California Researchers Create Apps For Health Studies – 9/7 KQED Science News Roundup

California researchers create apps for health studiesDoes oversleeping make you depressed? Do certain types of patients do better on new medication? Which streets worsen asthma symptoms? Right now, answering those questions is beyond the scope of most medical studies. Clinical trials determine whether new drugs are effective on average, but usually aren't large enough to look at different subsets of people.

El Niño is coming, but weakly - sort ofThanks to a tiny but consistent warming of the Pacific Ocean half a world away, the Bay Area will experience an El Niño season this year, beginning this month. If that idea conjures up images of fearsome storms and tumultuous winds - as one infamous El Niño pattern caused in the late 1990s - fear not.

NOAA announce detailed Central Coast coho salmon recovery plan - San Jose Mercury NewsSCOTTS VALLEY -- More than 2,000 pages and three volumes, a federal plan to rescue the endangered Central Coast coho salmon from the brink of oblivion is laid out in staggering specificity.

Rare plant not seen in 63 years found during Doyle Drive reconstruction project - San Jose Mercury NewsThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service planned to announce Wednesday that a rare plant thought to be extinct, then discovered by the former director of habitat protection at Audubon Canyon Ranch in Bolinas, will be listed as an endangered species.

Third hantavirus death linked to Yosemite National Park - Inside Bay AreaA West Virginia resident is the third person to die from the rare hantavirus after staying at Yosemite National Park this summer, officials announced Thursday, as they raised to 22,000 the number of people who might have been exposed. All told, eight people have contracted the mouse-borne disease after spending one or more nights at the popular park since June 10.