Science Letter articles from March 2003

Science Letter archives from March 2003

High-density storage of nuclear waste heightens terrorism risks.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A space-saving method for storing spent nuclear fuel has dramatically heightened the risk of a catastrophic radiation release in the event of a terrorist attack, researchers warn. Terrorists...

Oxygen atoms made directly visible in the electron microscope.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Scientists at Research Centre Julich, Germany, have made individual oxygen atoms directly visible with an electron microscope in a certain class of materials, the perovskites. They were able to do...

New class of pulsating sub-dwarf B star discovered.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- University of Arizona astronomy undergraduates have serendipitously discovered a new class of star that thrills astronomers who specialize in a relatively new field called "astroseismology." ...

Coal fires threaten environment, human health.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Major underground fires are blazing in the world's coal-producing nations, threatening the environment and human health, scientists told attendees at the American Association for the Advancement of...

Water movement studied in different soils to trace groundwater contamination.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A phenomenon occurring in soil that has been baffling scientists for the past 20 years finally has some answers, thanks to a water movement model created by researchers at the University of California,...

Bioethicists say backlash already building in new field.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- With scientists and activist groups on a collision course over the rapidly emerging field of nanotechnology, experts at one of the world's leading medical ethics think-tanks warn that the coming...

Can sentient machines evolve?
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- From Garry Kasparov to Michael Crichton, both fact and fiction are converging on a showdown between man and machine. But what does a leading artificial intelligence expert - the world's first...

Telescope finds star about to explode.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Astronomers have discovered a star in the constellation Cassiopeia that will explode in the near future. The researchers published their findings in the February 2003 issue of the Astrophysical...

Universe's "Dark Ages" ended about 200 million years after the Big Bang.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) has revealed the end of the Universe's "Dark Ages," a period starting approximately half-a-million years after the Big Bang, astronomers say. "We...

What happens after an asteroid collides with Earth?
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- While Hollywood's film industry has explored the possibility of a catastrophic asteroid or comet colliding with the Earth, off screen there are no plans in place for civil defense in case an unexpected...

Violent truth uncovered about explosions on the Sun.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Solar Physicists at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London (MSSL-UCL), U.K., have discovered new clues to understanding explosions on the Sun. Coronal mass ejections are...

Improved method developed for separation of organic isomers.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers in Oxford University's Department of Inorganic Chemistry have devised a novel method for separating polar organic compounds, providing a useful alternative to the usual methods of...

Layered double hydroxide materials used in the separation of nucleosides.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers in Oxford University's Department of Inorganic Chemistry have devised a method for the selective separation and recovery of nucleoside phosphates from complex reaction mixtures using layered...

Ancient climate may augur future effects of global warming.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Ancient lake sediments and modern computers both indicate that El Nino might react differently to global warming than current theory claims, according to a new study. Purdue University's Matt Huber...

Geologists predict prolonged drought for U.S. southwest.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- As the warm ocean current called El Nino strengthened in the eastern Pacific Ocean in the summer of 2002, it raised hopes that a 5-year drought gripping the U.S. Southwest might break this spring with...

Observing system finds high-level moisture with global implications.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Hard-to-detect clouds and water vapor, hidden until now from most atmospheric sensors, could be helping to shape global climate. An instrument package developed by the National Center for...

Space missions will study greenhouse effects on other planets.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Our planet is warming up, and experts warn that the consequences will be serious. To see precisely how the process works, scientists need as much information as possible and from many different...

California company chosen as core platform for Optiputer.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Calient Networks, a global provider of intelligent all-optical switching systems and software, will team with the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology [Cal-(IT)2] and...

Consortium will study biological network principles to apply to computers.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Dr. Animesh Ray, associate professor, Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences (KGI), has successfully led a consortium of researchers to win a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to model...

Connecting gas stations to natural gas supply will fuel hydrogen-powered cars.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers at the University of Warwick's Warwick Process Technology Group, U.K., are leading a program called "Hydrofueler" to connect petrol stations to the normal natural gas supply to fuel hydrogen...

Growth opportunities identified.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Speaking at the Lehman Brothers Industrial Select Conference during February 2003 about growth opportunities in refinery hydrogen and energy solutions, Scott Sherman, Air Products (NYSE:APD), said that...

