Karla Lant

Evacuation Orders and the Eruption of Japan's Mount Shindake Volcano

Friday morning 140 residents of the small Japanese island of Kuchinoerabujima fled by boat as Mount Shindake erupted. 30,000 feet worth of dark volcanic ash shot into the sky about 600 miles south of Tokyo. Astonishingly, no deaths and a single minor injury have been reported, and air travel has not been affected in a serious way.

Thousands of Endangered Antelope Deaths Have Scientists Investigating a Serious Concern

In central Kazakhstan entire herds of saiga antelope lay dead-more than 120,000, or nearly half of the species worldwide. These animals died off within two or three weeks, a shocking pace. This is an unprecedented mass mortality events for saiga antelopes relative to the total population size, and the last case in 2010 saw only 12,000 dead saiga.

Hubble Spots Collisions and Cosmic Disarray At the Center of Black Hole

When it comes to high-speed collisions, nobody here on Earth has anything on black holes. Astronomers have witnessed a new first: two high-speed knots of matter colliding in a sort of rear-end impact. They saw this after creating a time-lapse video of a super-speed jet of plasma as it shot out of a supermassive black hole. The knots of matter were inside the black hole until it blasted them out-and into each other.

Selling His Most Prized Possession-The Nobel Prize

Retired experimental physicist Leon Lederman is now 92 years old and facing serious health problems and memory loss. So he took to an online auction and sold his 1988 Nobel prize for his co-discovery of subatomic particle called the muon neutrino to cover his costs. The price of Nobel fame online? $765,002.

The ESA Finds Champagne Nebula And Brighter Sets of Stars

This stunning nebula, called RCW 34 and visualized by the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT), is home to young stars that heat gases, causing them to expand outward. In this brightest area of the nebula heated hydrogen bursts into the vacuum outside the gas cloud, "uncorking" the nebula. This kind of process is called a champagne flow, and the entire area provides rich fodder for astronomers as it continuously produces new, brilliant stars.

Boning Up Against Breast Cancer: How It Can Alter Its Structure to Help It Spread

A team of scientists from the University of Sheffield and University of Copenhagen have discovered an enzyme which helps breast cancer spread, and in the process, have found a possible way to prevent the spread of breast cancer-secondary or metastatic cancer-in patients. Bones are the most common routes breast cancer takes as it spreads, involved in about 85 percent of secondary breast cancer cases.

Ecstasy for the Terminally Ill? Will This Party Drug Prove Effective Against Anxiety?

Scientists from the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) are hoping to help 18 terminally ill patients relieve their anxiety, depression, and fear in the next year during extended psychotherapy sessions enhanced by MDMA (ecstasy). The Marin County-based double-blind trial will see subjects test either full doses of MDMA (125 milligrams) or active placebo doses (30 milligrams).

Fighting Fire With Fire—Viruses to Combat Disease

University of Virginia School of Medicine scientists have unraveled the mystery of a strange virus in the hopes of creating more effective tools in the war against human disease. The secret weapon this virus may offer? "Armor" for disease-fighting DNA courtesy of the SIRV2 virus, who calls acid at almost boiling temperatures home.

Parasitic 'Dementor' Wasp Leaves Prey Without Free Will

You may think a wasp that can zombify its prey with venom in order to eat it alive sounds like the stuff of nightmares, but it's actually the stuff of biodiversity. Called the dementor wasp, this terrifying insect was just discovered last year-along with 138 other new species-in the Greater Mekong Region of Asia, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reports today.

How SeaWorld Is Responding to the Santa Barbara Oil Spill And What They're Doing to Help

Upon request of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network's (OWCN) Unified Command, SeaWorld deployed two members of the Animal Rescue Team early Sunday morning to assist with efforts at the Refugio Beach oil spill off the Santa Barbara coast. At 3:45am today SeaWorld deployed a third member of the Animal Rescue Team. All three have specialized training through the OWCN and experience with oiled wildlife.

The Question Continues: The Bright Spots on Ceres, What Could They Be?

Ceres' mysterious bright spots are clearer and sharper than ever, thanks to NASA's Dawn mission. The mission will need to get much closer to answer all of our questions and provide all of the details, but these recent views provide some interesting insights.

A New Contender in Trial And Error—The Robot That Learns Like You and I

Robots that can learn? Yes they can, at least with these new algorithms. A UC Berkeley research team has created algorithms that allow robots to use trial and error to learn motor tasks. This is a process that is much closer to the ways that humans think and learn, making it a major artificial intelligence milestone.

