Hurricane Matthew strengthens near northern Bahamas; Florida braces

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The center of Hurricane Matthew is seen between Cuba and the northern Bahamas -- southeast of south Florida -- in this infrared satellite image, while Tropical Storm Nicole, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, is seen northeast of Matthew. Image courtesy of NOAA

MIAMI, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Category 3 Hurricane Matthew gained strength as it neared the northwestern Bahamas on Thursday while a hurricane warning has been extended as far north as Georgia in the U.S. east coast.

Matthew is expected to continue to strengthen on Thursday, becoming a Category 4 hurricane by the time it nears the east coast of Florida on Thursday night, the National Hurricane Center said in its 5 a.m. update.

Hurricane warnings are in effect for the Bahamas, Florida's Lake Okeechobee and along the U.S. coast from Golden Beach, Fla., up to Altamaha Sound, Ga. A hurricane watch is in effect from Altamaha Sound north to South Carolina's South Santee River.

Matthew, which is less than 60 miles south-southeast from Nassau, has maximum sustained winds of 125 mph and is moving northwest at a speed of 12 mph, the NHC said. The hurricane is expected to turn north-northwest later on Thursday.

"The eye of Matthew should pass near Andros Island and New Providence in the northwestern Bahamas early this morning, then pass near Grand Bahama Island late today, and move very close to the east coast of the Florida peninsula tonight through Friday night," the NHC said in its Thursday update, adding that life-threatening floods could occur from Deerfield Beach, Fla., up to Altamaha Sound within the next 36 hours.

"The combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline," the NHC said.

The Bahamas is expected to see total rainfall of 8-12 inches, with isolated accumulation of 15 inches, the NHC said. The U.S. east coast from Florida up to Georgia and South Carolina should see rainfall of 4-8 inches, with isolated accumulations of 12 inches.

The NHC warns people to protect themselves from life-threatening wind conditions, as well as from dangerous storm surges and surf swells. Hurricane-force winds extend out 40 miles from the center, and tropical storm-force winds extend out 160 miles.

Matthew could make make a tight, troubling U-turn east into the Atlantic beginning Friday afternoon ending up southbound on Monday.

Residents north of Miami are emptying many store shelves and boarding up in preparation for what is expected to be a Category 4 hurricane hugging the coast with the eye from about 50 miles or less off West Palm Beach to virtually overhead at Cape Canaveral between Thursday night and Friday afternoon.

Hurricane conditions are expected to first reach hurricane warning areas in Florida by late Thursday and will spread north into Thursday night and Friday. Tropical storm conditions are first expected in Florida by early Thursday.

Matthew is the most powerful Atlantic storm since 2007 and the most powerful hurricane to hit Haiti in 52 years. The hurricane made landfall near Les Anglais in southwestern Haiti at 7 a.m. Tuesday with 145 mph winds and torrential rains. The extent of damage in Haiti isn't yet clear.

Matthew made landfall in extreme eastern Cuba as a Category 3 storm late Tuesday, bringing life-threatening winds, storm surge and heavy rains.

Officials in Florida's Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, St. Lucie and Martin counties north of the Miami area announced the closure of all schools there Thursday and Friday to prepare for their potential use as shelters. School buses typically do not run in winds stronger than 40 mph.

Meanwhile, another storm formed Tuesday -- Tropical Storm Nicole -- currently with 70 mph maximum sustained winds in the open Atlantic between Puerto Rico and Bermuda. Nicole is forecast to meander slowly north for the next several days and is currently no threat to land.

This is a developing story. Check back throughout the day for the latest updates.

Composite radar animation courtesy of Brian McNoldy, University of Miami, Rosenstiel School.

Infrared satellite animation shows Hurricane Matthew's updated position and movement.

Visible satellite animation of Hurricane Matthew, updated every 30 minutes.

Climate change will make the poisonous ocean at the western coast of the United States

© Photo: NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the US Geological Survey

MOSCOW, Oct. 4 -. RIA Novosti Increasing temperature water in the Pacific Ocean due to global warming may make the water in the western US coast of almost unfit for life of animals and dangerous for humans because of the rapid algal blooms and water pollution "zombie acid," says in an article published in the journal ofGeophysical Research Letters.

"Every three to five years before it happened, and other incidents of toxic algae, which has forced Washington's power and Oregon restrict catch shellfish. But on the other side of what happened here last year, it was a completely different event on the scale and strength of effects, and our research shows that it was due to the unusual weather conditions in the ocean "- says Ryan McCabe (Ryan McCabe) from the University of Washington in Seattle (USA).

Flowering water cause brown or blue-green algae that live in freshwater lakes and reservoirs, as well as in sea water. With the explosive growth of the number of cyanobacteria and brown algae in the water there are extensive patches, which may pose a threat to human and animal health due to the toxins that emit algae in the water, clearing a "living space".

It is thought that climate change and, in particular, the rise in water temperature will contribute to more frequent algae blooms, but all the climatic effects of these spots are still unknown. McCabe and his colleagues presented evidence in favor of what is really going on, trying to figure out what caused the outbreak of algal blooms heavy-duty off the west coast of the USA in the spring and winter of 2015.

© RIA Novosti. Vladimir Vyatkin

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Flowering water accelerates climate change, say climatologists

The culprit of all problems, as they say, scientists have been kind of algae Pseudo-nitzschia australis, whose cells during flowering produce large amounts of the neurotoxin the DA, the so-called "zombie acid". The molecules of this substance is easily accumulate in fish and shellfish tissues of the body, and their eating mammals, birds or humans causes hallucinations, spasms and death.

Intrigued flash reproduction of these algae, the researchers looked at how and where to grow Pseudo-nitzschia australis in the past and tried to determine the factors that affect their reproduction, including human activities. The analysis carried out McCabe's group demonstrated that the outbreak in the activity of these algae mainly occur at abnormally high water temperatures during the winter and summer.

These episodes were associated with flowering three things - the climate phenomenon El Nino, global warming and ocean water pollution by fertilizers and other nutrients. Global warming plays a special role because it heats the water of the Pacific Ocean itself and also further enhances the El Niño phenomenon, which leads to even more warming waters.

© Collage RIA Novosti

Red algae is used "chemical weapons" with a lack of food

In recent years, the temperature of surface waters as they note, was above normal by 2.5 degrees Celsius, and in the following decades and centuries, this deviation will only grow with the increase of average temperatures on Earth.

Accordingly, the frequency of algae stains and pollution of the Pacific Ocean "zombie acid" and other toxins will only grow. Therefore, if humanity will not be able to stop climate change, the US West Coast may be a "dead zone", polluted by toxic secretions of brown algae and dangerous to animal and human life.

Scientists from Russia and the US have identified the biggest dinosaur of Central Asia

© Courtesy RNF

MOSCOW, October 5 -. RIA Novosti Paleontologist of the Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, and his colleague from the US Smithsonian Institution found that the largest dinosaurs in the territory of modern Central Asia were titanosaurs - gigantic 100-ton plant-eating dinosaurs, as they wrote in an article in the journal Cretaceous Research.

"We made one step in the ordering of knowledge about the biota of the Cretaceous Central Asian previously identified taxa turtles, carnivorous dinosaurs, amphibians, mammals and other animals on the stage to explore other dinosaur groups -.. Ornithopods, ankylosaur, horned dinosaurs - and many other groups of vertebrates ", - says Alexander Averyanov from Zoological Institute in St. Petersburg, whose words the press service Rossiykogo Science Foundation.

As a Russian paleontologist explains, in recent years, his colleagues have found many fossils of large dinosaurs in the countries of Central Asia, but these findings have not been systematically studied, and in the general population. This gave rise to disputes about what species, genera and families of sauropods - long-necked and large four-legged lizards - were the largest creatures in the region as "the era of the dinosaurs."

The situation is complicated by the fact that most of the remains of sauropod found in the territory of the former Soviet Union, are extremely fragmented bones and teeth, which is quite difficult to determine their size and species.

© Stephanie Abramowicz

Scientists have discovered why birds survived the extinction, and the dinosaurs - no

Of particular interest to scientists called teeth, found in 90 years Averyanov and American paleontologists in the Kyzylkum desert, in the tract Dzharakuduk reminiscent in structure teeth titanosaurs - gigantic sauropod weighing 100 tons and a length of 25-30 meters, whose remains are often found in the south Argentina, in Patagonia, and north China.

Averyanov and his colleague Hans-Dieter Süss (Hans-Dieter Sues) of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC (USA) studied the teeth and other putative remains of titanosaurs from Central Asia and to check whether these lizards are widespread in the region, and whether they were the largest its inhabitants in the middle of the Cretaceous period.

This analysis showed that the remains titanosaurs or similar to them large sauropod, whose teeth and vertebrae are very similar to teeth titanosaurs from China have been found in dozens of different points on the territory of the Kyzyl-Kum and other natural regions of Central Asia. It is said Süss and Averyanov, said that these dinosaurs were widespread in the region, and were the largest dinosaurs of their time.

© RIA Novosti. Alexander Paniotov

Found by Russian scientists in Siberia has appeared a new type of dinosaur

On the other hand, the extreme rarity of their remains in the rocks of the Cretaceous period in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, said that they are unlikely to dominate among herbivorous dinosaurs of the time, and is quite rare in ecosystems.

In the near future Averyanov and his colleagues have promised that they will conduct similar studies in other groups of dinosaurs and other vertebrates. In total, current estimates Russian paleontologists, about 200 new species of ancient animals have been found in Central Asia and their systematization as expressed by a scientist, will help us to look into the "window to the past, to see nature the way it was 90 million years ago in its entirety. 

RESOLUTION ON SYRIA FRANCE provides for an immediate halt to the bombing in Aleppo and implementation of humanitarian access - Eyraud

Scientists have discovered the limit of human life

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© AP Photo / Antonio Calanni, File

MOSCOW, Oct 5 -. RIA Novosti Further improvement of medicine will not increase the average life expectancy is infinite - limit a person's age, most likely, is rising sharply around 100 years old, at which mortality, regardless of any external factors, say researchers in an article published in the journal of Nature .

The typical duration of a human life is not some constant value - before the birth of civilization, it ranged from 20 to 30 years, and then rose steadily with the development of science and medicine. Today people live more than 60 years in most countries in the world, and more than 80 years - in Japan and other developed countries with a high quality of life and first-class medicine.

Yang Vijgen (Jan Vijg) and his colleagues at the University of New York (USA), as well as many other scientists have reflected on how long you can last the process, and whether there is a maximum age at which people start to inevitably die, despite all the advances in medicine and technology.

How much rope does not curl ...

© Photo: sphingotec / Oliver Ziebe

Scientists may have discovered the secret of the most long-lived people on the planet

As they note, this idea is true for most animals - almost all mammals live to a certain age. His step over a very small number of individuals, most of whom died a few years after reaching the intersection and this "life limit". Since man is more complicated, since there is evidence in favor and against this hypothesis.

To test whether this is actually Vijgen and his colleagues came up with the original method of analysis of mortality data, which were collected over the past hundred years. They were interested not in fact the number of deaths of people at a certain age, and that where there is the most significant decline in the number of dead people when comparing data earlier and later years.

If there is no limit of life, this "hump survival," as scientists call it, will smoothly and continuously move towards a more advanced age. If it exists, the "hump" will stop at a certain point, and will not move forward.

© Fotolia / JacobST

Scientists: Cleaning the mouse body by decrepit cells to extend their life by 30%

Following this idea, Vijgen team analyzed how the changed mortality in France, Japan, the US and the UK in the last 40 years, focusing on the age at which most long-lived people have died in these countries.

Their analysis showed that the "hump survival" is gradually moving towards a more mature years until mid-1980, after which it ceased to grow. In turn, the maximum age of people who die in a given year, is not only not increased, but has fallen markedly in the last 20 years after the death of the oldest inhabitant of the planet, Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 aged 122 years.

... Anyway will end

© Photo: provided by the HSE

Naked mole rats will be the key to human immortality, says biologist

In general, researchers evaluated the annual probability that at least one person to reach 125 years of age and then die 1 chance in 10,000 attempts.

Such a low probability, as noted Vijgen and his colleagues said that the limit of human life exists and that it is approximately equal, as shown by their calculations, a hundred years. You can say that humanity has reached its limit, step over that it alone can not without artificial intervention in the vital activity.

"Further progress in the fight against diseases, are likely to increase the average life expectancy, but the maximum length of a person's life. It is possible that future breakthroughs in medicine prolong human life beyond these limits, but they will have to suppress or overcome the influence of the set of genetic factors, measure our life on Earth may have that the resources that we now spend on life extension, should be used for the extension of health -. how long older people remain in good health, "- explains Vijgen.

Does this mean that there is a genetic program of aging programmed evolution? The authors point out that such an outcome is unlikely, as our ancestors, and all the other animals have died and are dying much earlier than old age begins. This makes such a "clockwork" meaningless, the scientists conclude.

Moscow called for more elaborate rules for the implementation of the Climate Agreement

© RIA Novosti. Tabyldy Kadyrbekov

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MOSCOW, Oct. 6 -. RIA Novosti Moscow urges the parties to the climate process rather go to the development of specific rules for implementation of the Paris Agreement on the climate, according to a statement posted on the Foreign Ministry website.

© AP Photo / Mary Altaffer

Climate agreement will enter into force thirty days

"We call on all parties to the climate process rather go to the development of specific rules for implementation of the Paris Agreement Without a set of such rules is not possible to rely on the realization of the vast potential that has an agreement.", - Said in a commentary.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Moscow considers "crucial save in the upcoming negotiations the basic foundations of the Paris Agreement - transparency and inclusiveness." "The only way to ensure the effectiveness of international efforts to combat global climate change are going to continue to actively participate in the negotiations.", - Said in a commentary.

It is noted that the Russian Federation "most actively participated in the development of the Paris climate agreement." "Its adoption was a landmark event confirming the capacity of the UN system and demonstrating the ability to reach a global consensus on the world's toughest problems when there is a real political will of all countries," - Foreign Ministry reported.

"As one of the leaders of the international climate process both in fact contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and in terms of efforts being made to ensure the universality of the climate regime under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Russia was among the majority of UN member states signed Paris Agreement in April 2016, "- said in a commentary.

"We welcome his imminent entry into force and consider reliable international legal basis for settlement of long-term climate The main advantage of the Paris Agreement in that it aims to unite the efforts of all countries to achieve a collective goal to reduce emissions." - Said the Foreign Ministry.

"Russia takes measures to prepare for the ratification of the Paris agreements, focusing on the consistent implementation of procedures stipulated by Russian law, which include t. H. Carrying out a comprehensive assessment of the socio-economic aspects of ratification and the development of appropriate national regulatory framework. In this context, systematic work with the participation of all concerned departments, "- said in a statement.

© AP Photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Obama welcomes the fulfillment of the conditions for the operation of the climate agreement

Paris Agreement - the first global binding climate agreement - due to enter into force 30 days after ratification by 55 countries, accounting for 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions. According to the UN, an agreement already ratified by 72 countries, accounting for 56.75% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Representatives of 196 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change concluded December 12, 2015 in Paris an agreement that will determine the post-2020 action on climate change. It does not imply a rejection of fossil fuels and limiting carbon dioxide emissions. However, all countries should adopt national targets to reduce emissions, technological upgrading and adaptation to climate change.