The sun emitted its sixth significant flare since Oct. 23, 2013, peaking at 11:26 p.m. EST on Nov. 7, 2013.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation - the radiation from a flare can't pass through Earth's atmosphere to affect us but, when intense enough, they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

This flare is classified as an X1.1 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc.

First responders working at ground zero in New York City following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center were exposed to cement dust, smoke, glass fibers, and heavy metals.

Research presented at the American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week 2013 in Atlanta, GA say  exposure to high levels of such particulate matter caused significant damage to first responders' kidneys.

The final conference of CO2CARE - CO2 Site Closure Assessment Research - brought together 60 experts from the academic, industrial and regulatory worlds to discuss technologies and procedures for a safe and sustainable closure of geological CO2 storage sites.

An international team of high-energy physicists says the discovery of an electrically charged subatomic particle called Z_c(4020) is a sign that they have begun to unveil a whole new family of four-quark objects.  

The Beijing Spectrometer (BESIII) collaboration previously announced the discovery of a four-quark particle called Z_c(3900) in April of this year.  The results have come about through a dedicated study of the byproducts of the anomalous Y(4260) particle. 

Anaphylaxis is a severe, sometimes life-threatening allergic reaction. After being exposed to a substance, sometimes even for the first time, the body releases histamine, allergen fighting antibody immunoglobulin E and other substances, which can cause airways to tighten and other symptoms. 

Anaphylaxis has occurred, and been known about, basically forever. Charles Richet coined the modern term and got a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1913 for his work.

Outside the companies getting subsidy money from the government, not many people like wind turbines.

You have seen lots of advertisements for causes or companies asking you to 'like' them on Facebook. In the world of pretend Internet money, a 'like' has value but charities know the cold, bleak truth; once people have taken the action you ask for, they feel like they have done their part for a long time, so asking for a 'like' or a 'Tweet' is going to cost a donation.

A new analysis from scholars at the University of British Columbia adds fuel to assertions that social media platforms are turning people into "slacktivists" by making it easy for them to feel like they associate with or have helped a cause without committing resources to support it. 

EcoBot, a robot that can function completely on its own by collecting waste and converting it into electricity, has an "engine room" that is modeled on the human heart.The artificial device incorporates shape memory alloys - smart materials - and has been tested,The results are in Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.

Researchers based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, a joint venture between the University of the West of England and University of Bristol, have created four generations of EcoBots in the past 10 years, each of which is powered by electricity-generating microbial fuel cells that employ live microorganisms to digest waste organic matter and generate low-level power.

Astronomers viewing the asteroid belt with the Hubble Telescope havd found an asteroid with six comet-like tails of dust radiating from it like spokes on a wheel.

P/2013 P5 is different from all other known asteroids. It looks kind of like a rotating lawn sprinkler.

P/2013 P5 has been ejecting dust periodically for at least five months. Astronomers believe it is possible the asteroid's rotation rate increased to the point where its surface started flying apart. They do not believe the tails are the result of an impact with another asteroid because they have not seen a large quantity of dust blasted into space all at once.

Anyone who has watched water exit a toilet bowl has learned something about fluid dynamics. But you can learn a thing or two by watching the pee that goes into it also.

Boring physicists apply the equations of fluid motion to boring thing like a flag in the wind or river currents, the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD) meeting in Pittsburgh will make things a little more practical for home research.