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hese amazing pictures from the United States show a wall of dust moving through the city of Phoenix in Arizona. Sandstorms like this happen during the region's monsoon season, which is underway. They occur over desert land and can reach thousands of feet into the air, spurred by strong winds. The dense cloud dramatically reduced visibility, grounding flights at a major airport and leaving thousands without electricity.

NEW YORK — More than 10,000 people have joined a legal settlement that will pay hundreds of millions of dollars to ground zero workers exposed to toxic World Trade Center dust. The near-universal acceptance of the deal was announced by a court Friday. It will mean an end to most litigation over New York City's failure to provide protective equipment to construction workers, police and firefighters who cleared rubble. Only around 500 of the thousands who sued the city over the cleanup declined to take the offer. At least 95 percent had to sign on to make the deal effective....

A powder nick-named "Pixie Dust" is being used to save the limbs of war heroes who have been wounded in Afghanistan. Surgeons have already used the dust to save several soldiers so badly mutilated that they were at risk of amputation. Made from pig bladders it has the ability to help the human body grow new tissue to replace large areas of a leg or arm destroyed by blast damage.

Holy Cow, Look What Happened When Eyjafjallajökull Erupted In 1812 Gregory White Apr. 16, 2010, 10:18 AM The last time Eyjafjallajökull blew its top the eruption lasted for two years, spreading smoke and ash over Iceland causing significant damage. * The last time Eyjafjallajökull erupted, it lasted 2 years stretching from 1821-1823. It also erupted in 920 and 1612. * The 1821 eruption spread fluoride across iceland, damaging livestock and human well-being. Glacial flooding also resulted from the eruption. * Eyjafjallajökull's eruption usually precedes an eruption for another Icelandic volcano called Katla, as it did in 1823. Katla's eruptions are...

IMAGE: Most indoor household dust that collects on furniture and floors actually comes from outdoors, a new study finds. Where does it come from? Scientists in Arizona are reporting a surprising answer to that question, which has puzzled and perplexed generations of men and women confronted with layers of dust on furniture and floors. Most of indoor dust comes from outdoors. Their report is scheduled for the Nov. 1 issue of ACS' Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal. In the study, David Layton and Paloma Beamer point out that household dust consists of a potpourri that includes dead skin...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A decrease in airborne dust and volcanic emissions has contributed to warming the North Atlantic Ocean in the past three decades, a study showed. About 70 percent of the Atlantic's warming since 1980, at an average per-decade rate of a half-degree Fahrenheit (a quarter-degree Celsius), was due to less dust blown from African dust storms or to volcanic eruptions, scientists wrote in the journal Science. "Volcanoes and dust storms are really important if you want to understand (climatic) changes over long periods of time," said the study's lead author Amato Evan, a researcher with the University of...

Finding Terrestrial Worlds in the Dust October 13th, 2008 Computer simulations are showing us how to detect the signature of Earth-like planets — indeed, planets nearly as small as Mars — around other stars. That interesting news comes out of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where a supercomputer named Thunderbird has been put to work studying dusty disks around stars similar to the Sun. Varying the size of the dust particles along with the mass and orbital distance of the planet, the team led by Christopher Stark (University of Maryland) ran 120 different simulations. “It isn’t widely appreciated that planetary...

Already pointed out the need to carry a camera with you at all times to catch amazing pictures. Now, here's one reason to always remember to carry a good videocamera. And survival kits and a GPS and armored suits and canned burgers and infrared goggles or a F-35 helmet. Unlike Lori Mehmen, however, these guys didn't take cover and just kept driving to this huge mother of all dust storms in Australia. Not as dangerous as a tornado, sure, but scary doesn't even start to describe it. WATCH: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a94_1216779982

Climate modelers see modern echo in '30s Dust BowlApril 29, 2008 Goodwell, Oklahoma, June 4, 1937. Climate scientists using computer models to simulate the 1930s Dust Bowl on the U.S Great Plains have found that dust raised by farmers probably amplified and spread a natural drop in rainfall, turning an ordinary drying cycle into an agricultural collapse. The researcher say the study raises concern that current pressures on farmland from population growth and climate change could worsen current food crises by leading to similar events in other regions. Recent studies indicate that periodic droughts in the western United States are...

