A group of scientists made the surprising finding that typhoons cause earthquakes slow, at least in eastern Taiwan. The slow earthquakes are fault displacement events but without the violence of the conventional, employing hours or days to make their moves, slowly releasing its energy, instead of in a few seconds or minutes and brutal with the consequent sudden and catastrophic release of energy. (more…)

The construction of the National Ignition (NIF for its acronym in English), the complex laser systems largest and most powerful in the world, has completed at least the basics. Technical Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which houses the laser facility, made the first shot of the whole system to the center of the test chamber of the NIF.

In this test, for the first time the 192 beams of lasers simultaneously converged on the camera, which has a diameter of 10 meters.

The success of the test is an important step towards sustained and controlled nuclear fusion. (more…)