Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains

Ed Zurga / EPA

A monster tornado hit Moore, Okla., Monday afternoon, leaving at least 24 dead as the threat of further storms continues.

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Using the controls above, explore this interactive picture of the destruction from the Monday tornado that left at least 24 people dead and many more injured in Moore, Okla. This view was photographed Tuesday, May 21, from Interstate 35 near the intersection with Route 37. Read more. (Kael Alford / NBC News)

More on the Oklahoma tornado:

Before and after: Tornado cuts devastating path through Oklahoma

How to help Oklahoma tornado victims

‘The school started coming apart’: Trapped students had nowhere to hide

Richard Drew / AP

Wildlife biologist Chris Nadareski, foreground, of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, assisted by Port Authority structural specialist Pete Mizialko, holds one of four peregrine falcon chicks for banding, at a nest at the east tower of the George Washington Bridge, over the Hudson River, in New York, Tuesday, May 21.

Richard Drew / AP

The mother of four baby peregrine falcons guards her nest and chicks at the east tower of the George Washington Bridge, over the Hudson River, in New York, Tuesday, May 21.

Richard Drew / AP

Wildlife biologist Chris Nadareski, of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, examines one of four peregrine falcons he banded, at a nest at the east tower of the George Washington Bridge, over the Hudson River, in New York, Tuesday, May 21.

Richard Drew / AP

The mother of four baby peregrine falcons takes off from the George Washington Bridge, over the Hudson River, in New York, Tuesday, May 21.

Four peregrine falcon chicks, born three weeks ago atop the George Washington Bridge in Manhattan, were fitted with their official tracking bands on Tuesday, before they are old enough to fly the coop. Their specially built nesting box is located just six feet below the bridge’s lower level and high above the Hudson River.  Their parents are among 20 pairs of peregrine falcons living in New York City.  Full story

Bing (top); Jewel Samad / AFP -Getty Images (bottom)

Top, a look at a shopping center before Monday's devastating tornado. Bottom, a man salvages items from his tornado devastated store on May 21, in Moore, Oklahoma.

Bing (top); Tony Gutierrez / AP (bottom)

An aerial view shows a residential area before and after Monday's tornado, in Moore, Okla.

Google (top); Tannen Maury / EPA (bottom)

A residential neighborhood before and after a tornado swept through Monday.

Bing (top); AP (bottom)

Aerial photos show the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., before and after it was hit by a massive tornado on Monday, May 20.

Google (top); Tannen Maury / EPA (bottom)

A twisted street sign in a destroyed neighborhood in Moore, Okla.

Bing (top), AP (bottom)

Briarwood Elementary School, bottom right in Oklahoma City, Okla. before (top) and after (bottom) the tornado hit on May 20.

Bing (top), AP (bottom)

Moore Medical Center in Moore, Okla., as seen before (top) and after (bottom) the tornado that hit on May 20.

Explore the Bing map, or Google map of Moore, Okla.

More on the Oklahoma tornado:

• Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains
• PhotoBlog: Aerials show destructive path of Oklahoma tornado
• ‘The school started coming apart’: Trapped students had nowhere to hide
• Curse or coincidence? Scientists study Tornado Alley's past and future

Ross D. Franklin / AP

The cell of convicted killer Jodi Arias at the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Estrella Jail, on May 16, 2013, in Phoenix. Arias was convicted of first-degree murder in the gruesome killing of her one-time boyfriend, Travis Alexander, in their suburban Phoenix home.

Ross D. Franklin / AP

Sheriff Joe Arpaio explains a typical meal served to convicted killer Jodi Arias and all the other inmates at the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office Estrella Jail, during a news conference, on May 16, 2013, in Phoenix.

Jodi Arias has spent the past four years in cell B403 of the Estrella Jail in Phoenix. The room is located in the maximum security section of the jail, offering only the basic necessities – including a toilet - for 23 hours a day. She has been able to maintain an active presence on Twitter because when she speaks to friends on the phone, she will ask them to tweet on her behalf.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio showed her cell and its belongings to reporters, and said “I’m not going to ask her for her permission, I run this hotel. She doesn’t."