The dust picks up toxins as it passes over Chinese factories Yellow dust storm A huge cloud of choking dust is passing over South Korea as the first sand storm of the year blows in from China.South Korea has ordered schools to close and drivers in south-west Japan have been warned about low visibility from the dust clouds. Every spring brings "yellow dust" storms which blow sand from China's Gobi Desert over the Koreas and Japan. The dust storms have become more deadly each year as they pass over China's industrial zones picking up toxins. South Korea blames dozens...

Dust In West Up 500 Percent In Past Two CenturiesA dusty scene near Canyonlands in Utah. Dust in the West has increased by 500 percent since the 1800s. (Credit: Jason C. Neff, University of Colorado at Boulder) ScienceDaily (Feb. 25, 2008) — The West has become 500 percent dustier in the past two centuries due to westward U.S. expansion and accompanying human activity beginning in the 1800s, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder. List of major natural disasters in the United States Annual sedimentary layer Sediment records from dust blown into alpine lakes...

African Dust Storms May Cool Atlantic, Lessen HurricanesAn image, captured on Sept. 4, 2005, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard NASA's TERRA satellite, shows a massive dust storm (in yellow) blowing off the western coast of Africa over the Atlantic Ocean. Amato Evan, a researcher at the UW-Madison Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, has found a surprising link between hurricane frequency in the Atlantic Ocean and dust storms that periodically rise up from the Sahara desert and move west. Evan and others suggest that such atmospheric dust could be helping to "dampen" brewing hurricanes. (Credit: NASA/courtesy Amato Evan)...

Bird flu may be spread indirectly, WHO says By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor Thu Jan 17, 8:22 AM ET The H5N1 bird flu virus may sometimes stick to surfaces or get kicked up in fertilizer dust to infect people, according to a World Health Organization report published on Wednesday. The WHO team reviewed all known human cases of avian influenza, which has infected 350 people in 14 countries and killed 217 of them since 2003, and found that 25 percent of cases have no explanation. Most are passed directly from bird to people, they noted in their report,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Samples of rock dust retrieved from a comet called Wild 2 are forcing scientists to alter they way they think about these intriguing objects that streak through our solar system. A chemical analysis of the samples brought back to Earth by NASA's Stardust spacecraft showed that the comet is much more like an asteroid than scientists had expected. Comets are celestial bodies made of rock, dust and ice with characteristic tails of gas and dust streams that are formed in the solar system's distant, frigid reaches. A long-standing notion had been they were sort of a frozen...

Tiny Dust Particles From Asian Deserts Common Over Western United States ScienceDaily (Dec. 14, 2007) — It has been a decade since University of Washington scientists first pinpointed specific instances of air pollution, including Gobi Desert dust, traversing the Pacific Ocean and adding to the mix of atmospheric pollution already present along the West Coast of North America. Now a UW researcher is finding that dust from the Gobi and Taklimakan deserts in China and Mongolia is routinely present in the air over the western United States during spring months. "We are interested in Asian dust that comes across the...

TEREHOVA, Latvia (Reuters) - Optimists call it the end of the Iron Curtain. Pessimists fear a "Fortress Europe" or a wave of illegal immigration from December 21, when passports will be checked at fewer European borders. When the European Union's passport-free Schengen zone expands to include nine mostly former communist states, travelers in the EU will not need a passport to cross land and sea borders in an area about one-third the size of the United States, from Narva in Estonia to Narbonne in France. From next March the extended zone will also include airports in a total of 24...