Hybrid electric car gets over 200 mpg in city driving.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A revolutionary new car, which averages more than 200 miles per gallon in the city, is being developed at the University of Southampton, U.K. Postgraduate research student Dennis Doerffel has turned...

Students optimize RAH-66 Comanche helicopter's performance.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "This work is going to save lives," said LTC Neil Thurgood, of the Comanche Program Office for the U.S. Army. Thurgood was speaking at a commendation luncheon for the University of Arizona Heat...

Risk assessment, safety measures have reduced Alaska oil spill risk 92%.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The danger of a future Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska's Prince William Sound (PWS) has declined substantially since the State of Alaska, environmentalists, oil companies, and the fishing industry...

Is selfish routing causing a "tragedy of the commons?".
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The Tragedy of the Commons, as explained by Garrett Harding in his classic 1968 book, is that self-interest can deplete a common resource, such as air or water. It seems this also applies to the...

Researcher quantifies meteor false alarm rate for nuclear test monitoring.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A Los Alamos National Laboratory researcher is helping to provide an extra measure of confidence in an international array of listening posts that keep an ear out for clandestine nuclear weapons tests....

New technique will reduce injuries from pneumatic tools.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.K.'s National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts (NESTA) is helping to develop a new technique for using pneumatic tools that reduces the risk of injury caused by vibration, which can...

Computational fluid dynamics simulation software company changes hands.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Ansys, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANSS), which specializes in computer-aided engineering analysis and optimization software, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire CFX, a supplier of...

California smog ozone levels may be higher than current models predict.
March 3, 2003... 2003 MAR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Current air-quality models used for predicting air pollution may be underestimating ozone levels in Southern California by as much as 10% of the national one-hour ozone standard, a University of...

Microbes use poisonous compounds to turn water into hydrogen for energy.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A University of Arizona chemist and colleagues from Munich, Germany, have discovered how microbes avoid being poisoned by the cyanide and carbon monoxide compounds they make and incorporate into...

Once-bizarre concept of extra dimensions showing hints of scientific revolution.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The concept of extra dimensions, dismissed as nonsense even by one of its earliest proponents nearly nine decades ago, may soon help solve seemingly unrelated problems in particle physics, cosmology...

Electronic circuit rides a chemical film.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Chains of molecules known as conducting polymers are versatile materials that can work like electronic circuits. Potential uses include flat panel displays, solar panels, sensing devices and...

Research finds that oil and water really do mix.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The mantra is familiar to countless generations of schoolchildren: oil and water do not mix. You have to shake them to overcome the forces that hold the oil together. Now teachers may want to...

New software translation tool can communicate.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Though you may think you already get enough back-talk, before long your computer will also talk back to you. But in this case the goal will be to make your life less stressful. OPCAT, a new...

Physicists report unusual light-metal interaction.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A team under Prof. Franz Aussenegg at the University of Graz, Austria, is looking into unusual interactions between light and submicroscopic metal particles. The physicists' findings represent a...

U.S. Air Force studying feasibility of nuclear drones.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Air Force (USAF) is examining the feasibility of a nuclear-powered version of an unmanned aircraft. The USAF hopes that such a vehicle will be able to "loiter" in the air for months...

Case for massive black hole strengthened.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A University of California, Los Angeles, astronomer reported at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting on February 16, 2003, that the case for the existence of a black hole at...

Astronauts observe electric blue "noctilucent" clouds from Earth-orbit.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- They hover on the edge of space. Thin, wispy clouds, glowing electric blue. Some scientists think they're seeded by space dust. Others suspect they're a telltale sign of global warming. They're...

Computer models predict global climate of the 21st century.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Warming land and ocean surfaces, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and other recent evidence strongly suggest that Earth's climate is already changing rapidly because of the buildup of greenhouse...

Stronger Arctic Oscillation linked to unusual warmth over Northern Hemisphere.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Why has the Arctic warmed so dramatically in recent years? How does the Arctic's circulation keep frigid air over the poles and sometimes allow it to spill across the United States? And how might...

A turbo compressor developed for mobile surfers.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Despite faster Internet connections, many users still resentfully associate the three letters www with "world wide wait." This is also due to the fact that files are constantly increasing in size....

Fraunhofer Resource Grid includes machines, sensors, and measuring devices.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- We will soon be able to tap the processing power of mainframe computers and their high-performance software through a "grid," just as easily as we now plug in a laptop to obtain electricity from the...