Arias receives one “sack lunch” and one “hot meal” each day, totaling 2600 calories.

See more in the video below.

Rob Schumacher /Arizona Republic via AP

Jodi Arias looks at the family of Travis Alexander as the jury arrives on May 15, 2013, during the sentencing phase of her trial at Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix.

Tony Gutierrez / AP

Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., May 21, 2013 as rescue workers make their way through the structure.

Steve Gooch / AP

The remains of homes hit by a massive tornado in Moore, Okla., Monday, May 20.

Steve Gooch / AP

Homes destroyed by a massive tornado in Moore, Okla., May 20.

Steve Gooch / AP

The path of a massive tornado in Moore, Okla., May 20.

Steve Gooch / AP

Tornado destruction in Moore, Okla., May 20.

Steve Gooch / AP

Remnants of homes hit by a massive tornado in Moore, Okla., May 20.

Steve Gooch / AP

The Plaza Towers Elementary School after it was hit by a massive tornado in Moore, Okla., May 20.

Steve Gooch / AP

Homes hit by a massive tornado in Moore, Okla., Monday May 20, 2013.

Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains

Paul Hellstern / The Oklahoman, NewsOk.com

A monster tornado hit Moore, Okla., Monday afternoon, leaving scores dead as the threat of further storms continues.

Launch slideshow

Related: 

• Monster tornado kills dozens in Oklahoma
• Teacher threw herself over students, saved lives
• Video: Tornado touchdown caught by eyewitness
• How to help

Andreas Solaro / AFP - Getty Images

Italian businessman Marcello De Finizio stands on the dome of St Peter's basilica to protest against austerity measures on May 21, 2013 at the Vatican.

A man climbed onto a ledge on the dome of St Peter's Basilica on Monday and unfurled a banner protesting against a "political horror show," an apparent reference to Italy's embattled coalition struggling with recession and high unemployment.

Identified by police as Marcello Di Finizio, the man unfurled a white banner reading "Stop this massacre!" in English, scrawled in black and red ink, with "Help us Pope Francis" in Italian.

Di Finizio, who was still on the ledge on Tuesday, has staged similar protests in the past. Last October he stayed overnight on the dome with a banner criticizing multinationals, Europe, and former Prime Minister Mario Monti. Read the full story.

Filippo Monteforte / AFP - Getty Images

Arturo Andrade / AFP - Getty Images

A cloud of ash belches out of Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano, some 55 km from Mexico City, as seen from Paso de Cortes, in the Mexican central state of Puebla, on May 20. Authorities have raised the alert level to "Yellow Phase Three," the fifth of a seven-stage warning system, restricting access to an area of 12 km around the volcano while preparing evacuation routes and shelters.

Arturo Andrade / AFP - Getty Images

Photos by Sue Ogrocki / AP

Maeghan Hadley, right, of 1 Day Ranch, a pet rescue and rehabilitation center, reaches for a kitten pulled from underneath the rubble of a mobile home destroyed by Sunday's tornado in the Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park near Shawnee, Okla., May 20, 2013.

Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains

Sue Ogrocki / AP

A vast area of the central U.S. was warned to prepare for storms on Monday, after tornadoes killed one and injured 21 in Oklahoma and also hit Iowa and Kansas.

Launch slideshow

NBC News reports

On Sunday, twisters killed two men in Shawnee, Okla., ages 79 and 76, and injured 21 others. The state medical examiner confirmed the second death Monday morning.

“You can see where there’s absolutely nothing, then there are places where you have mobile home frames on top of each other, debris piled up,” Mike Booth, the sheriff of Pottawatomie County, Okla., told The Associated Press. “It looks like there’s been heavy equipment in there on a demolition tour.”

