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Forecasting major climactic and geologic events by observing animal behavior in the wild is a way of life for nature-based cultures. Modern science, however, has largely ignored the potentially life-saving value that could be derived from studying Nature’s early warning system.

Now, however, increasing numbers of researchers are employing the scientific method – along with advanced technology – to quantify the necessarily anecdotal evidence of changes in animal behavior in advance of a significant event. They are also seeking to arrive at a consensus regarding causation.
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What happens when a distinguished, highly reputable photojournalist with credits from The New York Times, Der Spiegel, Marie Clair, Time Magazine and other prestigious journals – sees and photographs something in the skies he cannot identify? The answer is, of course, that he writes about it. In fact, he put his reputation on the line to write a straightforward report of what he saw and of his challenge to capture the image.

Richard Emblin is the director and editor-in-chief of The City Paper, the English language newspaper in Colombia. He has covered conflicts in Colombia and Angola and has published photo essays from around the world. But in the 4/12/15 on-line issue of The City Paper, Emblin’s article took a radical departure from his usual reportage. read more

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In the summer of 1850 hunters in the Caucasus encountered a strange creature running naked and six and a half feet tall. They chased it down and captured it, returning it to T’khina. At first, she was violent, but she soon became used to domestic life. She was called Zana and was able to do simple household chores. She became a servant in an aristocratic household and lived until 1890.

Professor Brian Sykes, a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, has studied Zana and says that her DNA indicates that she belonged to a human subspecies and was not a modern human. He found that, while her genetic background is African, she is not related to any group now present in modern Africa.
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Even a few seconds warning prior to a devastating earthquake could save thousands of lives. But Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) systems are too pricey for governments in some of the most earthquake prone regions – including Asia, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Now a group of scientists think they may have found a solution: a crowd-sourced EEW network using consumers’ smartphones.

Writing in the April 10, 2015 issue of Science Advances, nine researchers – hailing from the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California; CalTech and JPL in Pasadena, the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping at the University of Houston, and Carnegie-Mellon – explain the rationale behind their research as well as its results.
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