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	(Sponsor this newsletter) 'MyShake' app, a personal tsunami warning system It turns out the technology in conventional seismological instrumentation exists in every smartphone on the planet.                                                                             "The idea is if we can harness the accelerometers in those smart phones then we can collect massive amounts of data. It could really revolutionize how we understand earthquakes and earthquake effects," said Richard Allen, the director of the Seismological Laboratory at the University California, Berkeley.  Allen and his team have developed a smartphone app called 'MyShake' designed to monitor a phones accelerometer data and send alerts to a central server when seismic activity registers.   He says accelerometers in phones are nowhere near as sensitive as conventional instrumentation, but what they lack in sensitivity they make up for in numbers. Read More » New Zika Study Finds Grave Outcomes for Some Pregnant Women Some pregnant women with Zika virus tend not to fare well, and neither do their fetuses, a new study finds. The researchers studied 88 pregnant women in Rio de Janeiro from September 2015 through February 2016, according to the study, published Friday (March 4) in the The New England Journal of Medicine. Read More » 'MyShake' app, a personal tsunami warning system It turns out the technology in conventional seismological instrumentation exists in every smartphone on the planet.                                                                             "The idea is if we can harness the accelerometers in those smart phones then we can collect massive amounts of data. It could really revolutionize how we understand earthquakes and earthquake effects," said Richard Allen, the director of the Seismological Laboratory at the University California, Berkeley.  Allen and his team have developed a smartphone app called 'MyShake' designed to monitor a phones accelerometer data and send alerts to a central server when seismic activity registers.   He says accelerometers in phones are nowhere near as sensitive as conventional instrumentation, but what they lack in sensitivity they make up for in numbers. Read More » Scientists find 'good' cholesterol can sometimes be bad By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - So-called "good" cholesterol may actually increase heart attack risks in some people, researchers said on Thursday, a discovery that casts fresh doubt on drugs designed to raise it. High density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol is generally associated with reduced heart risks, since it usually offsets the artery-clogging effects of the low density (LDL) form. "Our results indicate that some causes of raised HDL actually increase risk for heart disease," said lead researcher Daniel Rader of the University of Pennsylvania. Read More » Spacecraft to seek life on Mars in European-led mission The craft, part of the European-Russian ExoMars program, is to lift off from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan on board a Proton rocket at 5:31 A.M. EDT (0931 GMT) on Monday, starting a seven-month journey through space. It will carry an atmospheric probe that will study trace gases, such as methane, around Mars as well as a lander that will test technologies needed for a rover due to follow in 2018. U.S. space agency NASA's Mars rover Curiosity in late 2014 found spurts of methane gas in the planet's atmosphere, a chemical that on Earth is strongly tied to life. Read More » Packing Lunches for Space: Scientists Talk Astronaut Health on 1-Year Mission NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are back on Earth after spending a record 340 days on the International Space Station. Last Friday (March 4), a group of NASA scientists fielded questions from the public about Kelly and Kornienko's extended stay on the station, during a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA). The scientists discussed specific questions about the physical and metal toll that spaceflight can have on humans — questions they will have to answer before NASA can safely send humans to Mars or other distant locations. Read More » Intrexon says FDA finds anti-Zika mosquito environmentally safe (Reuters) - A genetically engineered mosquito being used in the fight against Zika will not have a significant impact on the environment, the maker Intrexon Corp said, citing preliminary findings from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Males of the self-limiting strain of the Aedes aegypti mosquito are modified so their offspring die before being able to reproduce, says Intrexon, a U.S. synthetic biology company. Zika, carried by mosquitoes, has been linked to a spike in microcephaly, a rare birth defect, as well as Guillain-Barre syndrome, which can cause paralysis. Read More » Birth Date May Influence Child's Risk for ADHD Diagnosis The researchers found that preschool and school-age children who were born in August had an increased risk of being diagnosed with ADHD and receiving medication for it compared to their classmates who were born in September. Because the cutoff birth date for entering school in Taiwan is August 31, children born in August are typically the youngest in their grades, while children born in September are typically the oldest. Read More » Stunning New 'Drowned Apostles' Discovered on Seafloor A bevy of limestone towers, dubbed the "Drowned Apostles," have been discovered beneath the waves off the coast of Australia. The discovery may mark the first time scientists have uncovered limestone pillars, called sea stacks, below the water's surface. "Sea stacks are always eroding, as we saw with the one that collapsed in 2005, so it is hugely surprising that any could be preserved at that depth of water," David Kennedy, a geographer at the University of Melbourne in Australia, said in a statement. Read More »
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