Related PhotoBlog post: Tornadoes rip through Kansas, Oklahoma

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Members of the Chickasaw Nation search and rescue group dig through debris on Monday to locate a kitten buried in the rubble of a mobile home.

Win McNamee / Getty Images

Four-year-old Sophia Phillips is presented an American flag by Brigadier Gen. James Pasquarette during a burial service for her father, Staff Sergeant Francis G. Phillips, at Arlington National Cemetery on May 20, in Arlington Virginia.

Jim Watson / AFP - Getty Images

Sophia Phillips receives a flag from Brig. General James Parquarette as her mother and widow Christine Phillips watches during burial service for U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Francis G. Phillips IV at Arlington National Cemetery.

Jim Watson / AFP - Getty Images

Members of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Regiment "The Old Guard" perform a full military honors burial service.

Staff Sergeant Francis G. Phillips, from Meridian, N.Y. was killed in combat in the Maiwand district of Afghanistan when the vehicle he was riding in was struck by an improvised explosive device on May 4.

Phillips is survived by his wife and daughter Christine and Sophia Phillips.

Ben Stansall / AFP - Getty Images

Photographers gather around garden gnomes during the Chelsea Flower Show press day in London on May 20.

Dan Kitwood / Getty Images

Decorated gnomes designed by celebrity figures Alan Titchmarsh, Elton John, Julian Fellowes and Lily Allen are displayed at Chelsea Flower Show on May 20 in London, England.

For this year only, the Royal Horticultural Society lifted its 100-year ban on garden gnomes and other "brightly coloured mythical creatures" at the Chelsea Flower Show in London England to celebrate its centenary year and raise funds for the next generation of gardeners.

The RHS invited celebrities including Elton John, Judi Dench, and Dolly Parton to paint and decorate gnomes to feature at the world famous gardening event, before auctioning the gnomes online to raise funds for the RHS Campaign for School Gardening.

Gnomes have been banned from the Chelsea Flower Show and other prestigious gardening events because many believe they are tacky and detract from tasteful garden design. Gnome supporters accuse event officials of snobbery.

Patrick Pleul / EPA

Nature shows a colorful contrast as a bright yellow blossoming rape field is seen next to a still green grain field near Proetzel, Germany, May 19.

Travis Heying / MCT via Zuma Press

A tornado touches down southwest of Wichita near the town of Viola, Kan., on Sunday. The tornado was part of a line of storms that passed through the Central Plains states.

By Jeff Black and Hasani Gittens, NBC News

People in two states were taking shelter amid wailing warning sirens Sunday as tornadoes were confirmed to have touched down in Kansas and Oklahoma as part of an extreme weather system plowing through the nation's midsection.

The system, which stretched from North Texas to Minnesota, also heaved hail -- dime to softball sized -- as well as heavy rainfall. 

Residents in downtown Wichita, Kan., were told to seek shelter Sunday afternoon after a tornado was confirmed on the ground – with its presence cloaked by think clouds and heavy rain.

Read the full story.

Shelby Watts / The Canadian Press via AP

A pile of ice and debris nearly covers homes in Ochre Beach, in Canada's Manitoba province, May 11. Strong winds on Friday evening pushed the ice on Dauphin Lake ashore onto Ochre Beach, a summer community about 125 miles northwest of Winnipeg. 

Read more from CBC News.

Editor's note: Image received May 19.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

Morehouse College alumni listen to President Barack Obama deliver his address under heavy rain at the school's 129th Commencement ceremony, May 19, in Atlanta.

Jason Reed / Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama adjusts his tie before receiving an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

By Andrew Rafferty, Staff Writer, NBC News

President Barack Obama on Sunday stressed the importance of personal responsibility and “what it means to be a man” in his commencement address at historically-black Morehouse College in Atlanta. 

In the midst of a driving rain, Obama told graduates at the all-male private college that they have obligations to “those still left behind” to be role models for the entire African-American community, both personally and professionally.

“My whole life, I’ve tried to be for Michelle and my girls what my father wasn’t for my mother and me,” Obama said, referring to his own dad who left his family when the president was just a baby. “I want to break that cycle where a father’s not at home, where a father’s not helping to raise that son and daughter. I want to be a better father, a better husband, a better man.”

Read the full story.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

Graduate Leland Shelton is congratulated as he is acknowledged by President Obama during the commencement address at Morehouse College. After a difficult childhood, Shelton is graduating Phi Beta Kappa and is on his way to Harvard Law School.

Jason Reed / Reuters

Graduates of the class of 2013 cheer during the commencement address.

Ben Stansall / AFP - Getty Images

A gardener hangs flowers at the Chelsea Flower Show in London on May 19. The Chelsea Flower Show run by the Royal Horticultural Society celebrates its 100th birthday this year. The show runs from May 21 - 25.

Read more about the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Marcelo Del Pozo / Reuters

Pilgrims run next to the shrine of El Rocio in Almonte, southern Spain, on May 18.

Every spring, hundreds of thousands of devotees converge at a shrine to pay homage to the Virgin del Rocio during an annual pilgrimage that combines religious fervor and festive color. 

Marcelo Del Pozo / Reuters

A pilgrim lights a candle in the shrine of El Rocio in Almonte, southern Spain.

Marcelo Del Pozo / Reuters

Children dance and sing during the pilgrimage of El Rocio in Almonte.

Marcelo Del Pozo / Reuters

Pilgrims wait before taking part in a procession next to the shrine of El Rocio.

Marcelo Del Pozo / Reuters

A pilgrim is seen in a carriage during the pilgrimage of El Rocio.

Marcelo Del Pozo / Reuters

A pilgrim couple rides a horse next to the shrine of El Rocio.

Marcelo Del Pozo / Reuters

A pilgrim walks in the shrine of El Rocio.

Laurent Silvani

The northern lights shine over La Baie in Quebec at 2 a.m. Saturday, in a picture taken by Laurent Silvani. To see more of Silvani's work, check out his Silvani.ca website and his Facebook page.

A slight solar storm ejected from a powerful sunspot sparked northern lights as far south as Colorado on Friday night — and there should be more to come.

The heightened aurora was sparked by a burst of electrically charged particles thrown off from an active spot on the sun known as Region 1748. That region is the one responsible for four powerful X-class flares that blasted out from the sun this week. Region 1748 is just now turning in our direction, and forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center say it has the potential to throw some hefty storms our way.

Storms from the sun have the potential to disrupt satellite communications and power grids, and in extreme cases, the radiation risk could force airlines to reroute their intercontinental flights to lower latitudes. But Joe Kunches, a spokesman for the prediction center, said experts now have much better capabilities at their command to reduce the risks. And so far, he said, the active sun has been throwing "softballs" at us — at least compared with bigger flare-ups like the Halloween storms of 2003 or the Bastille Day storm of 2000.

The most noticeable effects of recent solar disruptions have come in the form of enhanced auroral displays. SpaceWeather.com reports that faint glows were recorded Friday night in Colorado as well as Vermont, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Washington state.

Farther north, the fireworks show was significantly brighter. Astrophotographer Laurent Silvani captured some great images from Quebec's Saguenay region, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Quebec City.

"Following a magnetic storm, the aurora borealis was particularly visible in the sky with its waves and colors. A particularly beautiful sight!" he wrote in an email. "Many people from the Saguenay do not know that there are auroras occasionally here. They are surprised to see my pictures every time."

Check out Silvani's website and Facebook page for more.

For additional views of auroral glories — including, yes, some photos of the southern lights as seen from Antarctica —take a spin through SpaceWeather.com's photo gallery. And who knows? You might be able to catch the show yourself over the next couple of nights. Another geomagnetic storm is expected to sweep over Earth's magnetic field on Sunday, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.

To find out what can be seen from where, keep an eye on the center's Facebook page as well as its Ovation aurora forecast maps. If you're in the aurora zone, the best time to look is after midnight. The best places are far away from city lights, with clear, crisp skies. Got pictures? Share them with us via NBC News' FirstPerson photo upload page.

While you're waiting for those dark skies, feast your eyes on these beautiful time-lapse aurora videos, plus our slideshow: 

Slideshow: Lights in the sky

Click through stunning images of the auroral displays created by geomagnetic storms.

Launch slideshow

More auroral glories:

• Northern lights dance with a comet
• Spend a night with the lights — in a minute
• Cosmic Log's aurora archive

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log and the rest of NBCNews.com's science and space coverage, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Wim Noorduin

Researchers formed hierarchically complex structures by controlling the growth of crystals in a solution. Here, a coral shape was nucleated on top of a spiral. (The scanning electron microscope view is false-colored, but represents the actual color of the structure.)

Imagine peering into a microscope and finding yourself in a garden.

That's the case at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, where researchers have found a way to shape microscopic crystals into complex and often beautiful structures.

Inspired by coral reefs, seashells and other naturally occurring complex mineral structures, postdoctoral fellow Wim L. Noorduin and Harvard colleagues have been researching ways to create similar designs.

These "flowers" were created by mixing barium chloride and sodium silicate, also known as waterglass, in a beaker of water. The resulting reaction combines with carbon dioxide in the air to create crystals made of barium carbonate in the water.

Noorduin found that as the crystals self-assembled, he could control their shape, size and direction of growth by altering the temperature, the amount of carbon dioxide allowed into the reaction and the acidity of the water.

Increasing the carbon dioxide levels creates the broad, flat leaves of those mineral flowers, for example. Fluctuating the acidity level creates the ruffled wave in the petals.

Wim Noorduin

This false-colored photomicrograph shows a red coral structure with green "stems" grown inside the cavities of the coral. While the stems are growing, researchers opened them with a pulse of carbon dioxide to produce the purple structure.

Wim Noorduin

A field of microscopic tulips takes shape in this false-colored scanning electron microscope image.

Laura Hendriks / Wim Noorduin

This complex microscopic bouquet was formed by first nucleating green stems inside purple vases, after which the stems were opened during growth to form the blue part.

The curved petals, slender stems and jagged thorns, formed by the carbonate-silica crystals as they grew, demonstrate the effectiveness of Noorduin's technique. The team was able to create the structures on glass slides and metal plates as well, and even grew a "garden" of flowers in front of the Lincoln Memorial that's imprinted on the back of a penny.

The images were taken with a scanning electron microscope, which uses electrons to create images of microscopic images. The color was added digitally.

"When you look through the electron microscope, it really feels a bit like you’re diving in the ocean, seeing huge fields of coral and sponges … Sometimes I forget to take images because it's so nice to explore," Noorduin said in Harvard's press release.

Crystal manipulation has more applications than just the aesthetic. Aside from the valuable insight into the way silicon-based structures are formed in nature, this technique can be used in nanotechnology fields such as optics and electronics.

Noorduin's findings follow a similar discovery from Harvard biologist Howard Berg, who found that certain bacterial colonies take intricate geometric shapes in response to concentrations of chemicals around them.

Noorduin's paper, "Rationally Designed Complex, Hierarchical Microarchitectures," was published in the journal Science on May 17.

Email jscharr@technewsdaily.com or follow her @JillScharr. Follow us @TechNewsDaily, on Facebook or on Google+.

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Copyright 2012 TechNewsDaily

There's been a groundswell of 17-year cicadas in Virginia and other southern states, as revealed by a fresh wave of photos and eyewitness reports. In some areas, the outbreak has been accompanied by the insects' loud chorus call. And that's music to the ears of University of Connecticut entomologist John Cooley.

"That's where I'm heading," Cooley told NBC News. The weather is still too cool in New England and the New York City area for a full-blown Brood II emergence, so Cooley is planning a field trip to watch the insects rise up in Virginia.

This is the big year for Brood II cicadas, which are expected to emerge from the ground in the billions over an area of the East Coast ranging from North Carolina up to Connecticut. The bugs are hard-wired to spend 17 years underground, feeding on the fluid from plant roots, and then pop up during the appointed spring when the soil temperature reaches 64 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius).

For weeks, bug-watchers have been posting their sightings (and soil temperature readings) to websites such as Cooley's Magicicada.org and RadioLab's Cicada Tracker. Another website maintained by the Sutron weather information network tracks the soil temperature in Washington, D.C. 

When the winged cicadas throng, they can cover trees and buildings — and raise a din as loud as a lawnmower or jet engine (90 decibels). Over the course of four to six weeks in May and June, the bugs mate, lay their eggs and die, setting the 17-year life cycle in motion once again. (Scientists theorize that there are evolutionary advantages to the long, odd-numbered cycle.)

Although the cicadas have been patiently waiting for 17 years, some cicada-watchers up north are getting impatient with the pace of the emergence. Cooley said the relatively slow pace may be due to this spring's cool temperatures. In order to bring the soil up to 64 degrees F, air temperatures have to get significantly higher than that on a consistent basis.

"I want 80s and 90s," he said, "and so do the cicadas."

Dave Ellis / The Free Lance-Star via AP

Brood II cicadas emerge in the Leavells Crossing neighborhood in Spotsylvania, Va., on May 16.

Carol via Twitter.com/oikwtm_

Cicadas throng near a house in Fredericksburg, Va.

Carol via Twitter.com/oikwtm_

A cat looks through a screen door as cicadas swarm outside a house in Fredericksburg, Va.

Slideshow: Return of the cicada

Take a closer look at the curious 17-year life of the flying bug as the East Coast prepares for an invasion.

Launch slideshow

More about the cicada outbreak:

• Cicadas crawling out of the ground in droves
• 'Swarmageddon' comes to North Carolina
• Bug-watchers see cicadas on the rise
• Cicada emergence sparks early buzz

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com's stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Robert Cianflone / Getty Images

James Courtney drives the #22 Holden Racing Team Holden during practice for the Austin 400, which is round five of the V8 Supercar Championship Series at Circuit of The Americas on May 17, 2013 in Austin, Texas.

More racing in PhotoBlog:

• World Rally Championship driver drives off 20-foot cliff
• Dakar Rally's Stage 3 victorious for some, costly for others
• Racing through summer at Agassiz Speedway

Hendrik Schmidt / AFP - Getty Images

A visitor of a Wave-Gothic meeting poses for a photo on May 17, 2013 in Leipzig, eastern Germany. Organisers expect some 20,000 visitors from all over the world for the "dark" music and arts festival running until May 20.

Hendrik Schmidt / EPA

Alexander from Saxony poses for the photographer prior to the start of the 22nd Wave-Gothic Festival (WGT) in Leipzig, Germany.

Hendrik Schmidt / AFP - Getty Images

A visitor of a Wave-Gothic meeting poses for a photo on May 17, in Leipzig, eastern Germany.

Hendrik Schmidt / EPA

A woman poses prior to the start of the 22nd Wave-Gothic Festival (WGT) in Leipzig, Germany, May 17. The gothic and 'dark' culture festival runs until May 20.

Hendrik Schmidt / AFP - Getty Images

Vistors to a Wave-Gothic meeting have a pram with skeleton in it on May 17, in Leipzig, eastern Germany. Organisers expect some 20,000 visitors from all over the world for the "dark" music and arts festival running until May 20.

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Patrick Semansky / AP

Kentucky Derby winner Orb stands as he is cooled down after a workout at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Friday, May 17. The Preakness Stakes horse race is scheduled to take place May 18.

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

Orb works out in preparation for the upcoming 138th running of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 17. The Preakness Stakes, the second leg of U.S. thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown, will be run Saturday.

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

Orb grazes under the watchful eyes of exercise rider Jennifer Patterson (2nd R) and trainer Shug McGaughey (R) after an early morning workout in preparation for the upcoming 138th running of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 17. The Preakness Stakes, the second leg of U.S. thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown, will be run Saturday.

 By James Scully,  NBC Sports - (Baltimore) Orb drew the least favorable starting position in the Preakness, post No. 1, but he can overcome it, especially given the complexion of the nine-horse field. Five contestants – Goldencents, Govenor Charlie, Itsmyluckyday, Oxbow and Titletown Five – like to race on or within a few lengths of the lead and the field could stretch out early, allowing Orb plenty of room to run as he settles behind an expected legitimate pace. Continue reading here.

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Siegfried Modola / Reuters

A worker ties together slabs of salt extracted from the Danakil Depression in northern Ethiopia April 22. Once the caravan find a suitable place to mine salt, they extract, shape and pack as many salt slabs as possible before starting their two-day journey to the town of Berahile. The Danakil Depression in Ethiopia is one of the hottest and harshest environments on earth, with an average annual temperature of 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34.4 Celsius). For centuries, merchants have travelled there with caravans of camels to collect salt from the surface of the vast desert basin. The mineral is extracted and shaped into slabs, then loaded onto the animals before being transported back across the desert so that it can be sold around the country.

Siegfried Modola / Reuters

A man walks with his camels through the Danakil Depression, northern Ethiopia April 22. Once the caravan find a suitable place to mine salt, they extract, shape and pack as many salt slabs as possible before starting their two-day journey to the town of Berahile. The Danakil Depression in Ethiopia is one of the hottest and harshest environments on earth, with an average annual temperature of 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34.4 Celsius). For centuries, merchants have travelled there with caravans of camels to collect salt from the surface of the vast desert basin. The mineral is extracted and shaped into slabs, then loaded onto the animals before being transported back across the desert so that it can be sold around the country.

Reuters

A man lifts slabs of salt onto a truck in the town of Berahile in Afar, northern Ethiopia April 19. The Danakil Depression in Ethiopia is one of the hottest and harshest environments on earth, with an average annual temperature of 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34.4 Celsius). For centuries, merchants have travelled there with caravans of camels to collect salt from the surface of the vast desert basin. The mineral is extracted and shaped into slabs, then loaded onto the animals before being transported back across the desert so that it can be sold around the country.

Siegfried Modola / Reuters

A man walks on sulphur and mineral salt formations near Dallol in the Danakil Depression, northern Ethiopia on April 22.

Siegfried Modola / Reuters

A man prepares bars of salt to be sold in the main market of the city of Mekele, northern Ethiopia on April 24.

 From Reuters:  HAMAD-ILE, Ethiopia - Abdu Ibrahim Mohammed was 15 years old when he began trekking with caravans of camels to collect salt in a sun-blasted desert basin of north Ethiopia that is one of the hottest places on earth.

Now 51 and retired, he has passed his camels to his son to pursue this centuries-old trade in "white gold" from the Danakil Depression, where rain almost never falls and the average temperature is 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34.4 Celsius).

 Continue reading.

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Theo Chesley / Alaskan Volcano Observatory via AP

The Pavlof volcano erupts on May 16, 2013, as seen from the air from the southwest in Cold Bay, Alaska.

Rachel Kremer / Alaskan Volcano Observatory via AP

Lava fountaining is visible near the summit of the Pavlof Volcano on May 16, 2013, and steam and ash clouds rise from the northwest flank where a lava flow advances down the slope.

A remote Alaska volcano continues to erupt, spewing lava and ash clouds.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory said Thursday a continuous cloud of ash, steam and gas from Pavlof Volcano has been seen 20,000 feet above sea level.

John Power, the U.S. Geological Survey scientist in charge at the observatory, estimates the lava fountain rose several hundred feet into the air.

Onsite seismic instruments are picking up constant tremors from the eruption at Pavlof, located about 625 miles southwest of Anchorage. Read the full story.