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By Amy Maxmen Helpful bacteria don't just aid digestion; they also fend off the flu, according to a report published March 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A research team led by Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, found that mice treated with neomycin antibiotics were more susceptible than control mice to influenza viruses.

Conditions are changing rapidly at the Fukushima power plant, where at least two of its six nuclear reactors have partially melted down. The editors of Scientific American are following the developments, and part of the effort involves following various Twitter users.

As the world continues to grapple with energy-related pollution and poverty, can innovation help? [More]

NORDEN, Calif. - On a frosty evening in the Sierra Nevada, smoke curling from the chimney of the Clair Tappaan Lodge is a welcome sight to chilly snowshoers and cross-country skiers

“The type of accident that is occurring in Japan is known as the station blackout: loss of off-site AC power--power lines are down--and then a subsequent failure of emergency power on-site, the diesel generators. The station blackout has been one of the great concerns for decades.” Physicist Ken Bergeron, speaking on March 12 during a press briefing. He worked on nuclear reactor accident analysis at Sandia National Laboratories.

Tokyo Electric Co.

Around 3 P.M. local time on Friday, there was a massive earthquake about 100 miles off the east coast of northern Honshu Island , Japan.

By Taiga Uranaka and Ki Joon Kwon FUKUSHIMA, Japan, March 14 (Reuters) - Japan scrambled to avert a meltdown at a stricken nuclear plant on Monday after a hydrogen explosion at one reactor and exposure of fuel rods at another, just days after a devastating earthquake and tsunami that killed at least 10,000 people. Roads and rail, power and ports have been crippled across much of Japan's northeast and estimates of the cost of the multiple disasters have leapt to as much as $170 billion

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.--Silicon translates sunshine into electricity--and Earth receives enough sunshine in a daylight hour to supply all of humanity's energy needs for a year. But despite being as common as sand, photovoltaic panels made from silicon--or any of a host of other semiconducting materials --are not cheap, especially when compared with the cost of electricity produced by burning coal or natural gas.

Stare at the tiny, central black fixation spot on the white cross in a . After 30 seconds, transfer your gaze to a neutral gray background. You should see a dark--almost black--cross fading in and out.

Physician Assistants Number in 2008: 74,800 [More]

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.--Every day the U.S. imports $1 billion worth of oil.

By Ed Bell and Phil Saunders [More]

It’s only a matter of time--in fact, they’ve already started cropping up--before reality-challenged individuals begin pontificating about what God could have possibly been so hot-and-bothered about to trigger last week’s devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. (Surely, if we were to ask Westboro Baptist Church members, it must have something to do with the gays.) But from a psychological perspective, what type of mind does it take to see unexpected natural events such as the horrifying scenes still unfolding in Japan as "signs" or "omens" related to human behaviors? In the summer of 2005, my University of Arkansas colleague Becky Parker and I began the first experimental study to investigate the psychology underlying this strange phenomenon

(Adds quotes, background) VIENNA, March 13 (Reuters) - Japanese authorities have told [More]