University of Michigan students say they have designed a palm-sized metal detector designed to locate hidden improvised-explosive devices. The detectors could be hidden, say, in trash cans, under tables or in flower pots, the students say, and they're connected to a wireless network that sends to a movable base station information on where IEDs are located. The sensors are cheaper, use less power and have a longer range than existing technology, Nilton Renno, a professor in the UM Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Science, said in a press release. The students created the sensors as a project for Renno's class. Their invention outperforms everything that exists in the market today, Renno said. They clearly have an excellent understanding of the problem.

A new mathematical model indicates that dust devils, water spouts, tornadoes, hurricanes and cyclones are all born of the same mechanism and will intensify as climate change warms the Earth's surface.

Sweeping sands across the Sahara and other dune expanses are blown by more than just wind, scientists have discovered.

Gusting winds and the pulsating exhaust plumes from the Phoenix spacecraft's landing engines could complicate NASA's efforts to sample frozen soil from the surface of Mars.