Night racing is old hat for NASCAR, IRL, Sprint Cars and NHRA and at countless bullrings around the United States. But it's a new experience for Formula One as Singapore hosts the first F1 night race Sunday.

F1 normally adheres to a pretty rigid schedule with qualifying, and the races usually start at 2 p.m., no matter where they are in the world.

But qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix will be at 10 p.m. local time Saturday, and the race will start at 8 p.m. Sunday.

Normally, when members of the F1 teams arrive in various countries around the world, they try to adjust to the local time zone as quickly as possible. But that is not the case for the race weekend in Singapore, where the teams are trying to stay on European time so as to be fresh for the late-night schedule.

"Our doctor has prepared a very precise schedule for the drivers to stick to because all the sessions are so late in the day," Hamilton said. "Essentially, we must not acclimatize to the local time, which is totally different to how we normally operate.

"Our training programs ensure that over a race weekend, we are at peak performance during the afternoons, and as a result, we are going to be staying in European time so this doesn't get disrupted."

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After practice ends Friday night, most crews won't go back to the hotel until all the car preparation for the next day has been completed.

"Inevitably, ensuring all the team personnel have the opportunity to get enough sleep will be the main challenge over the course of the weekend," McLaren's F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh said. "For example, the mechanics won't be going to bed until 4-5 a.m., because we finish running late in the evening and there is a program of work to complete prior to the next day.

"There is a clear plan, because we know the timings of the sessions and how much work needs to take place after each of the sessions. The reality is, it will be hard work for the mechanics, engineers, support crew, marketing operation, and we will take measures to support this.

"But I don't believe it will have a massive impact on the cars and the drivers, with the program for Lewis and Heikki [Kovalainen] being very carefully planned and monitored."

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"They will give us as much light as possible, but as it is a night race, I don't expect it will be like daylight in every corner," he said. "That is fine, though. Driving at night is a fun experience, and it is definitely a really good show for the fans -- that is the most important thing."

"If it rains, there is the unknown of whether there will be a problem with glare or the sparkle of light from droplets of rain [on the drivers' helmet visors] that is greater than you would ordinarily get," Whitmarsh said. "To manage this potential, we are using coatings for the visors that won't allow droplets to collect."

Set among modern skyscrapers, old colonial buildings, lush tropical plants and trees, the harbor and the world's largest Ferris wheel, the brand-new Singapore street circuit definitely has an exotic backdrop.

F1's first night race certainly will be a memorable occasion. And with the crazy schedules the teams are trying to keep, it is no wonder some are dubbing the event "Sleepless in Singapore."

As night falls in Singapore, a new dawn for Formula One. (IHT)

But these difficulties are the price to pay for what Formula One hopes will be increased television audiences in Europe and a new way of generating revenues for the sport. This year, for the first time, Formula One earned more from the sale of races to venues than from the sale of television broadcast rights.

Europe remains the sport's most important fan base. That is why Singapore is the first of what Bernie Ecclestone, the sport's promoter, hopes will be a trend of night racing in Asia. The intention is to avoid having to broadcast races early in the morning in Europe, which organizers fear would cut into television audiences and thus affect sponsorship.

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In 1996, when the langurs were highly endangered, Dr. Pan Wenshi, China's premier panda biologist, came to study them in Chongzuo at what was then an abandoned military base. This was at a time when hunters were taking the canary-yellow young langurs from their cliff-face strongholds, and villagers were leveling the forest for firewood.

Pan quickly hired wardens to protect the remaining animals but then went a step further, taking on the larger social and economic factors jeopardizing the species. Pan also believed that alleviating the region's continuing poverty was essential for their long-term survival.

In the 24-square-kilometer nature reserve where he has focused his studies, the langur population increased to more than 500 today from 96 in 1996.

"It's a model of what can be done in hot-spot areas that have been devastated by development," said Dr. Russell Mittermeier, the president of Conservation International. "Pan has combined all the elements — protection, research, ecotourism, good relations with the local community; he's really turned the langur into a flagship for the region."

Historically, local farmers had occasionally killed langurs for food, but then teams of outside hunters began taking a serious toll on the population.

"In the 1990s, the Chinese economy started booming, and those with money — governors, factory owners, businessmen — all wanted to eat the wildlife to show how powerful they were," said Pan, 71.

A breakthrough in protecting the species came in 1997 when he helped local villagers build a pipeline to secure clean drinking water. Shortly thereafter, a farmer from the village freed a trapped langur and brought it to Pan.

