In the Dec. 18 issue of Science, Researchers from Tufts University say popular television programs are spreading racial messages to their viewers through biased facial expressions and body language, and it's happening without the audience even knowing it.

The Tufts team studied the prevalence, subtlety and impact of nonverbal race bias in 11 popular weekly scripted television shows. They found that characters on the shows exhibited more negative nonverbal behavior toward black characters than to white characters of the same status. Exposure to "pro-white" (vs. "pro-black") nonverbal bias also increased viewers' race bias, as assessed with reaction-time and self-report measures.

Scientists have recorded the deepest erupting volcano yet discovered--West Mata Volcano--located 4,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, in an area bounded by Fiji,Tonga and Samoa.

The imagery includes large molten lava bubbles three feet across bursting into cold seawater, glowing red vents exploding lava into the sea, and the first-observed advance of lava flows across the deep-ocean floor. Sounds of the eruption were recorded by a hydrophone and later matched with the video footage.

While trying to develop a vaccine for AIDS, researchers have uncovered a biological catch-22 that's been hindering their chances of success. They say that while the immune system can produce cells with the potential to manufacture HIV-blocking antibodies, it also works equally hard to eliminate those cells before they have a chance to mature.

Over the years, scientists have assumed that B cells – one of the first lines of defense against infection – are simply not able to "see" the HIV virus. HIV has the ability to hide its most vulnerable parts from immune system surveillance, and researchers generally assumed that
helped explain why B cells often took weeks and even months to arise following infection.

Analysis of microfossils found in ocean sediment cores is illuminating the environmental conditions that prevailed at high latitudes during a critical period of Earth history.

Around 55 million years ago at the beginning of the Eocene epoch, the Earth's poles are believed to have been free of ice. But by the early Oligocene around 25 million years later, ice sheets covered Antarctica and continental ice had developed on Greenland.

In a pilot project that could help better manage the planet's strained natural resources, NASA satellites and sensors are providing a local Washington community the information needed to make more accurate river flow predictions on a daily basis, helping them manage their water availability .

"World leaders are struggling to protect natural resources for future generations," said Jeff Ward, a senior research scientist at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "These tools help us sustainably use natural resources while balancing environmental, cultural and economic concerns."

NASA researchers studying urban landscapes say the intensity of the "heat island" created by a city depends on the ecosystem it replaced and on the regional climate where the city is located. Urban areas developed in arid and semi-arid regions show far less heating compared with the surrounding countryside than cities built amid forested and temperate climates.