Could alien life exist in the form of DNA-shaped dust? 18:09 10 August 2007 NewScientist.com news service Stephen Battersby 'Plasma crystals' that behave like life could exist in Saturn's rings, where the 'dust' would actually be fine ice grains, and the nourishing plasma would be supplied by the solar wind (Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)Tools Could alien life exist in the form of dancing specks of dust? According to a new simulation, electrically charged dust can organise itself into DNA-like double helixes that behave in many ways like living organisms, reproducing and passing on information to one another. "This came as...

Lunar dust 'may harm astronauts' By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News, Houston Lunar dust brought back to Earth from the Apollo 17 mission Scientists are investigating the possible threat posed to astronauts by inhaling lunar dust. A study suggests the smallest particles in lunar dust might be toxic, if comparisons with dust inhalation cases on Earth apply. Teams hope to carry out experiments on mice to determine whether this is the case or not. Nasa has set up a working group to look into the matter ahead of its planned return to the Moon by 2020. A team at...

The African source of the Amazon's fertilizer Sid Perkins In the winter months in the Northern Hemisphere, massive dust storms from the African Sahara waft southwest across the Atlantic to drop tons of vital minerals on the Amazon basin in South America. Now, scientists have pinpointed the source of many of those dust storms and estimated their dust content. ON THE WAY. Satellite photo shows dust (arrow), bound for the Amazon, blowing away from the Sahara's Bodélé depression. NASA The Amazonian rainforest depends on Saharan dust for many of its nutrients, including iron and phosphorus (SN: 9/29/01, p. 200: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20010929/bob9.asp)....

Insults fly in the dust of Doha By Edmund Conway, Economics Editor (Filed: 26/07/2006) Hopes that anything will be salvaged from the wreckage of the Doha Round were fading last night as Europe and the US traded bitter accusations and recriminations, with each blaming the other for the collapse of the key trade talks. US trade representative Susan Schwab accused the EU of lying after Peter Mandelson claimed it was America's intransigence that caused the failure of the globalisation talks. Peter Mandelson In turn, Mr Mandelson, the European trade commissioner, repeated his allegations about the US and appealed over Ms...

Dust clouds transport bacteria from Africa around the world Ian Sample Thursday May 25, 2006 Giant clouds of dust whipped up by desert storms in Africa can carry infectious organisms to other continents, scientists claim today. Despite being blown more than three miles high and exposed to radiation from the sun, strains of bacteria and fungi survived and were able to grow when they returned to Earth, researchers found. Among 40 tests of air samples taken in the mid-Atlantic, 24 revealed living microbes, including 26 colonies of bacteria and 83 fungi. They included strains capable of causing disease in humans,...

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Jorge Chavez, 447th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron Vehicle Maintenance Flight mechanic, removes a roller on a loader. U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Will Ackerman Airmen Keep Fleet Rolling Through Dust, Mud A team of U.S. Air Force mechanics overcome heat, mud and the challenge to obtain replacement parts, to keep more than 300 vehicles running. By U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Will Ackerman 447th Air Expeditionary Group SATHER AIR BASE, Iraq, May 16, 2006 — Working on vehicles in the desert presents challenges. Mechanics sometimes have to scrape off layers of dirt...

Cloud of scholarly dust rises over ancient footprints claim Tuesday, April 25, 2006 BRADLEY T. LEPPER Are the footprints of surprisingly ancient Americans preserved in 40,000-year-old volcanic ash in southern Mexico? In December, an article in the journal Science cast a cloud of doubt over that claim. The authors, Michael Waters and Paul Renne, argue that the ash dated to 1.3 million years ago, much too old for humans on this continent, and that the so-called footprints were nothing more than marks made by the tools of modern workers quarrying the stone with crowbars. Now, Silvia Gonzalez, an archaeologist from...

