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Northwestern University researchers have made a significant breakthrough in the field of seismology, developing a new earthquake probability model that will help scientists better predict when the next big earthquake will occur on a fault. The model, which was recently published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, offers a more comprehensive and realistic approach than current models.

Seismologists have long assumed that big earthquakes on faults are relatively regular and that the next quake will occur after a similar amount of time as between the previous two. However, the earth doesn’t always follow this pattern, and earthquakes can sometimes come sooner or later than expected. This is where the new model comes in, as it considers the specific order and timing of previous earthquakes to forecast the next one.

The model also helps explain why earthquakes sometimes come in clusters – groups with relatively short times between them, separated by longer times without earthquakes. The research team, consisting of seismologists and statisticians, was led by Stein, a faculty associate of Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research (IPR) and co-authored by Professor Bruce D. Spencer and recent Ph.D. graduates James S. Neely and Leah Salditch.

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University of Maryland researchers have created a fabric that can automatically regulate the amount of heat that passes through it. When conditions are warm and moist, such as those near a sweating body, the fabric allows infrared radiation (heat) to pass through. When conditions become cooler and drier, the fabric reduces the heat that escapes. The development was reported in the February 8, 2019 issue of the journal Science.

The researchers created the fabric from specially engineered yarn coated with a conductive metal. Under hot, humid conditions, the strands of yarn compact and activate the coating, which changes the way the fabric interacts with infrared radiation. They refer to the action as “gating” of infrared radiation, which acts as a tunable blind to transmit or block heat.

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“It’s a really exciting time to be working on these technologies as we translate deep research and breakthroughs into products that truly help people,” Pichai writes. It’s hard not to wonder while reading this how Google managed to get leapfrogged so decisively by OpenAI, the latter of which is now synonymous with the technologies the former pioneered.

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According to scientific reports, this study relies on studying the DNA of the bird known as “Dodo”, which lived on the island of Mauritius in the middle of the Indian Ocean until the late seventeenth century, and was unable to fly. It may seem like a fantasy, because the animal has been extinct for centuries, but scientists make it clear that their quest is based on very carefully studied steps.