By John Timmer, Ars Technica

We’ve seen recently that air travel can have an oversized impact on the atmosphere, at least relative to emission of things like greenhouse gasses, because they seed clouds that can persist for hours. Now, researchers have taken a detailed look at what happens when aircraft fly through clouds that already exist. Under many circumstances, it turns out that the aircraft have the opposite effect, causing pressure changes that trigger the formation of large holes in the cloud, with the missing water falling out as snow.

LOS ANGELES — For the final entry in the Mass Effect trilogy, BioWare is taking a hard look at what’s gone right and wrong with its recent role-playing games.

It did this by removing many of the original game’s deeper RPG elements, like the ability to customize weapons and armor, making for a more streamlined, accessible experience. But for Mass Effect 3,...