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The introduction of new technology into the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) hasn’t always been easy. “We didn’t even have fax machines until the late ’90s,” department Chief Salvatore Cassano said during a forum held in the city Friday to highlight ways in which public safety agencies are turning to information technology (IT) to better manage demographic and other data as urban populations grow and departmental budgets shrink. “You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” he added, “and we weren’t measuring things well....

New regulations unveiled yesterday demanding that heavy-duty trucks reduce their emissions mark the latest Obama administration effort to tackle rising greenhouse gases from the transportation sector. As Obama seeks to cement his climate change legacy in his final months in office, observers say fuel economy has become a key piece of the United States’ international carbon-cutting commitments. It remains unclear, however, whether the new standards alone will cut greenhouse gas emissions from roads....

Scientists have been working for decades to create an optical prosthesis that restores at least partial vision to those suffering from retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration and other retina-damaging diseases. Some retinal implants have begun to deliver on that promise, but the challenge remains for researchers to develop a technology that, in addition to providing clear images, can be worn comfortably over the long term. Germany’s Retina Implant, AG, thinks it has made great strides in both areas, an assertion that will be put to the test later this year when the company launches its second clinical trial, placing subretinal (under retina) implants in about 50 patients over the next few years....

Remote Antarctica may feel like the most isolated place on Earth. Secluded at the bottom of the world and surrounded by the turbulent Southern Ocean, in many ways it’s a step into another world. But, as it turns out, the icy continent is more closely connected to the rest of the planet than it appears. The South Pole is warming at a rate nearly three times faster than the global average, scientists have discovered....

Not long after Neptune completed its first orbit around the sun since its discovery in 1846, scientists have managed to calculate the exact length of one day on the distant gas giant planet. Unlike their rocky counterparts, gas giants have long challenged astronomers when it comes to calculating their rotation. Mercury, Venus, and Mars are essentially solid spinning rock, but huge gas giants move more like spinning liquids, sloshing and swirling around a small rocky core....

Editor’s Note: This story is part of the Feature “Nuclear Fuel Recycling: More Trouble Than It’s Worth” from the May 2008 Issue of Scientific American. A Nuclear Renaissance? After decades of declining interest, nuclear energy is poised for a comeback, driven by: Rising costs of fossil fuels Nuclear power’s lack of carbon emissions Generous government subsidies Critical Point The quantity of spent fuel so far accumulated by the U.S. nuclear industry (about 58,000 metric tons) now very nearly equals the capacity of the cooling pools used to hold such material at the reactor sites....

Research on Alzheimer’s has mainly focused on Caucasians. New findings, however, suggest the disease process that leads to dementia may differ in African-Americans. According to a study published in January in JAMA Neurology, the brains of African-Americans diagnosed with Alzheimer’s have less buildup of a protein called tau—one of the two hallmark proteins that characterize the disease. It is not clear why African-Americans would have less tau while still suffering from Alzheimer’s, says neurologist John Morris, who led the research....

Might we humans be the only species on this planet to be truly conscious? Might lobsters and lions, beetles and bats be unconscious automata, responding to their worlds with no hint of conscious experience? Aristotle thought so, claiming that humans have rational souls but that other animals have only the instincts needed to survive. In medieval Christianity the “great chain of being” placed humans on a level above soulless animals and below only God and the angels....

By Brendan O’Brien (Reuters) - Near-record rainfall has caused massive flooding in the Detroit area that is blamed for at least one death and has made roads impassable, swamped vehicles and flooded basements, officials said. The heaviest rain since 1925 engulfed the area on Monday, the second-wettest day on record, according to the National Weather Service. Up to 6 inches of rain fell on Monday in a four-hour period and parts of five interstate highways that run through Detroit and many interior roads remained impassable on Tuesday, said Nicole Lisabeth, a Michigan State Police spokeswoman....

Ball-rolling bumblebees have become the first known insects to “play,” researchers say. The scientists recorded these tiny fliers manipulating wooden balls again and again in a series of new experiments. When animals repeatedly engage in behavior that does not provide them with food, shelter or another immediate benefit, researchers consider the behavior play. Play with inanimate objects is widely observed in animals, although most examples come from mammals and birds, with no record of the behavior in insects until now....

