Science and Nature

(CNS):  As Gaston, the season’s seventh storm faded away this evening, Earl continued on towards the coast of North Carolina. At 8pm it was located some 160 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras. While winds have dropped some to 110mph, Earl remains a large category two hurricane and it is moving at about 18mph. The NHC said a turn towards the north-northeast with an increase in forward speed is expected on Friday.  The centre of Earl is forecast to pass near the North Carolina outer banks tonight and approach south-eastern New England by Friday night.

 (CNS):  The Department of Environment is hoping that a young dolphin spotted in the waters off Seven Mile Beach this morning is heading back to a family and is not permanently separated from its pod as it is very difficult for young dolphins to survive without family support. The juvenile dolphin was tracked by DoE officials before he took off again. Staff followed the dolphin by boat for several hours, but just after noon the dolphin swam off heading for deep water off North West Point. “We are all very optimistic that it will reunite with its pod,” said DoE Director Gina Ebanks-Petrie.  The MRCU mosquito plane made several turns around the island searching unsuccessfully for the family. (Photo by Niels Schulze-Gattermann)

(BBC): There is no place for God in theories on the creation of the Universe, Professor Stephen Hawking has said. He had previously argued belief in a creator was not incompatible with science but in a new book, he concludes the Big Bang was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics. The Grand Design, part serialised in the Times, says there is no need to invoke God to set the Universe going. "Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something," he concluded. In his new book, an extract of which appears in the Times, Britain's most famous physicist sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton's belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have sprung out of chaos.

(CNS): Gaston became the seventh named tropical storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season this evening, and the fourth storm in less than two weeks. Gaston, which is rolling across the ocean in the wake of Tropical Storm Fiona and Hurricane Earl, began slowing down on Wednesday night and NHC forecasters say that the storm is set to strengthen over the next few days. At 11:00pm the centre of Tropical storm Gaston was about 935 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands and some 1585 miles east of the Lesser Antilles. TS Gaston is moving toward the west near 12 mph and this general motion with a decrease in forward speed is expected over the next couple of days.

(CNS): As the hurricane Earl heads towards the Bahamas today, Fiona has begun intensifying and is now threatening the northern Leeward isles. Meanwhile, the NHC is predicting that another area of low pressure some 800 miles south east of Cape Verde has an 80% chance of becoming a cyclone. At 8am this morning Earl was 180 miles east of San Salvaldor in the Bahamas. With maximum sustained winds of 125mph, Earl is moving northwest at 16 mph. Earl is a large hurricane with hurricane force winds extending outward up to 90 miles from the centre and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 200 miles.

(CNS): Tropical Storm Fiona formed this evening some 890 miles east of the Leeward Islands. Maximum sustained winds are 40 mph and it is moving west at 24 mph. A turn toward the west-northwest is expected on Tuesday followed by a turn toward the northwest and a decrease in forward speed on Wednesday. The National Hurricane Centre said on this track Fiona could be near or just to the northeast of the northern Leeward Islands by early Wednesday. Some strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours and tropical storm force winds currently extend outward up to 140 miles to the northeast of the centre. Meanwhile, at 9pm this evening Earl was located about 100 miles of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

(BBC): An international committee reviewing the "processes and procedures" of the UN's climate science panel is set to report on Monday. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has faced mounting pressure over errors in its last major assessment of climate science in 2007.The review was overseen by the Inter-Academy Council, which brings together bodies such as the UK's Royal Society.  The findings are to be unveiled at a news conference in New York. The IPCC has admitted it made a mistake in its 2007 climate assessment in asserting that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035. But officials at the UN organisation said this error did not change the broad picture of man-made climate change.

(CNET): NASA's Kepler spacecraft, hunting for distant worlds by measuring the slight dimming of starlight as planets pass in front of their parent suns, has found its first multiplanet solar system. The Kepler-9 system includes two Saturn-class worlds orbiting in gravitational lockstep close to their star and a possible third planet just a bit larger than Earth that whirls through a hellish "year" in just 1.8 days. The announcement came just a few days after a European team, using a different technique with a ground-based telescope, revealed the discovery of a solar system with up to seven planets, including another candidate planet slightly larger than Earth.

