday. http://www.physorg.com/news170053663.html Medicine & Health Fri, 21 Aug 2009 06:20:01 EST news170053663 Splat! There goes another bug on the windshield. Anyone who's ever driven down a country lane has seen it happen. A fast moving car, a cloud of multiplying insects, and a big disgusting mess. http://www.physorg.com/news169135664.html Space & Earth Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:40:01 EST news169135664 In a deadly game of heads or tails venomous sea snakes in the Pacific and Indian Oceans deceive their predators into believing they have two heads, claims research published today in Marine Ecology. http://www.physorg.com/news168764583.html Biology Thu, 06 Aug 2009 08:03:59 EST news168764583 Imagine Earth without an atmosphere - without clouds, wind or air. Earth's atmosphere protects, transports, and reacts to life on Earth. http://www.physorg.com/news168707591.html Space & Earth Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:40:02 EST news168707591 (PhysOrg.com) -- People often talk about greenhouse gases and their effect on the earth's climate as if those effects were new. But greenhouse gases have been around for hundreds of millennia, playing a key role in the start of the ice ages in the Northern Hemisphere 2.72 million years ago. http://www.physorg.com/news168703415.html Space & Earth Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:50:05 EST news168703415 Scientist Ron Thom probably knows more than anyone else about the growth of eelgrass, the humble marine plant commonly found in sheltered bays, inlets and other shallow waters. http://www.physorg.com/news167827243.html Biology Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:40:01 EST news167827243 In a Nature letter published July 23, 2009, Norwegian researchers present evidence that the auroras in the Northern and the Southern hemispheres can be totally asymmetric. These findings contradict the commonly made assumption of aurora being mirror images of each other. http://www.physorg.com/news167550308.html Space & Earth Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:46:11 EST news167550308 (AP) -- The worldwide death toll from swine flu has doubled in the past month, reaching over 700 since the start of the outbreak last spring, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. http://www.physorg.com/news167402673.html Medicine & Health Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:10:04 EST news167402673 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new, highly detailed study of the H1N1 flu virus shows that the pathogen is more virulent than previously thought. http://www.physorg.com/news166722748.html Medicine & Health Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:52:59 EST news166722748 (PhysOrg.com) -- Cloud chasers studying Saturn's moon Titan say its clouds form and move much like those on Earth, but in a much slower, more lingering fashion. http://www.physorg.com/news163266644.html Space & Earth Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:51:38 EST news163266644