Natural swings in the climate have significantly intensified Northern Hemisphere monsoon rainfall, showing that these swings must be taken into account for climate predictions in the coming decades.

Scientists have discovered how memory recall is linked to decision-making in rats, showing that measurable activity in one part of the brain occurs when rats in a maze are playing out memories that help them decide which way to turn. The more they play out these memories, the more likely they are to find their way correctly to the end of the maze.

Scientists are arguing for a set of six Sustainable Development Goals that link poverty eradication to protection of Earth's life support. The researchers argue that in the face of increasing pressure on the planet's ability to support life, adherence to out-dated definitions of sustainable development threaten to reverse progress made in developing countries over past decades.

New information about the extent of the 1872 Owens Valley earthquake rupture, which occurs in an area with many small and discontinuous faults, may support a hypothesis that these types of quakes could produce stronger ground shaking than plate boundary earthquakes underlain by oceanic crust, like many of those taking place along the San Andreas fault.

During the House Appropriations Committee Oversight Hearing, NASA administrator Charles F. Bolden updated Congress on the investigation into Chinese National Bo Jiang, accused of spying at NASA's Langley Research Center.

News stories about mass shootings involving a shooter with mental illness heighten readers' negative attitudes toward persons with serious mental illness, according to a new report. The researchers also examined how such news stories impact support for policies to reduce gun violence. Compared to study respondents who did not read a story about a mass shooting, reading a news article describing a mass shooting raised readers' support for both gun restrictions for persons with serious mental illness, and for a ban on large-capacity ammunition magazines.

The bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens is a constant companion of some roundworms. These worms assault insect larvae, thereby infecting them with the bacteria; the pathogens then attack the cells of their victims with a deadly cocktail of various toxins. Scientists have now discovered that the bacteria use an important toxin complex like a syringe.

Some 200,000 people in Europe and a similar number in North America are "Vel-negative," a rare blood type, difficult for hospitals to identify, that can make blood transfusions turn deadly. For sixty years, researchers hunted -- unsuccessfully -- for the cause of Vel-negative blood. Now scientists have found the culprit -- a tiny protein called SMIM1 -- and created a fast and easy DNA test for it.

necro81 writes "The cooling system at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, responsible for keeping the spent fuel pools at an appropriate temperature, lost power early on March 18th. During the blackout, the temperature in the spent fuel pools gradually increased, although TEPCO officials indicated the pools could warm for four days without risking radiation release. Power was restored earlier this morning, and the pools should be back to normal temperature in a few days. During the repairs, the charred remains of a rat were found in a critical area of wiring, leading some to believe that this rodent was the cause of this latest problem. At least it wasn't a mynock — then we'd really be in trouble."

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Jeff Bezos' yearlong quest has been a success.

It's supposed to be a time of smaller military budgets. But the Air Force is seeing if it can pay someone to set up a fantasy football league for it.

Police in some states, including California, inspect mobile phones of anybody arrested, without a warrant, based on the legal theory that officers have a right to review the belongings of those they apprehend. But the American Civil Liberties Union is trying to change that with a novel legal theory. On Wednesday, it sued the San Francisco Police Department, claiming the warrantless search of arrestees? mobile phones not only breaches the First Amendment right of those arrested, but also violates the same rights of those in the suspect?s phone contacts, Facebook feed and text messages, etc.

Twitter has received a patent for, well, Twitter. Originally filed in 2008, the patent describes a "device independent message distribution platform," and it was officially granted Tuesday by the U.S. Patents and Trademark Office.

While Ford and GM are opening their dashboards to developers to accelerate the creation of automotive apps, Abalta Technologies has introduced a solution for making app integration easier and faster with the launch of its Weblink platform.

c0lo writes "U.S. federal authorities are examining Microsoft's involvement with companies and individuals that allegedly paid bribes to overseas government officials in exchange for business. The United States Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission have both opened preliminary investigations into the bribery allegations involving Microsoft in China, Italy and Romania. The China allegations were first shared with United States officials last year by an unnamed whistle-blower who had worked with Microsoft in the country, according to the person briefed on the inquiry. The whistle-blower said that a Microsoft official in China directed the whistle-blower to pay bribes to government officials to win business deals. U.S. government investigators are also reviewing whether Microsoft had a role in allegations that resellers offered bribes to secure software deals with Romania's Ministry of Communications. In Italy, Microsoft's dealings with consultants that specialize in customer-loyalty programs are under scrutiny, with allegations that Microsoft's Italian unit used such consultants as vehicles for lavishing gifts and trips on Italian procurement officials in exchange for government business. In a blog post Tuesday afternoon, John Frank, a vice president and deputy general counsel at Microsoft, said the company could not comment about continuing investigations. Mr. Frank said it was not uncommon for such government reviews to find that the claims were without merit. Somehow, given the way OOXML became a standard, it wouldn't surprise me if it were an actual fire that caused this smoke."

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Despite reports to the contrary, NASA's tiny interplanetary probe Voyager 1 has not really left the solar system yet.

Forget Ashton Kutcher and Aaron Sorkin: The people behind the first Steve Jobs biopic are Justin Long and Dr. Venture in Funny or Die's upcoming "iSteve."

Sending longreads to your Kindle just got easier. When your job gets in the way of reading something on the internet, read-it-later services like Pocket and Instapaper will let you download a story to their apps for offline access at your leisure. Now Amazon is entering the read-that-really-long-story-later market with a Send to Kindle button ...

New research may help clinicians determine which patients are at highest risk for post-surgical blood clots in the legs or lungs.

A new project has yielded a promising new antimalarial drug with the potential to cure the mosquito-borne disease and block its transmission with low doses.