BEIJING - Beijing will use artificial rainmaking to clear the air after a choking dust storm coated China's capital and beyond with yellow grit, prompting a health warning to keep children indoors, state media said If oil prices surge to record highs, what affect will this have on the US dollar? The huge storm blew dust far beyond China's borders, blanketing South Korea and reaching Tokyo. The storm, reportedly the worst in at least five years, hit Beijing overnight Sunday, turning the sky yellow and forcing residents to dust off and hose down cars and buildings. Hospitals reported a jump...

Seasonal Sandstorms: a Survival Guide Satellite images released by the Korea Meteorological Administration of sandstorms that blanketed the nation between 4:30 a.m. Saturday (top) and 11 a.m. on Sunday. As the annual sandstorms are blown into Korea from the arid wastes of Mongolia, the annual health questions emerge. Are an itchy nose and itchy ears a sign of danger? Will sunglasses protect the eyes? The Chosun Ilbo has the lowdown on surviving seasonal sandstorms. First of all, bear in mind that you inhale as much as three times more dust than normal when the sandstorms descend. And the dust contains...

Tiny amounts of salt and dust trapped in the Antarctic ice sheet for the last 740,000 years shed new light on changes to the Earth's climate. The results, published this week in the journal Nature, come from the team who extracted a 3 km long ice core from Dome C, high on East Antarctica's plateau - the oldest continuous climate record obtained from ice cores so far. Since reporting in 2004 that the Earth experienced eight climate cycles (each consisting of an ice age and warm period) the team have been analysing the chemical impurities in the cores to unravel...

Residents Rightfully Ask - Who should pay to clean my pool? Who should pay to get the coil-damaging dust out of my A/C unit at my home? Who should pay my water bill to clean up all this dust in my Yard? We have heard of no good faith offer to compensate homeowners for the cost of cleaning up the dust by the developers that caused it. Will attorney fees be added to the developers clean up costs? Affected homeowners group is looking at filing class-action suit for dust damages. Irresponsible builders and inaction by city leaders who have been...

Dust clouds continue to roll as city & state PM10 regulations are ignored. Citizens working with city to help correct the problem -concerns over health and real estate values. City good standing with other Valley cities in jeopardy as DHS becomes problem for CVAC efforts to meet state and federal dust control mandates. Citizens on patrol of the city find that most developers ignoring most if not all PM10 standards, including wholesale violations at projects west and upwind of the city. This site's opinion is that these problems are because of cozy relationship between city council and the developers and...

Long, infrared exposures of giant gas and dust clouds reveal structures that are invisible at optical wavelengths (Image: J Foster and A Goodman, CfA) Astronomers have discovered a new way to probe dark clouds of gas and dust in space, shedding light on the mysterious conditions that nurture star birth. Stars condense from giant clouds of molecular gas and dust that float through space. But these stellar wombs are difficult to study because they are barely visible at optical wavelengths. And other methods that probe their structure are not very precise – for example, estimating how much dust they...

Researchers at The University of Manchester funded by the Fungal Research Trust have discovered millions of fungal spores right under our noses - in our pillows. Aspergillus fumigatus, the species most commonly found in the pillows, is most likely to cause disease; and the resulting condition Aspergillosis has become the leading infectious cause of death in leukaemia and bone marrow transplant patients. Fungi also exacerbate asthma in adults. The researchers dissected both feather and synthetic samples and identified several thousand spores of fungus per gram of used pillow - more than a million spores per pillow. Fungal contamination of bedding...

(Miami-AP) July 23, 2005 - A dust cloud nearly as big as the continental United States is heading toward the southern states. It's expected to move across Florida sometime between Monday and Wednesday. The dust blowing in from the Sahara Desert is expected to spark colorful sunrises and sunsets. A spokesman for the Broward County Environmental Protection Department says if people subject to respiratory conditions see hazy skies, they may want to take a pass on strenuous activity and stay indoors. "This is not going to be a tremendous event, but it will be kind of interesting," said Jim Lushine,...

