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Three decades ago researchers discovered what are essentially enormous saltwater lakes in the Atlantic Ocean. These “lakes,” called meddies, are gently spinning lenses of water up to 100 kilometers across and one kilometer thick. They float a few hundred meters below the surface of the ocean. Such large, warm bodies, which turned out to come from the Mediterranean Sea, should have an impact on heat exchange in the ocean--and on the planet’s climate. But efforts to study meddies--conventionally by dropping probes that directly measure the ocean’s temperature, salinity and velocity--have proved too costly, infrequent and spread out to reveal how the meddies dissipate their heat.Now researchers have demonstrated that a tool adapted from the oil industry can take rapid, high-resolution snapshots of the meddies. The technique, first used to find oil deposits under the seafloor, exploits sound reflections. Prospectors on ships fire air guns just below the sea surface;

Team of Canadian and Kenyan scientists may have solved one of the mysteries of Africa's HIV and AIDS epidemic

IT is the most ambitious and expensive civilian science experiment in history, using the biggest machine yet built.

Ministers failed to budget properly ahead of last year's floods and animal disease outbreaks, an MPs' report says.

Researchers at the Yale school of Medicine have linked a chemical found in everyday plastics to problems with brain function and mood disorders in monkeys -- the first time the chemical has been connected to health problems in primates.

The British government has invested more money in Interactive Whiteboards in its schools than any other government in the world. But is this huge investment worth it? Have the new data projection technologies allowed students to learn more effectively? This is the subject of recent research, funded by the economic and social Research Council.

AP - A chunk of ice shelf nearly the size of Manhattan has broken away from Ellesmere Island in Canada's northern Arctic, another dramatic indication of how warmer temperatures are changing the polar frontier, scientists said Wednesday.

The creator of the hot-selling video game series The Sims has a new game coming out this weekend. In Spore, players create their own worlds starting from creatures the size of a cell. The cell and the world evolve, and ultimately an entire civilization is created. Will Spore help players learn about science?

Female athletes are more prone than their male counterparts to certain injuries — namely knee problems and tears to the ACL. A prevention program has been developed by researchers at the University of Cincinnati to curb these injuries.

The american Journal of Nursing announced today results from a study, based on 23 years of data collection, identifying new trends in nonfamily infant abductions. The report, conducted in partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, showed that while the number of abductions in hospital settings dramatically declined, those from private homes and public places have increased in incidence. Among private home and public place abductions, there has also been an increase in violence and lower infant recovery rates.