• One of the high-risk geological structures lies near Istanbul, a megacity of 15 million people. The North Anatolian fault, separating the Eurasian and Anatolian tectonic plates, is a 1.200 kilometer-long fault zone running between eastern Turkey and the northern Aegean Sea. Since the beginning of the 20th century its seismic activity has caused more than 20.000 deaths. A large (Mw > 7) earthquake is overdue in the Marmara section of the fault, just south of Istanbul.

  • Energy production can be expensive, or inefficient, or toxic to the environment — or some unfortunate combination of the three. But Jesse Hinricher thinks it doesn’t have to be.

  • Halloween is just around the corner, and some people will celebrate by watching scary movies about brain-eating zombies. But even more frightening are real-life parasites that feed on the human brain, and they can be harder to kill than their horror-movie counterparts. Now, researchers have developed silver nanoparticles coated with anti-seizure drugs that can kill brain-eating amoebae while sparing human cells. The researchers report their results in ACS Chemical Neuroscience.

  • In a newly published study, researchers dug into how fertilizing with manure affects soil quality, compared with inorganic fertilizer.

  • Process waters from the seafood industry contain valuable nutrients, that could be used in food or aquaculture feed. But the process waters are treated as waste. Researchers now show the potential of recycling these nutrients back into the food chain.

  • Insect repellents containing picaridin can be lethal to salamanders. So reports a new study published today in Biology Letters that investigated how exposure to two common insect repellents influenced the survival of aquatic salamander and mosquito larvae.

  • Research by the University of Liverpool could help scientists unlock the full potential of new clean energy technologies.

  • The Taklamakan Desert, one of the major sources of background Asian dust, is situated in the Tarim Basin, with the Tianshan Mountains in the north, Pamir Plateau in the west, and Kunlun Mountains in the south. Dunhuang (40°00?N, 94°30?E; 1146 m above sea level) is located in the east of the Taklamakan Desert, China. The area is significant for studying the initial state of Asian dust particle transportation, which is mainly influenced by westerly winds.

  • Scientists at Indiana University found high levels of a previously unsuspected pollutant in homes, in an electronic waste recycling facility and in the natural environment. People are likely to be exposed to this pollutant by breathing contaminated dust or through skin contact.

  • A large-scale, long-term experiment on kelp forests off Southern California brings new insight to how the biodiversity of coastal ecosystems could be impacted over time as a changing climate potentially increases the frequency of ocean storms.