Gravitational pull 'has role in quakes' and other top stories.

• Gravitational pull 'has role in quakes'

  

  Image copyright AP Image caption The Maule earthquake in Chile in 2010 is one of the biggest seismic events in recent decades The gravitational forces responsible for high tides may also play a role in triggering major earthquakes, a study suggests.A Japanese research team found that large earthquakes are more likely to occur at times of a full or new Moon.Tides arise from the effects of the gravitational interaction of the Moon and Sun on a rotating ..

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• Donald Trump Says Much Needs To Be 'Investigated' In Climate Science

  

  WASHINGTON ― Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says there is “still much that needs to be investigated in the field of ‘climate change.’” (Scare quotes his.) Trump, who has previously said that climate change is a Chinese hoax, mostly avoided the climate question in a candidate forum on science policy released Tuesday. Rather than answer a question about what should be done to address it, Trump raised some hypotheticals: Perhaps the best use of our limited financial resources should ..

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• There Are Four Giraffe Species—Not Just One

  

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• Wilderness lost: Earth's wild lands in catastrophic decline

  

  Wilderness areas around the world have experienced catastrophic declines over the last two decades, with one-tenth of global wilderness lost since the 1990s, according to a new study.Since 1993, researchers found that a cumulative wilderness area twice the size of Alaska and half the size of the Amazon has been stripped and destroyed.The shrinking wilderness is due, in part, to human activity such as mining, logging, agriculture, and oil and gas exploration. The researchers said their findings ..

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• Moon's Birth May Have Vaporized Most of Earth, Study Shows

  

  The massive collision that created the moon may have vaporized most of the early Earth, according to a new analysis of samples collected during the Apollo moon missions. In the early days of planet formation, a grazing collision between the newborn Earth and a Mars-size rock named Theia (named after the mother of the moon in Greek myth) may have led to the birth of the moon, according to a prevailing hypothesis. Debris from the impact later coalesced into the moon.  This "giant-impact ..

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• Mars looks amazingly like the US West in beautiful new photos

  

  Curiosity has shared its latest photos of Mars, offering us another glimpse into the rover's adventures on the Red Planet. In photos taken last week, the tall, layered rock formations in the Murray Buttes area bear resemblance to national parks in the American Southwest. Their beauty is striking, but scientists say these rock formations at the base of Mount Sharp also offer clues about the planet's geological history. "Curiosity's science team has been just thrilled to go on this road trip thro..

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• Surprise! Another Massive Reef Is Hiding Behind the Great Barrier Reef

  

  The Bligh Reef area off Cape York was discovered using laser data from the Australian Royal Navy. Credit: Australian Hydrographic Service Behind Australia's iconic Great Barrier Reef hides another large, doughnut-shaped reef, according to a recent study. Using laser data from the Royal Australian Navy, scientists found a large field of unusual circular mounds behind the familiar Great Barrier Reef. Upon further research, they discovered that the structures are Halimeda bioherms — geol..

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• Conservationists Dig In on Pandas, Oceans and Elephant Ivory

  

  Thousands of people gathered in Honolulu, Hawaii, last week for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress to talk about Earth’s ecosystems, endangered species and climate change. The IUCN is the largest conservation organization in the world, consisting of about 1,300 governmental and nongovernmental organizations. The congress, which wrapped up Saturday, is a place for the group to set its agenda and debate environmental policy. This year, a record nu..

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• Is SpaceX's rocket failure Blue Origin's opportunity?

  

  In an impeccably timed announcement, Jeff Bezos Monday released the design and engineering details of a new rocket being developed by his aerospace company, Blue Origin. Named "New Glenn" after the first US astronaut to orbit Earth, John Glenn, the powerful new rocket is designed to launch commercial satellites and humans into space, says Mr. Bezos in a brief email announcement.In reporting his company’s news, Bezos could not resist taking some jabs at Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The Tesla Motors found..

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• August 2016 officially tagged as 'hottest month ever'

  

  This year is poised to be the hottest year on record, as August has tied July for the warmest month since 1880.This August was 0.29 degrees F. (0.98 C) warmer than the previous year, according to an analysis the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York released Monday. July was 0.2 F. (0.11 C) warmer than the previous year.A fifth or even third of a degree might not sound like a lot. But monthly temperature rankings are "inherently fragile" Gavin Schmidt, NASA GISS director, ..

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St. Jude Medical sues short-seller, security researchers over hacking claims .	How to track poverty from space .
Google will not make Project Ara modular smartphone .	NASA captures video of three hurricanes from space .