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By this point, it’s pretty clear that one of the best things we can do to protect ourselves and others from the coronavirus is wearing face masks whenever we’re out in public. But it’s important to remember that this disease is still new, and scientists are still learning about it. And now, the CDC has updated its face mask recommendations, warning people that masks that have built in valves or vents aren’t actually effective in helping slow the spread of the virus. One extremely popular model of mask that has a built-in valve is made by 3M. Its high-tech appearance...

Woods vents fury at fake photos as crowd turn on Americans Lawrence Donegan at the K Club Thursday September 21, 2006 The Guardian (UK) So much for hands across the ocean. Two days before a ball is struck in earnest at the 2006 Ryder Cup the atmosphere around the K Club turned a little angry yesterday after Tiger Woods took the unusual step of publicly condemning an Irish magazine for publishing fake photographs purporting to show his wife, Elin, naked. "Some things are unacceptable," the world No1 said amid reports he was ready to take legal action against the Dublin-based...

Think of it as the Mars Rover but at the bottom of the ocean, remotely exploring our own planet's most alien landscape for scientists back at mission control. "This is how the science is going to be done," said Deborah Kelley, a University of Washington oceanographer. In 2000, Kelley led an expedition using a manned submersible to explore the deep Atlantic Ocean. Her team stumbled upon something never seen before. The researchers discovered a startlingly massive collection of limestone towers located miles away from the tectonic "spreading" cracks in the seafloor that typically produce such structures. Some of these hydrothermal...

(CBS) For years, CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, scientists have tried to understand the dynamic nature of Yellowstone National Park. "It's beautiful up here, everybody should see this at one time or another," says one appreciative observer. Scientist Lisa Morgan may have unlocked one piece in the puzzle, deep below the park's biggest lake. "It is kind of the last unmapped frontier in Yellowstone National Park," says Morgan. What she found looks more like the surface of the moon. Using sonar she's identified a massive bulging dome the size of seven football fields. The only other underwater dome in...

Now for something somewhat different: From this page: The Lost City Hydrothermal Field From this site (also in the Source URL above) Lost City Expedition

July 24 — In a new study, researchers speculate that a towering undersea hot-water chimney laden with microbes is just the sort of place that might have spawned life on Earth or even other planets. THE HYDROTHERMAL VENT SYSTEM discovered two years ago has now been found to have endured for 30,000 years. Researchers said similar setups — on Earth and possibly on other worlds — might last millions of years and could have been incubators for the first life. The Lost City, as it has been named, is a craggy column of minerals and microbes sitting 2,500 feet below...