A few years ago, politicians introduced us to a new metric for performance; estimates about what might have happened became real numbers that were shown as proof of success. Instead of touting actual economic benefits from tax spending, we were treated to the economic losses the spending avoided. No one knew if the numbers were real because they hadn't happened, they were only estimated by the same political groups interested in promoting their success.

It was dizzying, and it worked in the mainstream media, and so it was only a matter of time before other agenda-based groups adopted the same technique.

An international team of scientists predicts that seafloor dwelling marine life will decline by up to 38 percent in the North Atlantic and over five percent globally over the next century, due to global warming. The changes will be driven by a reduction in the plants and animals that live at the surface of the oceans that feed deep-sea communities. As a result, ecosystem services such as fishing will be threatened. 

Using the new capabilities of the upgraded Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), scientists have discovered previously-unseen binary companions to a pair of very young protostars, which gives strong support for one of the competing explanations for how double-star systems form.

Astronomers know that about half of all Sun-like stars are members of double or multiple-star systems, but have debated over how such systems are formed.

"The only way to resolve the debate is to observe very young stellar systems and catch them in the act of formation," said John Tobin, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). "That's what we've done with the stars we observed, and we got valuable new clues from them," he added.

The imminent death of a family member is riddled with emotions for family family members. The reasons are obvious.  But it's not just them. 

How are emotions experienced in the body? Researchers at Aalto University say they know.

If you were a weather forecaster for exoplanet GJ 1214b you would have an easy job. Today's forecast: cloudy. Tomorrow: cloudy. Extended outlook: more clouds.

Determining the weather on a distant planet around another star hasn't really been possible before. 

GJ 1214b is classified as a super-Earth type planet because its mass is intermediate between those of Earth and Neptune. Super-Earths like GJ 1214b are among the most common type of planets in the Milky Way galaxy but because no such planets exist in our Solar System, the physical nature of super-Earths is largely unknown.