Milena Canning can see steam rising from a coffee cup but not the cup. She can see her daughter’s ponytail swing from side to side, but she can’t see her daughter. Canning is blind, yet moving objects somehow find a way into her perception. Scientists studying her condition say it could reveal secrets about how humans process vision in general. Canning was 29 when a stroke destroyed her entire occipital lobe, the brain region housing the visual system....

Einstein: His Space and Times by Steven Gimbel Yale University Press, 2015 (($25)) Einstein renounced religion at the age of 12, when he decided his Jewish beliefs were incompatible with the analytical mind-set of his truer devotion, science. Yet the world never stopped seeing him as a Jew, and over time he became a champion for his oppressed people and a supporter of the Zionist cause. “Einstein had alienated himself from the larger Jewish community, but the times forced him to realize that his heritage was an inalienable part of who he was,” writes philosophy professor Gimbel in this look at Einstein’s relationship to Judaism and his political activism....

Elements of last year’s Copenhagen Accord moved a step closer to reality as two weeks of talks concluded in Cancun this week with a new consensus on the path forward for international negotiations to combat climate change. Over the objections of Bolivia, the so-called Cancun Agreements text was adopted by more than 190 countries, setting the stage for ongoing negotiations on subjects ranging from greenhouse gas emission cuts from industrialized and developing countries to rules for reducing deforestation....

By Declan Butler of Nature magazineWhy would scientists deliberately create a form of the H5N1 avian influenza virus that is probably highly transmissible in humans? In the growing debate about research that has done precisely that, a key question is whether the public-health benefits of the work outweigh the risks of a potential pandemic if the virus escaped from the lab.For the scientists who have created the mutated strains of the H5N1 virus, the justifications are clear....

Cities on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River will face nearly $2 billion in damages from climate change through 2025, according to a new survey of municipalities in the basin. That’s on top of nearly $880 million spent since 2019 as the world’s largest freshwater system experiences more extreme weather events, unpredictable swings in lake levels, and changes in precipitation and evaporation rates, officials said. “High water levels, paired with severe storm events and wave action, are leading to greater erosion and flooding that threaten public and private properties, critical infrastructure, and recreation and tourism amenities in shoreline communities,” said Walter Sendzik, chair of the Great Lakes and St....

LOS ANGELES – Ice Energy has a novel solution for the electricity challenges of the 21st century: Make Popsicles. Put another way, the company wants to freeze water at night in refrigerator-like boxes adjacent to commercial air conditioners and then thaw it during the day, when power demand is highest. This would theoretically allow AC-hungry commercial buildings in warm climates to cut energy use during heat waves, by shutting air conditioners down while still providing cool air to buildings from melting ice....

The Thwaites Ice Shelf is one of the most important geological features on the planet, and it’s in trouble. The 800-square-kilometer slab of ice floats in front of Antarctica’s enormous Thwaites Glacier and braces it in place. In the past few years scientists have found new ways the ice shelf is melting, cracking and wobbling. Science journalist Douglas Fox accompanied researchers as they pulled sleds full of radar equipment across the ice to study its interior, finding surprises with every new observation....

Google’s launch this week of Sky, a new feature within Google Earth that provides a virtual tour of celestial phenomena, may be of limited use to professional astronomers, but its impact on future scientists and amateur stargazers alike is expected to be as infinite and expansive as the universe it portrays. New features on the horizon promise to further refine Sky’s ability to serve as a virtual observatory and deliver images of unfolding cosmic events as they occur....

Benasich is one of a cadre of researchers who have been employing brain-recording techniques to understand the essential processes that underlie learning. The new science of neuroeducation seeks the answers to questions that have always perplexed cognitive psychologists and pedagogues. How, for instance, does a newborn’s ability to process sounds and images relate to the child’s capacity to learn letters and words a few years later? What does a youngster’s ability for staying mentally focused in preschool mean for later academic success?...

“I don’t think there is anything wrong with white space. I don’t think it’s a problem to have a blank wall.” —Annie Leibovitz According to a legend that one of us (Martinez-Conde) heard growing up in Spain, anybody can see the Devil’s face. All you need to do is to stare at your own face in the mirror at the stroke of midnight, call the Devil’s name and the Prince of Darkness will look back at you....