E-Cigs Versus Traditional Tobacco-What's Worse?

Ironically, despite having the healthier e-cigarette alternative at hand, many are choosing to continue smoking conventional cigarettes. Authorities think this may be because they mistakenly believe that e-cigarettes are as dangerous as their traditional counterparts.

The Truth to China's 'Thunder God Vine' and Why It May Help You Lose Weight

The search for the natural miracle cure to help us all lose weight despite our late night transgressions with snack foods is ongoing. The quest is global, as researchers try to parse out the hidden power of various naturally occurring plants. Now, scientists claim that an extract from the traditional Chinese medicine known as "thunder god vine" causes a dramatic reduction in food intake and a corresponding drop in weight among obese mice.

Finding the Most Luminous Stars In the Sky

NASA has seen the most luminous galaxy ever discovered using its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope. The remote galaxy glows with enough light to rival 300 trillion suns.

The Reality Behind the Lawsuit That's Facing Oculus Rift

Oculus VR Inc. founder Palmer Luckey and his company are once again being sued. For this go-round Hawaiian company Total Recall Technologies is accusing Luckey of taking confidential information from TRT in violation of a confidentiality agreement that he signed when he left the company. The complaint also accuses him of passing off that information as his own.

Celebrate International Day of Biological Diversity with The Great Nature Project

May 22nd is the UN's International Day of Biological Diversity. This year's theme: Biodiversity for Sustainable Development. But instead of making little Pinterest planet Earth cupcakes or watching a movie about wildlife, why not get involved with National Geographic's Great Nature Project and have a real impact contributing to the scientific record?

How A Social Network Can Help Dish Out a Diagnosis to Save a Life

Most of us have turned to professional and personal networks using social media to get ideas, solve problems, and better understand the things that are on our minds; crowdsourcing is part of our world now. Doctors can do the same thing, and three weeks ago medical crowdsourcing saved a 14 year old boy's life.

How Coffee Can Put a Kick In Your Step and In the Bedroom

Science has now proven that not only does coffee keep you up at night, it keeps you up at night (if you're a man). Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) have published results indicating that men who consume the caffeine present in two to three cups of coffee daily are less likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction (ED).

Are Spy Agencies Planning to Hack Into Your Mobile Apps?

Five of the world's major nations have exploited weaknesses in UC Browser in their plan to hack into smartphones via links to Samsung and Google app stores according to a document obtained by CBS News shows. Electronic intelligence gathering agencies in Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the National Security Agency (NSA) in the US have been planning their hacks for some time, based on an alleged need for intelligence in the war on terror. The countries also hoped to place spyware on certain smartphones during the project, called "Irritant Horn."

Re-engineering Antibiotics to Tackle Resistance

At the forefront of the fight against antibiotic resistance, a team of scientists led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital researchers have developed a new weapon. The second-generation antibiotic shows early effectiveness against common bacterial infections that have the potential to develop antibiotic resistance and pose a serious health threat to children and adults.

BP Starts To Settle After Nasty Oil-Spill Related Deaths

BP has begun to settle claims related to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill with Halliburton and Transocean. This means that as to Halliburton and Transocean only (the litigation is ongoing) the battle is over. The long-term in court battle has centered upon the human costs of the offshore well disaster, which included the deaths of 11 workers. The overall impact of the disaster has been sobering for the scientific community as well; the Deepwater disaster has thus far been the largest offshore oil spill in US history.

Seeing With Its Skin—How An Octopus Can Live In the Deep

Researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara have discovered that the octopus, uniquely adept with camouflage, can "see" with its skin. The study found that the California two-spot octopus can sense light using light-sensitive proteins, similar to those found in eyes, in its skin.

Liquid Metal Antennae and the Future of the Internet of Things

A team of North Carolina State University (NCSU) researchers have created a reconfigurable liquid metal antenna controlled only by voltage. Liquid metal electronics have held the interest of the scientific community for years, but previous to this discovery these devices were not readily integrated into electronic systems because they required external pumps. This discovery advances the technology past this significant drawback.

Cancer Charities Accused of Misappropriating Millions

In what government officials are calling one of the largest charity fraud cases ever, the Cancer Fund of America and its charities have been charged by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and regulators from 50 states and the District of Columbia. The FTC says that almost all of the nearly $200 million the charities garnered from donors were spent by the cancer-free family and friends of those running the groups—spent on things like meals at Hooters, Caribbean couples’ cruises, subscriptions to dating websites, jet ski rides, and Victoria’s Secret shopping trips.
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