(CNS): Hurricane Earl which is now a category two hurricane was moving at 14 mph this morning as it headed towards the US Virgin Islands. Sustained winds are reaching 110mph with higher gusts and Earl is expected to become a major hurricane by tonight or early Tuesday as forecasters are predicting strengthening throughout the day. Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 50 miles from the centre and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 175 miles. Meanwhile, Danielle is losing its tropical characteristics as it moves over the far northern Atlantic.

(CNS): Tropical Storm Earl was around 520 miles west of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands when it became the fifth tropical storm of the 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season on Wednesday afternoon. With maximum sustained winds of 45 mph, Earl is now moving west at 16 mph. The NHC said that this motion is expected to continue during the next two days, some strengthening is forecast and Earl is expected to be a hurricane by Friday. Meanwhile, Hurricane Danielle which is travelling at 17mph has made a turn to the northwest and with winds increasing to near 105 mph, on Thursday, Danielle is now a category two hurricane with further strengthening possible during the next 48 hours.

(CNS): Hurricane Danielle returned on Tuesday evening following a short spell when it was down graded to a tropical storm.  At 5am AST on Wednesday morning (25 August) the hurricane was about 710 miles east of the Leeward Islands moving west-northwest at around 17mph. Maximum sustained winds have now increased to 85 mph with higher gusts and Danielle is a category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale. The National Hurricane Centre said that further strengthening is expected over the next 48 hrs Danielle is still expected to slow down and turn toward the northwest during the next couple of days. Meanwhile, a broad area of low pressure about 430 miles southwest of the Cape Verde Islands has formed into a tropical depression.

(CNN): In rural communities of Africa -- where more than 95 percent of homes have no access to electricity -- solar energy has the power to transform lives. Globally, 1.5 billion people, one quarter of the world's population, live without electricity, according to a United Nations report. Those who can afford any power at all spend large proportions of their income on kerosene for lamps or travel to larger towns to charge their batteries several times a week. Burning kerosene contributes to indoor air pollution, which is estimated to kill 1.6 million people each year.

(CNS): Updated 4pm- The National Hurricane Centre says that although Danielle has been downgraded even further to a tropical storm environmental conditions are such that it is expected to become a hurricane again later tonight or early on Wednesday. At 5pm AST Danielle was about 895 miles east of the Leeward Islands with maximum sustained winds of 70mph and moving west -northwest at 18 mph. Danielle is still expected to slow down and turn toward the northwest during the next couple of days when re-strengthening is forecast. Tropical storm force winds currently extend outward up to 140 miles.

(CNS): Following a number of reports to the media and marine officers the Department of Environment has solved the mystery of what some believed was oil floating in the sea around the Seven Mile Public Beach. The material is in fact peat likely churned up by wave action from underneath the beach a phenomena which occurs from time to time and as it’s a natural substance local marine life is under no threat. Deputy Director, Scott Slaybaugh confirmed that officers had followed up on the reports and carried out a thorough investigation. He said the department was grateful to the public for bringing it to their attention so they were able to examine what it was and reassure everyone that it is safe. (Photo - Scott Slaybaugh, hand model - Tracy Galvin)

(Independent): A huge expanse of floating plastic debris has been documented for the first time in the North Atlantic Ocean. The size of the affected area rivals the "great Pacific garbage patch" in the world's other great ocean basin, which generated an outcry over the effects of plastic waste on marine wildlife. The patch  which was discovered to the east of Bermuda, consists mostly of fragments no bigger than a few millimetres wide. But their concentrations and the area of the sea that is covered have caused consternation among marine biologists studying the phenomenon. Kara Lavender Law from the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, said the size of the Atlantic "garbage patch" was roughly equal to the one in the Pacific..