Los Angeles would experience stronger-than-expected ground motion in major earthquake, virtual earthquake generator shows

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140123141949.htm

Marine Denolle has a PhD in geophysics and is currently leading a group of scientists that are using the "weak vibrations generated by Earth's oceans to produce virtual earthquakes that can be used to predict the ground movement and shaking hazard to buildings form real quakes". As technology is making its way more and more into the science world, some very cool studies are being done worldwide. This group from Stanford realize that "earthquakes aren't the only sources of seismic waves" and are taking advantage of this knowledge to help predict the severity of future earthquakes near fault lines like the major one in California, the San Andreas Fault. The way this works is the scientists use seismographs to pick up "ambient waves" that at first seemed to just interfere when trying to measure real earthquakes, but now allows them to "isolate certain waves" through "mathematical techniques". More specifically, "by studying how the ambient waves moved underground, the researchers were able to predict the actions of much stronger waves from powerful sources", coming to the conclusion that any earthquake in the Lost Angeles area any times soon would be strong and large, with a magnitude of at least 7.0 or greater. What I found most interesting was, thanks to the relatively inexpensive way of making this machine, "it could also be useful for forecasting ground motion in developing countries...you don't kneed large supercomputers to run the simulations". That's really taking advantage of technology and spreading our knowledge the way we should be.

The scent of cancer: Detecting cancer with fruit fly's antenna

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140124082702.htm

Professor Giovanni Galizia is a neurobiologist and zoologist who is leading research on fruit flies' ability to "distinguish cancer cells from healthy cells via their olfactory sense". An international project, the main studies are being conducted at the University of Konstanz and the University La Sapienza in Rome, Italy. Not only are scientists finding that fruit flies are able to separate cancer cells from healthy cells, but they are able to distinguish which kind of cancer cell they are smelling. Experiments have been performed using dogs as test subjects before the scientists will feel confident enough to try it out with people. In their studies, scientists have found that "five different types of breast cancer cell lines were analyzed" by the fruit flies. The importance of the fruit flies identifying these cancerous subgroups is this: "The high sensitivity of the natural olfactory receptors, paired with the quickness with which [scientists] can generate these test results, might lead to the development of a cheap, fast and highly-efficient pre-screeing that can detect cancer cells well before we can discover them with the present diagnostic imaging techniques". Science is always evolving and findings like this are crucial to our future in the medical world.

Rainforests in Far East shaped by humans for the last 11,000 years

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140124082608.htm

Although it has been inferred in the past that "the rain forests of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Thailand and Vietnam" were "largely unaffected by humans", there has been recent evidence suggesting otherwise. Dr. Chris Hunt is Director of Research on Environmental Change at Queen's School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology and his findings support the thought that humans in fact have played a huge role in effecting these forests for the last 11,000 years through "repeated disturbance of vegetation since the end of the last ice age". His research is going to be published in the Journal of Archaeological Science and explains his findings of pollen samples that unlock "historical secrets", that we have actually been disturbing these vegetations for years. He notes that there is no correlation to climate change as an excuse for the destruction of these forests, but rather the indigenous people are to blame. It is ambiguous, however, how harmful or helpful human interaction is to forests, as there is evident that the same people who cut down a forest "planted sources of food in its place". It seems to me there will always be a blurred line between helpful and harmful when it comes to humans' interactions with nature.

Mars could have supported life: Ten years on Mars leads to livable mud

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140124093710.htm

Scientists from Cornell University have been analyzing old minerals found on Mars and recently found evidence that "around four billion years ago Mars had liquid water so fresh it could have supported life". Professor Steven Squyres led the research and confirmed the likeliness that Mars may "have been habitable". Although the temperature on Mars now is so low that there is no way life could form there, the rock analysis proves that there may have in fact been life there once upon a time, although the mud was "as acidic as vinegar". A major source of the gathered information on Mar was taken by "Opportunity Rover, a golf buggy-sized terrain vehicle" whose 10th anniversary was just celebrated this year. Thanks to Oppy we now have a "richer knowledge" of Mars and know "where to focus our future search", with plenty more to learn!