High heat: Spain clocks prelim record of 47.2 C (116.96 F)

Spain set a new provisional heat record of 47.2 degrees Celsius (116.96 Fahrenheit) on Saturday as Southern Europe sweltered under a relentless summer sun. Italy put 16 cities on red alert for health risks and Portugal warned 75% of its regions that they faced a "significantly increased risk" of wildfires.

7.2 magnitude earthquake hits Haiti; at least 227 killed

At least 227 people were killed and hundreds were injured and missing after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on Saturday, and Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he was rushing aid to areas where towns were destroyed and hospitals overwhelmed with incoming patients.

Forest Service maxed out as wildfires break across US West

The U.S. Forest Service said Friday it's operating in crisis mode, fully deploying firefighters and maxing out its support system as wildfires continue to break out across the U.S. West, threatening thousands of homes and entire towns.

At least 40 killed in severe northern Turkey floods

The death toll from severe floods and mudslides in coastal Turkey has climbed to at least 40, the country's emergency and disaster agency said Saturday.

Global sizzling: July was hottest month on record, NOAA says

Earth sizzled in July and became the hottest month in 142 years of recordkeeping, U.S. weather officials announced.

Boeing astronaut capsule grounded for months by valve issue

Boeing's astronaut capsule is grounded for months and possibly even until next year because of a vexing valve problem.

Crop insurance and unintended consequences

A new study suggests that crop insurance serves as a disincentive for farmers to adopt climate change mitigation measures on their croplands.

Men, Conservative Party supporters and Brexit-backers more likely to support the use of nuclear weapons, study shows

Men, Conservative Party supporters and those who wanted Britain to leave the EU, are more likely to want to retain Britain's nuclear deterrent, a study shows.

Metasurfaces control polarized light at will

For years, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have engineered metasurfaces to manipulate light based on its polarization state. That research has contributed to advances in polarization technology—but metasurface technology has proven more powerful than even the researchers themselves realized.

Is it cheaper to be bigger? Lessons from the extreme weapons of giraffe weevil warriors

Nepalese craftsman, Chandra Bahadur Dangi, holds the record as the world's shortest adult, at 54.6 cm (1 ft 9 ½ inches). The tallest human is Sultan Kösen, a Turkish farmer, almost five times taller at 2.52 meters (8 feet 3 ¼ inches). In nature, size differences among males of a single species are not uncommon, but in a new paper, a team from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), The University of Auckland and the University of Arizona, discovered a case of male beetles that are not only extremely different in size, but also provide an answer to long-standing puzzle in evolutionary biology: how can larger animals afford the energetic cost of making and maintaining disproportionately large weapons?

Sensor spies hideouts for virus replication inside cell membranes

While some types of RNA viruses cloak themselves to hide inside a cell and create copies of themselves, a "detective enzyme" might be attuned to their whereabouts. A slight variation in their genomic code gives some people's cells the capacity to produce this sensor.  

NASA at your table: Where food meets methane

Today, human sources are responsible for 60% of global methane emissions, coming primarily  from the burning of fossil fuels, decomposition in landfills and the agriculture sector. Nearly a quarter of methane emissions can be attributed to agriculture, much of which is from raising livestock. Rice cultivation and food waste are also important sources of agricultural methane, as nearly a third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted.