Jet stream drifts north

From Times Staff and Wire Reports

April 19, 2008

The jet stream -- America's stormy-weather maker -- is creeping north and weakening, new research shows.

That potentially means less rain in the already dry South and Southwest and more storms in the North.

And it could also translate into more and stronger hurricanes.

From 1979 to 2001, the Northern Hemisphere's jet stream moved north on average at a rate of about 1.25 miles a year, according to the paper published Friday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The authors suspect global warming is the cause.

Cassini mission to Saturn extended

NASA has announced a two-year extension of the international Cassini mission that is touring Saturn and its moons.

Since 2004, the unmanned probe has beamed back about 140,000 images.

Its prime mission is due to end in July.

The agency said Tuesday that the $160-million extension would allow Cassini to make 60 more revolutions around the ringed planet and fly by its largest moon, Titan, and four other satellites.

Testosterone for fun -- and profit

Testosterone, the hormone that drives male aggression and sexual interest, also seems able to boost short-term success at finance.

But elevated testosterone levels over several days could lead to irrational risk-taking, researchers at the University of Cambridge in England reported Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The team studied male financial traders in London, taking saliva samples in the morning and evening. Those with higher levels of testosterone in the morning were more likely to make an unusually big profit that day.

In Greenland, a huge waterfall

For an hour or so, Greenland had its own mighty waterfall, flowing secretly at three times the volume of Niagara.

A meltwater lake on the surface of a glacier suddenly emptied in July 2006, sending millions of gallons of water through cracks in the ice sheet to the ground, researchers reported Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science.