The ricochet of a rock fall resonates in the mind of anyone who has heard it. But it also sets off subterranean waves detectable by far-off seismic stations — and now researchers are using those signals to remotely model rockslides.
Franziska Dammeier, an engineering geologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, and her colleagues linked five metrics of seismic waves to five physical characteristics of rockslides: volume, runout distance (how far the rocks travel), drop height, potential energy and the angle of reach. The researchers reported their model last week in the Journal of Geophysical Research.Continue reading Rumbles in the Alps reveal rockslides→
Researchers are taking the long view, combined with a birds’-eye view, of Venice’s salt marshes to try to preserve them from rising seawater. They are relying on aerial photographs that reveal the wetlands’ changing shape. Continue reading Birds’ Eye “Movie” Might Help Venice Marshland→
A pair of mineral clues recently found in a fossil seafloor may be signs that ancient bacteria helped create banded iron formations — Precambrian-aged sedimentary rocks known for their vibrant, reddish- brown-colored thin layers — that researchers use to reconstruct ancient interactions between the atmosphere, the ocean and the seafloor.
An antibiotic and a protein can work together to fight radiation-induced infections better than either can manage alone. Doctors already use antibiotics to treat radiation sickness. But the addition of a protein from the immune system — bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI), which acts against poisons called endotoxins — improves the survival rate of irradiated mice, according to a study published today in Science Translational Medicine Continue reading Dynamic duo helps to heal irradiated mice→
Journalist covering global development by way of science and technology.