Search algorithm looks for "burstiness".
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In the years after the American Revolution, U.S. presidents were talking about the British a lot, and then about militias, France, and Spain. In the mid-19th century, words like "emancipation,"...

Turning huge data volumes into images.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The first thing that a computer-assisted tomography (CAT) scan of the human heart produces is simply data. Together with graphics hardware, the image processing software then constructs a picture that...

Fires, floods, and freezes: New ways to keep disaster at bay.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- What can be done when wildland fire scorches the urban frontier, a hurricane soaks eroded hillsides, or an ice storm hits a major travel hub? Each of these sobering scenarios is being examined in...

Ancient "clingfilm" preserves fossils.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Why are some fossils preserved so beautifully? Dr. Jan Zalasiewicz, of the University of Leicester Department of Geology, believes it is because they were wrapped in a sort of clingfilm, hundreds...

Theory may aid search for life on Mars.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A geologist says he may have figured out what caused mysterious gullies on Mars: water trickling from the melting of snow that had built up over thousands of years. His theory may help scientists...

Melting snow could trigger earthquakes, researcher says.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Melting snow could trigger earthquakes, says a geophysicist who has been studying quake records from the inland mountains of Japan. Kosuke Heki from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan...

Computer models aid metalworking.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The tool at the pressing plant resonantly pounds the sheet metal, ejecting the newly formed vehicle hood moments later. Although this operation runs like clockwork on the production line, it...

Varnish measures pressure and vibrations.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Despite the use of computer simulation, wind tunnel testing is still required to measure pressure changes and airflow speeds on the surfaces of new aircraft and automobile prototypes. Such testing...

Research center breaks ground at University of California, Los Angeles.
March 10, 2003... 2003 MAR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Officials broke ground on February 14, 2003, on what was billed as the world's most advanced facility for atomic-level research. The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at the University of...

New molecular self-assembly technique may mimic how cells assemble themselves.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Sheffield reported in the journal Science that they have created tree-like molecules that assemble themselves into precisely...

Researchers achieve quantum entanglement of three electrons.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The quantum entanglement of three electrons, using an ultrafast optical pulse and a quantum well of a magnetic semiconductor material, has been demonstrated in a laboratory at the University of...

Potential for ultrafast detonations revealed by new computer simulation.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Explosive detonations at speeds faster than current theories predict have been shown to be possible in a powerful new computer simulation developed by a physical chemist and an aerospace engineer at...

Scientists get first close look at stardust.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- For the first time, scientists have identified and analyzed single grains of silicate stardust in the laboratory. This breakthrough, reported in the February 27, 2003, issue of Science Express...

Scientists say deep burial of CO[subscript]2 probably is most practical storage method.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Deep burial of carbon dioxide in aquifers, oil wells, and coal seams represents the best and most practical method for permanent carbon storage, among the several options currently under investigation,...

Lake Kivu could power all of Rwanda.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- How can a bunch of pipes in a huge lake provide electric power for much of Rwanda, help revive its devastated forests, and quell the danger of a bizarre natural disaster? The answer is sitting on...

Station recharged by ship via miles of fuel lines.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The cumulative effects of at least two years of unusual ice conditions in McMurdo Sound are keeping a fuel tanker from reaching the pier at the National Science Foundation's (NSF) McMurdo Station,...

Short and long gamma-ray bursts are different to the core.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Scientists say that the two major varieties of gamma-ray bursts, long and short bursts, arise from different types of events. In an analysis of nearly 2000 bursts, a team of researchers from...

World's most powerful radio observatory gets green light.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- On February 25, 2003, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) signed a historic agreement to construct and operate the world's largest and most powerful...

Diatoms' beautiful shapes confer stable construction.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Research by scientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) has shown that the structure of diatoms confers the tiny organisms with mechanical strength. These single-celled marine algae are...

New liquid crystal lattice comprises hundreds of highly branched molecules.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new liquid crystal lattice created by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Sheffield may be invisible to the naked eye, but it's a giant in its own way. Uniting...

Software uses in-road detectors to alleviate traffic jams.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The same in-road detectors that control traffic lights and monitor traffic could soon respond quicker to traffic jams, thanks to software developed by an Ohio State University engineer. In tests...

