Galaxy Zoo 2, the second phase of a crowdsourcing effort to categorize galaxies in our universe, has leveraged more than 83,000 citizen scientists to obtain over 16 million galaxy classifications and information on more than 300,000 galaxies.

That's what you get when you ask the public for help in learning more about our universe.  Computers are good at automatically measuring properties such as size and color of galaxies, but more challenging characteristics, such as shape and structure, can only be determined by the human eye.

Rice containing a transgenic modification that makes it resistant to a common herbicide can pass that genetic trait to weedy rice, prompting powerful growth even without a weed-killer to trigger the modification benefit, new research shows. Previously, scientists have found that when a genetically modified trait passes from a crop plant to a closely related weed, the weed gains the crop's engineered benefit – resistance to pests, for example – only in the presence of the offending insects.

This new study is a surprising example of gene flow from crops to weeds that makes weeds more vigorous even without an environmental trigger, the researchers say.

An estimate finds that a northward shift of Earth's wind and rain belts could make a broad swath of regions drier, including the Middle East, American West and Amazonia, while making Monsoon Asia and equatorial Africa wetter.

Researchers have found reassuring evidence of the H1N1 influenza vaccine's safety during pregnancy. 

The national study, which was launched shortly after the pandemic H1N1 influenza outbreak of 2009 and funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), will be summarized in two Vaccine papers.

A survey of gun dealers and pawnbrokers in 43 U.S. states found nearly unanimous support for denying gun purchases for criminals and mentally ill people who have a history of violence or alcohol or drug abuse; conditions that might have prevented Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis from legally purchasing a firearm.

Wealth, more money freed from basic necessities like food and energy, invariably leads to more money available for education and culture - but wealth leads to a clash in developed nations who want to protect emerging economies from 'globalization', regardless of what those countries want.

Former US Secretary of the Navy Jerry Hultin, now Senior Presidential Fellow of New York University and President Emeritus of the Polytechnic Institute of NYU, looks past the substantial hurdle of providing basic food, medicine and energy - all highly political topics in the western world - and says that investments in green energy, education, networking opportunities and research should be on the list of priorities for countries looking to move up the world's financial ranks.