BALTIMORE - The Hubble Space Telescope has given astronomers a sneak preview of what they might see July 4 when a NASA probe strikes a comet, creating a cosmic display that may be visible with the naked eye in part of the Western Hemisphere. One of a series of photos taken by the orbiting observatory while preparing for the Independence Day encounter shows a 1,400-mile plume of dust spewing from the comet toward the sun. Johns Hopkins University astronomy professor Paul Feldman said light from the sun most likely heated a pocket of volatile gas trapped beneath the surface, causing...

A thick scent of the past lies heavy in the miles of tatty corridors in the United Nations headquarters building on New York's Lower East Side. Throughout the towering 38-storey block, the glory days are not merely remembered, but cherished. At the end of one dust-encrusted hallway is a debating chamber designed as a venue for diplomats to discuss the fate of the UN's own colonies, the trusteeships. Kofi Annan The last of those states reached independence 11 years ago. Even so, every day UN guards switch on the lights for the ghosts of a past age, the desks ready...

US Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, who had hoped to replace George W. Bush as president yesterday, instead sat in the cold and clapped as the Republican began a second four-year term. Iowa Democratic Senator Tom Harkin patted Senator Kerry on the back shortly before the inauguration Senator Kerry had hoped would be his. As Mr Bush delivered his inaugural address, Senator Kerry, about 10m away on the steps of the US Capitol, joined other lawmakers and the crowd in repeated applause. Senator Kerry looked relaxed, at times wistful. He frequently smiled, able to hide any disappointment over what...

Others may have sympathized on learning that Hamid Dabashi, a professor of Middle East studies at Columbia University, felt threatened by a graduate student at his own university, but not me. The incident began late on Sept. 27, 2004, when Victor Luria, a Ph.D. candidate in genetics and a former soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, wrote Dabashi an e-mail taking strong exception to what Dabashi had written about the IDF in an article, "For a Fistful of Dust: A Passage to Palestine," he published in the Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram. In response, Luria wrote to Dabashi: I have rarely seen...

Kerry’s vet photo fraud, II The Kerry campaign ran a much-hyped “Band of Brothers” photo of Kerry with 19 other fellow Vietnam Swift Boat commanders, which implied all 19 support Kerry’s bid for the presidency. All 19 did not support Kerry – only two did. Today, Iowa Presidential Watch has received information from Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth (www.swiftvets.com) that states: “We have new information that Ralph Dobson in fact considers Kerry unfit.”So, now Kerry is down to just one of the 19 Swift Boat commanders supporting him.We have updated the photo-graphic to show the truth about Kerry’s...

Study: 'Toxic Dust' on Computers Has Chemicals Linked to Diseases By Rachel Konrad/Associated Press Jun 3, 2004 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - "Toxic dust" found on computer processors and monitors contains chemicals linked to reproductive and neurological disorders, according to a new study by several environmental groups. The survey, released Thursday by Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Computer TakeBack Campaign and Clean Production Action, is among the first to identify brominated flame retardants on the surfaces of common devices in homes and offices. Electronics companies began using polybrominated diphenyl (PBDEs) and other flame retardants in the 1970s, arguing that the toxins prevent...

Scientists are divided about the use of the Moon as a base to develop ways to travel to Mars, according to reports given to the US government. Some have said the possibility of water-ice existing at the lunar poles would allow a moonbase to use the ice as rocket fuel for a Mars mission. Others contend that it would be too difficult to extract. And there is disagreement about whether the moon is a good alternative to space as a base for advanced telescopes. In January, President Bush redirected the US space effort sending astronauts back to the Moon and...

Space dust to unlock Mexican pyramid secrets Muon detector could point scientists to hidden burial chambersTwo vendors sit near the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, where physicists are using a muon detector to look for hidden burial chambers. TEOTIHUACAN, Mexico - Remnants of space dust that constantly shower the world are helping unlock the secrets of a 2,000-year-old Mexican pyramid where the rulers of a mysterious civilization may lie buried. Deep under the huge Pyramid of the Sun, north of Mexico City, physicists are installing a device to detect muons, subatomic particles that are left over when cosmic...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 March 5 V838 Mon: Echoes from the Edge Credit: NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team(AURA / STScI) Explanation: Variable star V838 Monocerotis lies near the edge of our Milky Way Galaxy, about 20,000 light-years from the Sun. Still, ever since a sudden outburst was detected in January 2002, this enigmatic star has taken the center of an astronomical stage while researchers try to understand where it fits...