"When you help the villagers, they would like to help you back," he said.

As self-appointed local advocate, Pan raised money for a new school in another village, oversaw the construction of health clinics in two neighboring towns and organized physicals for women throughout the area.

"Now, when outsiders try to trap langurs," Pan said, "the locals stop them from coming in."

In 2000, he received a $12,500 environmental award from Ford Motor Company. He used the money to build biogas digesters — concrete-lined pits that capture methane gas from animal waste — to provide cooking fuel for roughly 1,000 people.

Based on the project's success, the federal government financed a sevenfold increase in construction of tanks to hold biogas. Today, 95 percent of the population living just outside the reserve burn biogas in their homes.

As a result, the park's number and diversity of trees — the langurs' primary habitat and sole food source — has increased significantly.

In 2001, the county government built a research center in the reserve with accommodations for Pan and his students, a guesthouse and a yet-to-be completed education center to showcase the region's biodiversity.

In 2002, when Pan inaugurated the Chongzuo Eco-Park, a small part of the Nongguan Nature Reserve that is open to the public, he had a quote from the ancient Chinese philosopher Mencius carved into stone at the front gate. The phrase, "In an ideal society, everyone should work for the well being of others," was a subtle reminder to local officials that the park should not be misused for their own financial gain. But the quote also reminds those looking to protect the langurs that they must consider the area's human community.

Yet his greatest achievement may well be what he has passed on to the next generation. In 1991, he founded Peking University's department of conservation biology — now the Center for Nature and Society — one of the first institutions in China dedicated to studying and protecting endangered species.

Currently staffed by 10 of Pan's former students, the department conducts fieldwork on everything from dolphins in the South China Sea to snow leopards on the Tibetan Plateau.

Pan became interested in langurs in the early '90s after reading "Sociobiology: The New Synthesis," a groundbreaking book by Dr. Edward Wilson, the Harvard biologist, environmentalist and writer. It suggested that certain social behaviors were evolutionarily advantageous. Pan wanted to test Wilson's ideas in the field, but needed a more gregarious species than the panda, which lives primarily in solitude.

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Researchers analyzing the May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China's Sichuan province have found that geological stress has significantly increased on three major fault systems in the region. The magnitude 7.9 quake on May 12 has brought several nearby faults closer to failure and could trigger another major earthquake in the region.

"One great earthquake seems to make the next one more likely, not less," said Stein, who has been collaborating with Lin and Toda for nearly two decades. "We tend to think of earthquakes as relieving stress on a fault. That may be true for the one that ruptured, but not for the adjacent faults."

In 1999, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Izmit, Turkey, was followed four months later by an M7.1 event in nearby Duzce. The devastating December 2004 Sumatra earthquake (M9.2) and tsunami were followed by an M8.7 quake three months later.

"Because the Tibetan Plateau is one of the most seismically active regions in the world, we believe there is credible evidence for a new major quake in this region," said Lin, a senior scientist in WHOI's Department of Geology and Geophysics. "The research community cannot forecast the timing of earthquakes, and there are still significant uncertainties in our models. But the Turkey and Sumatra events indicate that one major earthquake can indeed promote another.

Researchers see it as a domino-like effect, where the movement of one piece of Earth's crust means that another piece must move up, down, or away. While the stress in the crust gets reduced in some locations, it is transferred to other faults nearby.

With earthquakes, we can roughly forecast the probability of activity over broad ranges of time, magnitude, and location, but we cannot determine the exact value for any of these."

In addition to the broad prediction of earthquake triggering, the researchers have also forecasted the rate and distribution of seismic shocks greater than magnitude 6, a prediction that they plan to test from seismic stations over the next decade.

"Earthquakes do not kill people, buildings do," said Lin, who was a high school student in China when the devastating Tangshan earthquake struck. "There needs to be widespread education in earthquake preparedness, as well as systematic inspection of buildings in these regions of heightened risk. Every new building inspection and evacuation plan could potentially save lives."

"We hope the long-term forecasting allows the Chinese government to make it a priority to mitigate future damage," Toda added. "We recommend that Chinese scientists carefully observe changes in seismicity by installing new seismometers in the region."

"The recent quake reminded us that Earth scientists have a tremendous responsibility to work on issues of societal relevance," said Lin. "We don't want to create panic, but there is legitimate cause for concern and we have a major role to play in educating the public about what we know."

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