Optics researchers from the University of Central Florida's College of Optics&Photonics and the University of Arizona are working on a new technique to aim a high-energy laser beam into clouds to make it rain or trigger lightning. They are developing the a technique to surround a primary beam with a second beam that acts as an energy reservoir, sustaining the central beam to greater distances than previously possible.

The secondary "dress" beam refuels and helps prevent the dissipation of the high-intensity primary beam, which on its own would break down quickly.

A new article reports that listening to religious music is associated with a decrease in anxiety about death and increases in life satisfaction, self-esteem, and sense of control over their lives among older Christians. 

The associations are similar for blacks and whites, women and men, and individuals of both low- and high-socioeconomic status.

Emergency contraceptive pills haven't reduced teen pregnancies or abortions but at least in America those incidents have not risen - in South America, unprotected sex is really taking a pregnancy gamble, even if there is access to a morning after pill.

A survey of emergency contraceptive pills in Peru found that 28 percent of the batches studied were either of substandard quality or falsified. Many released the active ingredient too slowly, others had the wrong active ingredient, one batch was basically homeopathy contraception - the researchers couldn't find an active ingredient at all. 

The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 9:03 a.m. EDT on April 18, 2014, and NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured images of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

To see how this event may impact Earth, please visit NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center at http://spaceweather.gov, the U.S. government's official source for space weather forecasts, alerts, watches and warnings.

The USA alone has more wilderness than the entire continent of Africa does, but the natural world is not the same as it was 20, 50 or 100 years ago.  And the natural world than was far different than preceding generations.

If you have ever seen set pieces from a science-fiction show, you have probably been amazed at how cheap and silly the whole things looks. That was the initial concern with high-definition television too. Standard definition hid a lot of cosmetic defects in people and things that are quite obvious in the real world.

Lighting can do the same thing in the real world, of course. Everyone has had a table in their place that looked fine, only to open the windows and have natural light reveal a layer of dust.