Deforestation is causing more flooding in Britain.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Britain is now flooding more than in the past due to deforestation, a new study shows. Researchers from the University of Wales in Aberystwyth published their findings online in the Journal of...

Researchers are working on self-powered appliances.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Appliances that need no cables or batteries but operate purely on power generated from their surrounding vibrations could save manufacturers and consumers large sums of money, according to scientists...

Treated lumber can be recycled to preserve forests, landfills.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The use of chromated copper arsenic (CCA)-treated wood has garnered a great deal of media attention over the past few years due to possible environmental and public safety concerns. "Another...

Researchers forecast best beach nourishment sand dredging sites.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Sea Grant researchers with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Sea Grant Program say they can predict the physical impacts of dredging the ocean bottom for nourishment sand that...

System improves disinfection of water used in food processing.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed a better-performing, less costly method of disinfecting water used in food processing. Like current technologies, the new Advanced...

U.S. suffered world's largest earthquake of 2002.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The magnitude 7.9 quake that hit Central Alaska on November 3, 2002, was the world's biggest earthquake in 2002, and the largest to hit the United States since 1996, when another 7.9 hit Alaska's...

Variations in snow stability over space, time are key to predicting avalanches.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The recent deaths of 14 Canadian skiers in two separate snow avalanches in British Columbia have increased attention on safety issues, but some U.S. scientists are turning their focus elsewhere - to...

Method enables multidimensional NMR with a single scan.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Ten construction workers will often get a job done faster than one. But in digging a deep well, for instance, 10 workers are a waste of human resources: the diggers can't work simultaneously, as the...

Fun science leads to interesting observations on films.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Space station science officer Don Pettit always looks forward to Saturday mornings. Like the other members of the International Space Station (ISS) three-person crew, he's busy most of the week...

Engineers take new look at strength of industrial glass fiber.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- An Ohio State University engineer and his colleagues have discovered something new about a 50-year-old type of fiberglass: it may be more than one and a half times stronger than previously thought....

New plastic coating sheds water and ice.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Taking their inspiration from the sacred lotus, Turkish researchers have developed a super water-shedding plastic coating. Self-cleaning traffic signs, antennas, and roofs that shed ice like water...

Most sensitive search for new forces yields none.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- University of Colorado at Boulder researchers have conducted the most sensitive search to date for gravitational-strength forces between masses separated by only twice the diameter of a human hair, but...

New insights gained into stresses between sliding grains.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Densely packed granular particles that inch past each other under tension interact in ways more complex and surprising than previously believed, two Duke University physicists have discovered. ...

Massive gas cloud discovered orbiting with one of Jupiter's moons.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Using a sensitive new imaging instrument on NASA's Cassini spacecraft, researchers at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, have discovered a large and...

Mysterious source of Mars' gullies appears to be melting snow.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- When NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft photographed what looked like fresh rain gullies on Mars 3 years ago, researchers were baffled. The surface of Mars is extraordinarily dry. What could have...

"Perfect" automotive engine designed.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Marlan Scully, the Texas A&M University professor who applied quantum physics to the automotive engine and came up with a design that emits laser beams instead of exhaust, has been tinkering under the...

'Nano-lamp' discovered by coincidence.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- On a semiconductor chip, one essential element is missing: a light source. An integrated light source can be very useful, however, in optical telecommunications, for example, or in lab-on-a-chip...

Pioneer 10 spacecraft falls silent.
March 17, 2003... 2003 MAR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- NASA reported that the Pioneer 10, the first spacecraft to venture out of the solar system, has fallen silent after traveling billions of miles from Earth on a mission that has lasted nearly 31 years....

Chemists report new method for producing carbon nanoscrolls.
March 24, 2003... 2003 MAR 24 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) chemists reported in the February 28, 2003, issue of Science a room-temperature chemical method for producing a new form of carbon called carbon...

Multiple beams of light selectively sort microscopic particles, large molecules.
March 24, 2003... 2003 MAR 24 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- University of Chicago physicists can use multiple beams of light to selectively sort microscopic particles, biological cells, and large molecules, they reported at the American Physical Society meeting...

Changes in the Earth's rotation are in the wind.
March 24, 2003... 2003 MAR 24 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Because of Earth's dynamic climate, winds, and atmospheric pressure systems experience constant change. These fluctuations may affect how our planet rotates on its axis, according to NASA-funded...