Here's today's roundup of science, nature and environment news from the Bay Area and beyond.
NASA Launches Satellites to Study Earth's Radiation Belts | Science and Space | TIME.com(CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.) - Twin satellites rocketed into orbit Thursday on a quest to explore Earth's treacherous radiation belts and protect the planet from solar outbursts. NASA launched the science probes before dawn, sending them skyward aboard an unmanned rocket.
via Time
Hantavirus Investigation at Yosemite ContinuesState public health officials are warning 1,700 people who stayed in Yosemite National Park's Curry Village tent cabins since mid-June about hantavirus. Three people who stayed in the tent cabins this summer have contracted the illness and two people have died. There may be a fourth case as well.
via Kqed
California considers accelerating toward driverless highway of the future - ContraCostaTimes.comIf signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, the legislation would shift technology being mastered at places like Google and Stanford from test courses to public roads later this decade.
via Contracostatimes
Truckers at Oakland's port undergo pollution inspections - Inside Bay AreaThe inspections, which began Tuesday and will be conducted at the port through Thursday, are part of a monthlong statewide effort meant to ensure owners of trucks using state roadways are in compliance with air pollution regulations designed to reduce the amount of cancer-causing emissions that spew from big rigs.
via Insidebayarea
Dress rehearsal Thursday for California's cap-and-trade program - San Jose Mercury NewsNo money will change hands, but about 150 major emitters of greenhouse gases will participate in a trial run of California
via Mercurynews
Little flash as bionic eye brings amazed woman some sightSYDNEY (Reuters) - A bionic eye has given an Australian woman partial sight and researchers say it is an important step towards eventually helping visually impaired people get around independently. Dianne Ashworth, who has severe vision loss due to the inherited condition retinitis pigmentosa, was fitted with a prototype bionic eye in May at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital.
via Reuters