During an earthquake, waves emitted when the two sides of a fault move—or slip—rapidly past each other, create ground motion, with an average relative speed of about three feet per second.

Not all fault segments move so quickly. Some slip slowly, through a process called creep, and are considered to be "stable," or not capable of hosting rapid earthquake-producing slip. 

One common hypothesis suggests that such creeping fault behavior is persistent over time, with currently stable segments acting as barriers to fast-slipping, shake-producing earthquake ruptures. 

Researchers at Imperial College have released a video game that was written in part by what they call an Artificial Intelligence (AI) "machine" named Angelina, which is a clever acronym for "A Novel Game-Evolving Labrat I've Named Angelina".

Their latest effort, released last month, is called "A Puzzling Present" (download it here). Players have to help Santa collect gifts on 30 Christmas levels with holly and other things getting in the way.

Not all isolated stem cells are equally valid in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering - only a specific group of cord blood stem cells (CB-SC) maintained in culture are useful for therapeutic purposes, say researchers in a new paper.

At present,  cord blood stem cells
 - adult stem cells - are key to regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. From all types of
cord blood stem cells
those called "Wharton's jelly stem cells" (HWJSC) have piqued the interest of specialists in regenerative medicine at the University of Granada and Alcalá de Henares University, because of their accessibility and ability to develop into several types of tissue and modulate immune responses.

The debris disk around nearby star Fomalhaut and a mysterious planet may be clues to a titanic planetary disruption in the system. 

The debris belt is wider than previously believed, spanning a section of space from 14 to 20 billion miles from the star. And it seems the planet follows an unusual elliptical orbit that carries it on a potentially destructive path through the vast dust ring. The planet, Fomalhaut b, swings as close to its star as 4.6 billion miles, and the outermost point of its orbit is 27 billion miles away from the star, according to recalculations made from newer Hubble observations made last year. 

Doctors and scientists will rightly note that, in every study ever done on weight loss, 100% of participants who consumed fewer calories than they burned lost weight. Exercise helps in multiple ways, but in weight loss it helps burn the calories.

A survey of psychologists finds they believe something additional; they say dieters should pay attention to the role emotions play in weight gain and loss if they hope to succeed in the physical two. The survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center asked 1,328 psychologists how they dealt with clients' weight and weight loss challenges.  306 of the respondents provide weight loss counseling. 

Since 2007, on too many occasions to count, I have noted that by being overwhelmingly partisan scientists in academia are putting themselves at risk.

Not financially. If funding mattered, all scientists would vote Republican - when it comes to funding, Republicans have spent more than Democrats on science even in the period when science, and all academia, lurched far to the left. Republicans do not cut funding because scientists vote Democrat.

The dramatic increase in obesity over the past few decades has been tightly associated with an increase in obesity-related conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Of course, it's also been associated with a change in the definition of obesity in that period. In  1912 the perfect woman was determined to be 5'7" tall, with measurements of 35-30-40 and weighing in at 171 lbs., but there is no denying the developed world is getting fatter in an unhealthy way. 

17 percent of all sun-like stars have planets one to two times the diameter of Earth orbiting close to their host stars, according to a team of astronomers who created their estimate based on an analysis of the first three years of data from NASA's Kepler mission. Thousands of potential exoplanets have been detected, which is good news for those searching for habitable worlds outside our solar system. 

For decades, the consensus among psychologists has held that a group of five personality traits - openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism - are a universal feature of human psychology.

Not so, say anthropologists writing in the  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Female athletes are three times more likely than men to suffer anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ruptures, one of the most common knee injuries.   Studies have found that pre-season and ongoing neuromuscular training programs aimed specifically at improving knee stability when jumping, landing or pivoting can significantly decrease ACL injury risk among girls and women. 

The anatomical differences between the male and female knee may contribute to higher injury rates, and should be taken into consideration during reconstructive surgery and sports training, according to a review article in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS).