The buoys also contain weather-sensing devices that test for surface temperatures, subsurface temperatures, wind speed, and other indications of changing weather.

CNN: La Nina spawns extreme weather

The severity of the laboratory test was equivalent to an oblique collision with the rocky surface of the Earth - a comet coming in at an angle of less than 25 degrees from the horizon, rather than head on (perpendicular to the Earth's surface).

BBC: Comets could have seeded life on Earth

Since Russia and the U.S. signed a partial test-ban treaty in 1963, their blasts have been deep below the earth's surface.

CNN: ASIANOW - Asiaweek

The test can be configured to a unique signature of a disease or virus - such as a protein found on the surface of HIV.

BBC: Cheap colour test picks up HIV