Basic science

February 12, 2016 - Daily News Briefing

The discovery of gravitational waves won't change our lives. It does what all great scientific research does: expands our knowledge.

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Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen cautioned Thursday that global economic pressures pose risks to the US economy, but said it's too soon to know whether those risks are severe enough to alter the Fed's interest-rate policies. Yellen said the Fed will determine at its next meeting in March how much economic weakness and falling markets around the world have hamstrung US growth. And for a second day, Yellen was asked about the possibility that the Fed would use negative interest rates as a way to give the economy more support.

A brawl between rival drug gangs at an overcrowded penitentiary in northern Mexico turned into a riot Thursday, leaving 52 inmates dead and 12 injured in the country's deadliest prison melee in years. No escapes were reported in the clash at the Topo Chico prison in Monterrey, said Nuevo Leo state Gov. Jaime Rodriguez. The riot took place on the eve of Pope Francis' arrival in Mexico, a visit that is scheduled to include a trip next week to another prison in the border city of Ciudad Juárez.

The US Department of Justice is suing the city of Ferguson, Mo., over the City Council's resistance to absorb the costs associated with federally structured reforms of the city's justice system. After being surprised by proposed last minute amendments to a reform deal, the Justice Department began legal proceedings on Wednesday to sue the city. An earlier inquiry by the Justice Department found policing polices in the city to be biased against minorities and used to generate revenue.

After a firestorm of backlash on Twitter early this week, Facebook board director Marc Andreessen has apologized for his comments that invoked colonialism and condemned the Indian government’s decision to ban the site’s free Internet service. On Monday, India rejected Facebook’s Free Basics Program, which offers free Internet service to to poor and rural areas, citing principles of net neutrality. The “pared-back version” of free Internet would have limited access to companies outside of the service contract. But other critics say Facebook’s faults stretch beyond net neutrality, and point to the company’s possible intentions of monopolizing India’s growing online market.

Eighty feet above the Pacific Ocean, residents living atop the Pacifica cliffs in California have long enjoyed their beautiful backyard sights – whale watching, dolphin sightings, and of course, magnificent sunsets. But when living in fragile proximity to nature, there are caveats: For years, the cliffs have crumbled under erosion, forcing tenants to move elsewhere. And this year’s El Niño storms will no doubt exacerbate the collapsing bluffs, driving even more people out of their homes.

As private companies, such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, reach toward the stars and safely descend and government agencies prepare for missions to Mars, NASA is doing all it can to increase interest in space and space tourism. From last month's release of a 360-view of Mars' dunes to this weeks unveiling of 14 whimsical space tourism posters, NASA wants to get Americans as excited about the current incarnation of the space race as they were in the 1960s. These efforts are the latest in a string of public relation campaigns NASA has launched to raise awareness of various cosmic projects and discoveries and, likely, to help NASA convince a fiscally tight Congress to grant the agency a larger budget for the new year.

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