Polluted air causes 5.5 million deaths a year new research says

More than 5.5 million people worldwide are dying prematurely every year as a result of air pollution, according to new research.

Most of these deaths are occurring in the rapidly developing economies of China and India.
The main culprit is the emission of small particles from power plants, factories, vehicle exhausts and from the burning of coal and wood.
The data was compiled as part of the Global Burden of Disease project.
Scientists involved in the initiative say the statistics illustrate how far, and how fast, some nations must travel to improve the air their citizens breathe.

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Gravitational waves have been detected for the first time

TWO black holes circle one another. Both are about 100km across. One contains 36 times as much mass as the sun; the other, 29. They are locked in an orbital dance, a kilometre or so apart, that is accelerating rapidly to within a whisker of the speed of light. Their event horizons—the spheres defining their points-of-no-return—touch. There is a violent wobble as, for an instant, quintillions upon quintillions of kilograms redistribute themselves. Then there is calm. In under a second, a larger black hole has been born.

It is, however, a hole that is less than the sum of its parts. Three suns’ worth of mass has been turned into energy, in the form of gravitational waves: travelling ripples that stretch and compress space, and thereby all in their path. During the merger’s final fifth of a second, envisaged in an artist’s impression above, the coalescing holes pumped 50 times more energy into space this way than the whole of the rest of the universe emitted in light, radio waves, X-rays and gamma rays combined

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100-Foot Asteroid to Buzz Earth Next Month

An asteroid as long as a basketball court will give Earth a close shave next month — though scientists aren't sure just how close.

The near-Earth asteroid 2013 TX68, which is thought to be about 100 feet in diameter, will zoom past our planet on March 5. The space rock could come as close as 11,000 miles — less than 5 percent of the distance from Earth to the moon — or stay up to 9 million miles away during the flyby, NASA officials said.

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And Science’s Breakthrough of the Year is

Every December, the staff of Science singles out a significant development or achievement as the Breakthrough of the Year. This year, visitors to Science’s website could pick their own favorite from the short list of candidates. Below are descriptions of Science’s Breakthrough—the powerful genome-editing technique known as CRISPR—along with nine Runners-up and the results of the “People’s Choice” poll. Rounding out the package are a few “Areas to Watch” likely to make news in the 2016; 

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The top 10 science news stories of 2015

We here at Science write and edit hundreds of stories every year for our online news site. We think they’re all great, but some rise above the pack—either because tons of our readers like them, or because they’re fun, strange, or amazing enough to become our personal favorites. If you’re looking for the most important scientific discoveries of 2015, check out our Breakthrough of the Year. But if you want to see some of 2015’s quirkiest offerings, read on.

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MINISTER ENGLISH LAUNCHES €26 MILLION SCIENCE FOUNDATION IRELAND RESEARCH CENTRE ICRAG

DUBLIN - 2nd December 2015 - Minister for Skills, Research and Innovation, Damien English TD officially launched the newly established Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre, iCRAG today. The Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG) at University College Dublin (UCD) will focus on the discovery, de-risking and sourcing of raw materials, water and energy resources that are critical to our economy.

The centre will receive funding of €18 million from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through Science Foundation Ireland’s (SFI) Research Centres Programme, with an additional €8 million from 55 industry partners that include Geoscience Ireland, Tullow Oil and Petroleum Infrastructure Programme.

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COP21: Ministers in final push for Paris climate deal

Ministers from all over the world gather in Paris on Monday in a final push for a new global climate compact.

The politicians will attempt to craft a deal from a draft negotiating text signed off by delegates here on Saturday.

Poor countries warned the talks would fail if the rich tried to limit their right to grow to protect the climate.One delegate said the poor could not accept starvation as the price of a successful deal in Paris.Negotiators have taken four years to produce the draft text of a long-term agreement. The ministers will have just five days to turn that text into a deal acceptable to all 195 parties here.

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