Since October 2013,  the rate of earthquakes in Oklahoma has been up by about 50 percent, which has geologists thinking about the chance for a damaging quake in central Oklahoma.

A joint statement by the U.S. Geological Survey and Oklahoma Geological Survey says that 183 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater occurred in Oklahoma from October 2013 through April 14, 2014. The long-term average from 1978 to 2008 showed only two magnitude 3.0 or larger earthquakes per year. The increased number of small and moderate shocks has led them to predict a higher likelihood of future, damaging earthquakes for central and north-central Oklahoma.

A new analysis of ancient Jian wares reveals that the distinctive pottery contains an unexpected and highly unusual form of iron oxide - a rare compound called epsilon-phase iron oxide which was only recently discovered and characterized by scientists and so far has been extremely difficult to create with modern techniques.

Understanding 1,000 year old synthesis conditions used by Chinese potters could lead to an easier, more reliable synthesis of epsilon-phase iron oxide, enabling better, cheaper magnetic materials - including those used for data storage.

Photosynthesis is one of evolution's great success stories. Plants, algae and bacteria capture light energy from the sun and transform it into chemical energy.

Can science improve it? Perhaps. While genetic modification is protested by anti-science groups, no one dislikes photosynthesis. And improving the photosynthetic rate is one strategy to improve plant productivity, which can be important for future food production. 

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has announced that the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is accepting applications for projects related to  abandoned mine drainage projects .

You'll have to be a non-profit or a government agency to get government money - the groups most likely to be able to do something on budget are prohibited from applying to get a grant from taxpayers.

Carbon monoxide is known as the "silent killer" because it is imperceptible and lethal. Most homes carry detectors.

We think of it as artificial, due to car exhaust and such, but it is produced naturally in humans and animals, and some medical researchers have even evaluated the gas as a treatment for diabetes, heart attacks, sepsis, and other illnesses. Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have studied carbon monoxide's natural characteristics and limitations by studying the gas in one of the world's best divers: the elephant seal.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which holds enough water to raise global seas by several feet, is thinning and computer models predict that the collapse may already have begun. The Thwaites Glacier could disappear in a few hundred years, raising sea levels by nearly 2 feet. That glacier also acts as a linchpin on the rest of the ice sheet, which contains enough ice to cause another 10 to 13 feet of global sea level rise. 

Discussions about science and, to a less extent medicine, often involve optimizing its representation. Various fields discuss how to increase gender or racial parity, while political and handicapped representation is dismissed as choice or even competence.

The high power needed to cut or weld using a laser beam creates its own problem: the beam’s energy deforms the mirrors that focus it. When that happens, the beam expands and loses intensity.

A new type of mirror is being presented at the Optatec trade fair in Frankfurt next week - it can deform itself to correct deformation the laser beams it controls.

Lasers are used in manufacturing to cut materials or weld components together. Laser light is focused to a point using various lenses and mirrors obviously, the smaller the focal point and the higher the energy, the more accurately operators can work with the laser.

Zinc supplements reduce diarrhea, one of the biggest killers of kids under five, and other infections in malnourished children, according to a review in The Cochrane Library. 

Zinc is a micronutrient with important roles in growth and in the immune, nervous and reproductive systems. The human body cannot make it, so it has to come from our diet. It is estimated that more than 1 in 6 people globally are deficient in zinc and that around 1 in every 58 deaths in children under five is related to zinc deficiency. Zinc deficiency is common in Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Latin America.

There is new evidence to suggest that lightning on Earth is triggered by cosmic rays from space - and energetic particles from the Sun.

How so? They linked increased thunderstorm activity on Earth and streams of high-energy particles accelerated by the solar wind.

Conclusion: Particles from space help trigger lightning bolts.

Writing Environmental Research Letters, the researchers from Reading's Department of Meteorology found a substantial and significant increase in lightning rates across Europe for up to 40 days after the arrival of high-speed solar winds, which can travel at more than a million miles per hour, into the Earth's atmosphere.

So what causes these changes?