<p>The other day, President Bush went to Florida for NASCAR's Daytona 500. His likely Democratic rival, John Kerry, did not approve. "We don't need," he declared, in the portentous drone he's been perfecting for three decades, "a president who says, 'Gentlemen, start your engines.' We need a president who says, 'America, let's start our economy.' "</p>

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 February 20 SN1987A's Cosmic Pearls Credit: P. Challis, R. Kirshner (CfA), and B. Sugerman (STScI), NASA Explanation: In February 1987, light from the brightest stellar explosion seen in modern times reached Earth -- supernova SN1987A. This Hubble Space Telescope image from the sharp Advanced Camera for Surveys taken in November 2003 shows the explosion site over 16 years later. The snap shot indicates that the supernova blast...

<p>The surface of Mars is scoured by dust storms of biblical immensity -- dust storms that could make life rough, even risky, for the first astronauts who visit the fourth planet from the sun.</p> <p>Now that President Bush wants to send Americans to Mars, NASA planners are likely to launch careful studies of the potential hazards of the Red Planet.</p>

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 December 30 A Dust Devil Crater on Mars Credit: Malin Space Science Systems, MGS, JPL, NASA Explanation: What caused the streaks in this Martian crater? Since the above image shows streaks occurring both inside and outside the crater, they were surely created after the crater-causing impact. Newly formed trails like these presented researchers with a tantalizing martian mystery but have now been identified as likely the work...

Dust storms threaten Mars landers By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor Mars on 13 December as the dust storm was spreading A series of dust storms could threaten the success of three space probes heading for Mars, astronomers warn. The scientists say some small storms are combining to obscure a large part of the planet's northern hemisphere. If they build into a global storm, which can happen, it could interfere with the solar panels the probes use to generate power for their instruments. On 25 December, Europe's Beagle 2 will land, followed by two US rovers, Spirit...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 October 13 Pelican Nebula Ionization Front Credit: John Bally (U. Colorado) & Bo Reipurth (U. Hawaii), NOAO, AURA, NSF Explanation: What's happening to the Pelican Nebula? The light from young energetic stars is slowly transforming the Pelican's cold gas to hot gas, with the advancing boundary between the two known as an ionization front. Most of these bright stars lie off the top of the image, but...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 September 7 The Galactic Center in Infrared Credit: 2MASS Project, UMass, IPAC/Caltech, NSF, NASA Explanation: The center of our Galaxy is a busy place. In visible light, much of the Galactic Center is obscured by opaque dust. In infrared light, however, dust glows more and obscures less, allowing nearly one million stars to be recorded in the above photograph. The Galactic Center itself appears on the right...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 August 16 Thackeray's Globules Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), Explanation: Rich star fields and glowing hydrogen gas silhouette dense, opaque clouds of interstellar gas and dust in this Hubble Space Telescope close-up of IC 2944, a bright star forming region in Centaurus, 5,900 light-years away. The largest of these dark globules, first spotted by South African astronomer A. D. Thackeray in 1950, is likely two separate but...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 August 6 Dusty Galaxy Centaurus A Credit: Marina Rejkuba (ESO-Garching) et al., ISAAC, VLT ANTU telescope, ESO Paranal Obs. Explanation: Why is peculiar galaxy Centaurus A so dusty? Dramatic dust lanes that run across the galaxy's center mark Cen A. These dust lanes are so thick they almost completely obscure the galaxy's center in visible light. This is particularly unusual as Cen A's red stars and round...