Digitizing the world's medical records was supposed to make doctors' lives easier, and patients' lives longer. But unlike banking and shopping, medicine has had a rough time transitioning to the new digital order. Because health care providers use different systems for their electronic health care records, it’s still difficult for a patient’s data to follow them through the medical ecosystem.

A new series of images generated with data from NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite illustrate the surface flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey from before its initial landfall through August 27, 2017. Harvey is now a depression spreading heavy rainfall through the south central and southeastern U.S.

The SMAP observations detect the proportion of the ground covered by surface water within the satellite's field of view. The sequence of images depicts successive satellite orbital swath observations showing the surface water conditions on August 22, before Harvey's landfall and then on Aug. 27, two days after landfall.

CO2 and methane are the most significant greenhouse gases resulting from human activity, said Hui Wang, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan.

Capturing CO2 and methane emissions from industrial sources and reusing them could reduce the threat on the world’s ecosystem by slowing climate change, said Wang, the principal researcher of a paper published in Catalyst Today.

Study documents local extinction of pikas from the largest area yet reported and projects climate change will cause drastic decline for the charismatic mammal within decades.

Officials at collegiate sporting venues have been leading efforts toward zero-waste events with many professional and collegiate leagues adopting energy and water conservation efforts as well as increased recycling and composting. Researchers at the University of Missouri recently published a study analyzing waste and recyclables during Mizzou’s 2014 home football season. By implementing several recommendations the team developed, such as offering better recycling receptacles and better sorting options for waste, sporting venues could be well on their way to achieving environmental benefits that exceed the standards for ‘zero-waste’ operations.

As Houstonians watch the waters recede, they are looking ahead to the next phase of the disaster: recovery. The unusually prolonged assault by Hurricane Harvey flooded nearly a third of Harris County, killed at least 38 people, and left thousands more homeless. The storm also effectively throttled commerce coming into and leaving Houston, the county seat. Both of its major airports closed, its rail yards and nearby ports were majorly disrupted, and the city's extensive highway system was largely underwater.

Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is in a downward spiral, with summer minimum extents about 40 percent smaller than in the 1980s. But predicting how the sea ice is going to behave in a particular year is tricky: There are still many unknowns about the conditions of the sea ice cover, to say nothing of the difficulties of forecasting weather and ocean behavior over seasonal timescales.

Typhoon Sanvu developed an eye that was about 28 nautical-miles wide when NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite passed overhead and captured an image.

The Eastern Pacific Ocean's potential tropical cyclone has developed into Tropical Storm Lidia. NASA's Aqua satellite observed some very high, towering thunderstorms in two areas of the storm and because of its close proximity to land, warnings are already in effect for areas in Mexico.

NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite passed over Tropical Storm Irma in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and captured a visible image of the storm on the move.